On June 2, the Beijing Municipal Taxation Bureau announced that the country’s first online departure tax refund store has officially launched in Beijing, and the first batch of centralized tax refund collection points for the hotel industry in Beijing has also been activated simultaneously. According to a report by China Central Television (CCTV), the platform was jointly developed by Beijing’s tax and commerce departments along with an online shopping platform. When overseas tourists place orders online, they enter information such as their ID number and date of entry, and the system automatically generates an electronic tax refund application form. The goods are delivered directly to the hotel by courier, and tourists can complete the tax refund in one stop at the centralized collection point at the hotel, with the refund credited in real time.
Currently, the online departure tax refund store offers nearly 300 subcategories of refundable goods across six major categories, including mobile phones and telecommunications, digital products, computer and office equipment, and household appliances. Beijing has now established a service network consisting of 7 citywide centralized collection points, 51 “Buy and Claim” stores, and over 1,600 departure tax refund stores, covering core commercial areas. Liu Li, Director of the Second Tax Branch of the Beijing Municipal Taxation Bureau of the State Administration of Taxation, stated that this move extends the consumer tax refund scenario from offline brick-and-mortar stores to online shopping platforms. Beijing is also promoting nationwide mutual recognition of the “Buy and Claim” scheme, striving to enable overseas tourists to achieve “departure from a different location, with nationwide tax refund.”