User experience

In the easy tax refund solution, the user can apply the tax refund in advance in the Alipay tax refund mini-program as illustrated below.

1. The user makes a purchase with Alipay at the registered merchant.
2. The tax refund eligibility is checked when Alipay processes the transaction.
3. If the transaction is eligible for tax refund, Alipay will prompt the user as shown in the following figure. The same related information is also presented in the payment success page or sent to the user by the push notification.

Figure 1. The prompt page for tax refund

4. After clicking the notification, the user is directed to Alipay tax refund mini-program. Enter the following personal information as shown below. The data fields are configured based on the requirements for different countries.

Figure 2. The personal information page

5. When the user submits the tax refund form, the user's related information is sent to the tax refund company with SPI, and the user is prompted to get the hard-copy or electronic tax refund form.

Figure 3. Get the tax refund form

6. The tax refund company calls the Alipay API to create a tax refund order and issue the tax refund form. Therefore, the user can check the tax refund details and progress, and request for an advanced tax refund. This page is hosted by the tax refund company.

Figure 4. The tax refund details page

7. If the user presses the Get the Advanced Tax Refund button for applying an advanced tax refund, the tax refund company will call the API to freeze the deposit and issue the refund.
8. The user can also receive the refund as usual after the stamped form is returned to the tax refund company.
9. The tax refund company must maintain the correct status of the refund with the sync API, so that the user can check the tax refund status in the overview page provided by Alipay.

Figure 5. The overview page for the tax refund