Since the beginning of this year, the popularity of "China Tour" has not decreased, and "China Shopping" continues to heat up. Carrying empty boxes to China has become a new trend for overseas travelers to explore and weed out cross-border travel. From silk, tea, and traditional porcelain to China-Chic, cultural and creative, and scientific and technological goods, overseas tourists have more "new favorites" for shopping in China. The "minimum refund point" has decreased, payment and billing are smooth, tax refunds and verification are accelerated, and a series of optimization measures around departure tax refunds have become another important additional item to drive inbound consumption. The data released by the State Administration of Taxation shows that from January to June this year, the number of domestic outbound tax refund shops has doubled, exceeding 7200, and the number of people enjoying tax refunds has increased by 186% year-on-year. The sales revenue and tax refund amount of tax refund products have increased by 94.6% and 93.2% respectively year-on-year. What are the highlights of the new upgrade of the departure tax rebate policy for inbound consumption? How to make the popularity of 'buying in China' more sustainable? The reporter conducted an interview. There are more products available for purchase in the store, and new products are being launched. The tax refund district is fun and easy to explore along the Gold Coast, with tents neatly arranged. In the Donggang Water City, visitors flock shoulder to shoulder. Recently, Dalian, Liaoning has attracted tourists from all directions to come and play. At the sea cucumber counter in Dalian shopping mall, Marina, a tourist from Russia, purchased 3600 yuan worth of sea cucumber products. The staff guided her to the centralized refund point in the mall to apply for a "buy and refund" departure tax refund. Soon, she received a notification that the 324 yuan tax refund prepayment had been received. I bought a satisfactory product and also got a refund. I plan to buy some small souvenirs. Shopping with tax refunds has brought Marina unexpected joy. Starting from July 1st this year, Dalian has implemented a tax refund policy for overseas tourists leaving the country for shopping. In the first month of policy implementation, it has shown a good development momentum, not only bringing benefits to overseas tourists, but also creating more business opportunities for businesses. Dalian Jinhua Watch and Jewelry Co., Ltd. is a well-established local enterprise specializing in high-end watches and other products. Currently, all five of the company's stores in Dalian have been registered as tax refund stores. With the implementation of the departure tax rebate policy, it is expected that sales will increase by more than 10% this year, "said the person in charge of Jinhua Watch. Driven by the booming sales market and extensive policy promotion, direct operated stores of brands such as Huawei and DJI are also preparing to apply for tax refund store registration. At present, the Dalian Taxation Bureau is actively coordinating with the commerce department to launch the relevant work of introducing local specialty products into departure tax refund stores in Dalian. It is selecting stores that sell "foreign trade excellent products" and "Dalian gifts" such as shell carving handicrafts, Liaoyu grilled fish slices, Zhuanghe big bone chicken, red shrimp crispy candy, Dalian shrimp scallop, Yichang pastry, etc., to promote more local specialty products to enjoy tax refund policies and increase sales of local specialty products. This year, driven by the new upgrade of the departure tax rebate policy, not only have more high-quality stores launched new products, but various regions are also actively laying out and creating departure tax rebate characteristic blocks, continuously enhancing the attractiveness of inbound consumption. At present, among the more than 1500 departure tax refund stores in Beijing, domestic brands account for 40%, and "Beijing flavor" has become a distinctive feature of local tax refund stores. While fostering the diversified development of departure tax rebate stores, the tax authorities of Beijing also helped to upgrade key shopping malls, tap the potential of four international consumer experience areas, namely "CBD × Sanlitun", "Wangfujing × Xidan × Qianmen", "Universal Studios × Grand Canal", and "Lize × Capital Business New Area", develop more than 600 departure tax rebate stores, and further expand the brand agglomeration advantages of the business district. In Shanghai, more than 1400 tax rebate shops have organized a tax rebate service network covering the beach of Shanghai, from the bustling shopping malls on Nanjing West Road to the traditional market in Yu Garden, from time-honored intangible cultural heritage workshops to international brand flagship stores. Since the beginning of this year, the Shanghai tax department has processed departure tax refunds for over 80000 travelers from 174 countries (regions), and has issued over 110000 tax refund application forms. Developing outbound tax refunds is an important lever to vigorously boost consumption and an important way to expand high-level opening-up to the outside world. Associate Professor Sun Kunpeng from the School of Finance and Taxation at the Central University of Finance and Economics believes that in terms of product types, in the future, we should strengthen support for stores with immersive shopping experiences and multilingual support capabilities, guide traditional international luxury brands to operate alongside time-honored brands and domestic trendy brands, and balance brand trust with local characteristics. From the perspective of product categories, the key is to achieve full category coverage driven by culture and technology. We should further strengthen support for popular cultural identity products such as intangible cultural heritage and local characteristics, as well as domestic drones and smart wearables, and promote more high-quality domestic products to enter the international market. The departure tax refund is more convenient for "code refund" and online processing, and the tax refund process is "fancy" to speed up. "No need to download or register, the departure tax refund can be" code refunded ", which is really convenient. ”Recently, at the cultural and creative store of Sanxingdui Museum in Deyang, Sichuan, Mr. Yang, a tourist from Macau, purchased a bronze figurine worth 328 yuan and experienced the convenient service of "code refund" for departure tax refund. After shopping, overseas travelers can use their mobile phones to scan the store's' Code on Refund 'QR code, upload their identity information, credit card and shopping invoice, tax refund form, complete the electronic signature of the agreement and credit card pre authorization, and the system will approve the online review. The prepayment for tax refund will be credited to the account in real time. ”The relevant person in charge of the Sichuan Provincial Taxation Bureau of the State Administration of Taxation said. It is reported that the "Code Refund" mini program relies on technologies such as graphic recognition and rule verification to optimize and transform existing business processes. It has moved tax refund application, credit card pre authorization, tax refund review and other processes online, achieving "fingertip tax refund, worry free throughout the process", and has been well received by tax refund merchants and overseas travelers. Since the beginning of this year, the tax department has promoted the "buy and refund" service for outbound tax refunds nationwide, resulting in an efficiency improvement of over 40% in tax refund processing. How to make the departure tax refund faster? There are many innovative measures in various regions - 'touch it', tax refunds will be credited in seconds. In Beijing, the tax authorities, together with the agent Bank of China Beijing Branch and Alipay platform, launched the "touch" tax refund function of Alipay at the centralized refund points in the city, realizing the real-time transfer of tax refund to overseas passengers' Alipay e-wallet. Replace 'manual billing' with 'self-service processing'. In Shanghai, the New World Daimaru Department Store is piloting the country's first self-service single machine, which can recognize passport information with just one click, scan invoice QR codes, generate printed tax refund application forms, and achieve self-service invoicing. The introduction of self-service vending machines has effectively eased the processing pressure during peak shopping hours in shopping malls. Since the beginning of this year, we have issued over 5000 tax refund application forms, "said the person in charge of Daimaru Department Store. Compared to the previous declaration process, various convenience measures have greatly improved the efficiency of overseas travelers in handling departure tax refunds. However, some processes and links still need to be further streamlined and optimized. For example, there may be differences in efficiency between online and offline processing of departure tax refunds, and the tax refund service processes in different regions may also vary. It is necessary to further promote and guide overseas consumers, and continuously improve service levels to meet their diverse tax refund needs. ”He Daixin, Director of the Finance Research Office at the Institute of Financial Strategy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said. Travel arrangements have become more flexible, expanding from single store "buy and refund" to "one point" centralized refund. There are also new measures for mutual recognition at departure ports. "I just bought a watch at the Wangfu Central Tax Refund Store, and I thought I could only apply for a tax refund at the airport, but the staff said that not only the items I purchased today, but also the bookmarks I bought when I went to the Forbidden City yesterday, can be refunded here. It's really convenient. ”Singaporean tourist Lin Shuyun, who is visiting Beijing for the first time, shared her shopping experience with reporters. In June of this year, the Beijing Municipal Taxation Department launched three centralized refund points in Wangfujing, Financial Street, and Guomao Business District, including Wangfu Central, Financial Street Shopping Center, and Guomao Mall, making it more comfortable and convenient for overseas tourists to buy and refund. Setting up centralized refund points is not a new thing. Recently, Guangzhou, Guangdong has opened its first centralized refund point at Tianhuan Plaza in the Tianhe Central Business District; Shenzhen has added one centralized refund point on the Dongmen Pedestrian Street in Luohu, bringing the total number of centralized refund points in the city to 12, all located in areas with high passenger flow such as commercial and business concentration zones. Expanding from single store "buy and refund" to "one point" centralized refund not only provides convenience for travelers, but also effectively clears the bottleneck of single household shops needing to bring their own tax refund cash. Since the establishment of centralized refund points, the willingness of merchants to apply to become departure tax refund shops has significantly increased. Currently, there are nearly 90 tax refund merchants in Shanghai Henglong Plaza, covering major international well-known brands. From January to July this year, more than 500 transactions have been processed at the centralized refund point of Hang Lung Plaza's' buy and refund 'policy, and the sales of outbound tax refunds in the entire mall have increased by nearly 60% compared to the same period last year. ”Director Zhang Lina of Henderson Plaza said. More convenient tax refund processing and good news. Not long ago, overseas traveler Li Dehua purchased Yongchun vinegar and other specialty products at a specialty store in Quanzhou, Fujian. He chose the "buy and refund" service for departure tax refund and received the refund on site; A few days later, Li Dehua chose to depart from Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport and successfully passed the verification and completed the relevant business. Seemingly ordinary, there is actually a big change behind the scenes - previously, overseas travelers enjoyed "buy and refund" services at departure tax refund shops in Fujian Province (excluding Xiamen), and could only leave from Fuzhou Changle International Airport, Quanzhou Jinjiang International Airport, and Pingtan'ao Front Passenger Roll on/Roll off Port; If you enjoy the "buy and refund" service at the departure tax refund store in Xiamen, you can only leave from Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport, which brings inconvenience to some overseas passengers in arranging their travel. Nowadays, the province is implementing the 'buy and refund' policy for overseas tourists to purchase and receive tax refunds upon departure, allowing them to freely arrange their travel routes within the province and processing tax refunds more smoothly after shopping. In addition to the original port mutual recognition, Xiamen Wutong Passenger Terminal has also been added this time, providing more choices for overseas passengers. ”The relevant person in charge of the Fujian Provincial Taxation Bureau of the State Administration of Taxation said. Recently, taking the opportunity of serving the 12th World Games, the Sichuan Provincial Taxation Bureau, together with Chongqing, Yunnan, and Shaanxi Taxation, launched a new measure for mutual recognition of departure ports through the "buy and refund" service for tax refunds upon departure. After shopping at designated stores in Sichuan Province and enjoying the "buy and return" service, overseas passengers can freely choose to exit from any port in Chengdu Tianfu International Airport, Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport, Xi'an Xianyang International Airport, Kunming Changshui International Airport, and Lijiang Sanyi International Airport to complete customs verification. This means that after shopping and refunding taxes in Sichuan, the range of options for departure ports for travelers will be greatly expanded, and travel arrangements will be more convenient. Smoothness at every step, from entering with anticipation to leaving with a full load, is crucial. Next, we need to further promote cross provincial mutual recognition, establish a high-level collaborative mechanism, expand the coverage of departure methods, explore the inclusion of cruise ports and other areas in the scope of tax refunds at departure ports, and provide greater convenience for overseas travelers, "said Sun Kunpeng. (New Society)