WO2016024272A1

WO2016024272A1 - Tax refund system

Info

Publication number: WO2016024272A1
Application number: PCT/IL2015/050813
Authority: WO
Inventors: Lior DRICKER
Original assignee: Dricker Lior
Priority date: 2014-08-11
Filing date: 2015-08-10
Publication date: 2016-02-18
Also published as: EP3180749A4; IL234051A0; IL250542A0; IL250542A; EP3180749A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system for automated processing of tax refunds, comprising: a) a Point-of-Sale (POS) transaction terminal for executing a purchase transaction for an item, and for generating purchase transaction data, wherein the purchase transaction data includes a user identification and a unique ID code assigned to the purchased item; b) a marking arrangement for applying unique ID code to the purchased item or to a reference object representing the purchased item; c) a Tax Transaction Refund Service (TTRS) server which stores the purchase transaction data and which provides, in response to the purchase transaction data, the amount of tax refunds, by communicating with a corresponding tax authority (TA) server; and d) a terminal adapted for acquiring the applied unique ID code and the identity of the user who purchased the item and for communicating data representing the user identity and the unique ID code to the TTRS for verification of the purchased item in conjunction with the user identity, wherein upon verification crediting an account of the user with the tax refund.

Description

TAX REFUND SYSTEM

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the field of tax refund systems. More particularly, the invention relates to a system for allowing travelers to reclaim the VAT/GST they have paid on their shopping in foreign countries in an autonomous and automatic manner, and in a convenient, efficient and reliable manner, from anywhere in the world, using any available online communication medium.

Background of the invention

Persons who travel to another country than their country of residence may have the right to a refund of so-called Value-Added Tax (VAT) or Goods and Services Tax (GST) when they purchase goods or services abroad. Tax-free shopping (TFS) allows shoppers to reclaim the VAT/GST they have paid on their shopping in foreign countries. Promoting the tax rebate and making it easier for tourists to claim it back, could help to attract travelers to many countries and may increase the volume of business and acquisitions in those countries.

Tax refund systems are offered in many countries for travelers. Traditionally, the administration for tax free shopping schemes has been paper-based with merchants issuing vouchers at a point of sale, and then customs or other authorized agents verifying the export of the goods at a border. Although regulations vary from country to country, the traditional format for providing tax free shopping is for a merchant in a country to identify and verify that a customer is a visiting traveler entitled to a tax refund, then to issue the voucher that includes details of the traveler and the purchased item, and then for customs to verify at the point of exit from the country that an item being exported and that the traveler corresponds to the item and traveler identified on the voucher. The refund can then be made. Tax refund operators act with merchants and customs to facilitate the operation of this process and to manage the paperwork associated therewith.

However, such a process is very labor and cost intensive and there are significant technical difficulties in ensuring that a tax refund system can operate efficiently. The process is performed manually and is not reliable in view of identifying the products. Moreover, it requires bringing products and luggage to the custom agent location, standing in queues, etc.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a tax refund system which is capable of operating easily and efficiently in an autonomous, automatic and reliable manner.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.

Summary of the Invention

The present invention relates to a system for automated processing of tax refunds, comprising:

a) a Point-of-Sale (POS) transaction terminal for executing a purchase transaction for an item, and for generating purchase transaction data, wherein said purchase transaction data includes a user identification and a unique identification (ID) code assigned to the purchased item;

b) a marking arrangement for applying unique ID code to the purchased item or to a reference object representing said purchased item;

c) a Tax Transaction Refund Service (TTRS) server which stores said purchase transaction data and which provides, in response to said purchase transaction data, the amount of tax refunds, by communicating with a corresponding tax authority (TA) server; and d) a terminal adapted for acquiring the applied unique ID code and the identity of the user who purchased said item and for communicating data representing the user identity and said unique ID code to said TTRS for verification of said purchased item in conjunction with said user identity, wherein upon verification crediting an account of said user with the tax refund.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the marking arrangement is an attachment in form of a chemical sticker printed with the unique ID code thereon.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the unique ID code is a barcode.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the marking arrangement is an attachment in form of an RFID tag.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the POS transaction terminal is implemented as part of a virtual store.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the POS transaction terminal is implemented as an equipment of a real store.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the chemical sticker used for sealing the product or its packaging.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the marking arrangement includes additional information in a visual and/or electronic form.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the amount of tax refunds are calculated either by the TTRS server/system, by the tax authority server, or a combination thereof. Brief Description of the Drawings

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 schematically illustrates an exemplary method, apparatus and system for managing a tax refund process, according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

Fig. 2 is a flow chart generally illustrating the method of the invention.

Detailed Description of the Invention

Reference will now be made to several embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying figures. Wherever practicable similar or like reference numbers may be used in the figures and may indicate similar or like functionality. The figures depict embodiments of the present invention for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following description that alternative embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of the invention described herein.

The present invention relates to a tax refund system in which the following entities are involved: a buyer (e.g., a traveler or visitor in foreign taxing country), a merchant, a tax refund service operator side and external network/sources belonging to each relevant taxing authority.

System's components

In accordance with the system of the present invention, a traveler visiting a foreign, taxing country can use an automatic Tax Transaction Refund Service (TTRS) when making purchases and then receive a refund on the purchases of refundable taxes such as VATs via that service. The system includes a Tax Refund Application (TRA), a Point-of-Sale (POS) transaction terminal, a TTRS server and a marking arrangement for applying a unique ID code for each purchased goods. In some cases, the marking arrangement can also be used to seal the purchased product, as will be described in further details hereinafter.

The POS transaction terminal adapted to interact with the TTRS server either as a part of a virtual store or as a real store equipment that has a processor and interface hardware and software to interact with the TTRS server. Also part of the system are external networks such as those belonging to the taxing authority. This system of the present invention facilitates the payment for goods, the calculation of the refundable taxes, the refund of the taxes, and the accounting and security associated with those functions.

Purchasing and refund process in short

A traveler visiting a taxing country may access the tax refund application (TRA) by using a terminal (e.g., a smartphone, tablet, POS transaction terminal or any other computer based device or system) or kiosk in communication with the TTRS server via any communication network, such as the Internet. Using such a connection, a user may make a purchase from a merchant in a taxing country, and, if that purchase is subject to refundable tax, may invoke the TRA to recover a refund for that purchase by identifying the purchased product using the unique ID code applied to it by the marking arrangement (if required) in conjunction with the authentication of the purchaser (i.e., the visitor/user who purchased the product) during or after the departure from the taxing country.

Items Marking Arrangement

According to an embodiment of the invention, the marking arrangement can be an attachment or attachable item (provided with the unique ID code) adapted to be attached to the purchased product or its packaging in such a way that an opening of the product or the packaging will disqualify the marking, thereby eliminating the possibility to obtain the refund or to transfer the marking arrangement to other product (anti-piracy). For example, the attachment can be a label or a sticker provided with a print of the product's unique ID code. In this context, the attachment can be a disposable chemical sticker with the unique ID code printed thereon. In another example, the attachment can in form of a Radio -Frequency Identification (RFID) tag for the purposes of automatically identifying the purchased goods while the visitor passes through selected region in the departure port with the purchased item during the departure from a taxing country or while the goods passes through selected regions in the departure port such as a conveyer belt behind the check-in counters or in a baggage handling system (BHS) type of conveyor system that transports luggage. The attachment may also include position detection technology means for providing location data of the purchased item, such as GPS circuitry, Wi-Fi-based positioning system, etc.

Identification and calculation process of purchased items

During a purchase transaction, the TTRS determines which items are subject to the refundable tax, calculates how much tax has been paid for each of those items, and stores in the account of a registered user the paid taxes and the unique ID code associated with each item.

During (or after) departure from the taxing country, whenever the system identifies the purchased item and authenticates the visitor who purchased that item, the system credits the visitor with the appropriate refund for the taxes paid during the trip in the taxing country (e.g., as indicated by numeral 7 in Fig. 1, and as will be described in further details hereinafter). The identification of the item and the authentication of the item's owner can be done in a variety of ways. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the identification process is done automatically. The item identification and the visitor authentication are acquired automatically, whenever the system identifies that the visitor departures or about to departure the taxing country with a tax refundable purchased item. For example, a terminal equipped with one or more sensors adapted to automatically and wirelessly/remotely read the marking arrangement (e.g., RFID tag). The terminal can be located in a specific region in the departure port (including airports, naval ports and ground borders), such that whenever a visitor passes through that specific region, or whenever the goods passes through the sensors of that terminal automatically acquires the unique ID code of the product as well as the authentication of the visitor. The authentication of the visitor can be done via plurality of methods, such as wirelessly reading the visitor's passport (if such technology available), applying biometric identification (fingerprints, face recognition, DNA, etc.), receiving information form a check-in terminal, etc.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the item identification and the visitor authentication are acquired via a terminal/kiosk equipped with scanning/reading means dedicated to read the ID code (e.g., barcode reader, camera) and to identify the visitor (e.g., biometric reader, voice detection, face recognition, passport reader and the like). For example, the visitor provides the marking arrangement and the passport to the terminal/kiosk (which can be positioned in the departure port) for reading/scanning/imaging the unique ID code and visitor identity. Alternatively, the kiosk is provided with an identification gate with built- in sensors adapted to automatically acquire the ID code of the purchased item and the identity of the visitor who carries that item, e.g., the sensor can be similar to those described hereinabove.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the item identification and the visitor authentication are acquired via a personal terminal (e.g., a smartphone, tablet, *** glasses or other wearable computing device, etc.) equipped with scanning/reading means dedicated to read the ID code (e.g., a camera) and to identify the visitor (e.g., iPhone 5S biometric reader, face detection and the like). For example, the visitor scans/photos the marking arrangement using the camera for reading/scanning/imaging the unique ID code and identifies himself using the biometric reader embedded within the smartphone. Using a personal terminal the identification process can be done after the visitor has left the taxing country by utilizing service location embedded in the personal terminal, such as GPS.

Tax refund process

The terminal acquires data representing the unique ID code and the visitor identification (via any one of the aforementioned identification processes) and forwards these data to the TTRS server. Upon verification of the data the visitor receives the appropriate refund for the taxes paid during the trip in the taxing country. The refund can be paid by any currency, for example, in "local" (i.e., the taxing country) currency or in the currency of the origin country in which the user resides ("home currency"), by crediting electronic cash value in the user account on the TTRS. Alternatively, the refund can also be paid by monej^ transfer, either in local currency or in the user's home currency, by credit to the user's credit card, cash money from the kiosk, or by some other method according to user preferences such as online payment services (e.g., PayPal™, amazon payments, Google Wallet™, etc.), digital wallets and the like, and/or policies of the relevant tax authorities.

The TRA and TTRS are programmed to keep track of the types of purchases that are subject to the refundable tax, and the amounts of those taxes, thus freeing travelers and merchants from having to maintain cumbersome records. Fig. 1 schematically illustrates an example method, apparatus and system for managing a refund process, according to an embodiment of the present invention. The sj^stem, as illustrated in Fig. 1, includes a TRA resides on a tourist terminal device 1, a POS transaction terminal 2, a TTRS server 3, a tax authority terminal 4, a marking arrangement 5, and a terminal 6 adapted to identify a purchased product and the tourist associated with it. In this figure, the terminal 6 is located in the departure port. The taxing authority that authorizes the tax likely licenses approved suppliers or provides TRA software. The taxing authority may also operate a host database. The user registered to tax refund service provided by the TTRS server 3 makes purchases in the taxing country using POS transaction terminal 2 at the a tax free store. The purchased item is being marked and sealed with the unique marking arrangement 5 that carries a unique ID code. When leaving the taxing country, the terminal 6 may acquire the unique ID code and the user identity, either automatically (by dedicated terminal equipment with reader/detector as described hereinabove) or manually by operating the TRA software resides on the user's terminal device and the camera of that terminal device (e.g., the user's terminal device can be a smartphone, such as an iPhone while its camera can be used to acquire the unique ID code) or the TRA software resides on a kiosk via a barcode reader or other type of scanning/imaging equipment attached to that kiosk. In addition, the user also needs to be identified by the system. This can be done by scanning the user's passport or by using biometric identification methods at the kiosk. The TRA software communicates with TTRS server 3 to compare and verify the scanned unique ID with the verification of the user and the purchased item. If approved, the user is being credit with the refundable taxes as indicated by numeral 7 in the figure.

There are many benefits of this system. The registered user benefits by receiving refunds on all eligible purchases; by receiving a refund promptly, upon departure or after rather than six or more weeks later; by not having to keep track of receipts or refund vouchers or the different refund rules for different countries; by not having to fill out applications that are difficult to understand, and by being able to receive a refund in the user's home currency or any other currency, on a credit card or on a user account. Another benefit is the online information regarding the shopping being done, refund calc. etc. Merchants benefit by not having to handle refunds themselves, by attracting customers who are willing to spend money knowing that they will receive a refund, and by not having to check the eligibility of customers or explain the eligibility rules to the customers. The taxing authority benefits by automating the refund process, by not having to hire or contract for personnel to handle refund requests at the airport or in the office, by being able to keep track of VAT refund data with little added work, and by knowing that the identification and authentication process is reliable, highly prevent frauds, easy to use and can be done automatically without any user and personnel intervention.

As used in this specification and the appended claims, the term "terminal" generically describes devices or systems with which the TTRS server may communicate or interact with each other. Several examples of terminals may include a kiosk-type terminal, a personal computer that operates as a terminal via a communication network such as the Internet, a mobile device/system equipped with location and detection technologies such as a smartphone, automatic system for detection and identification of a purchased product and the person who own it, etc. Within terminal are interface unit and processor. Interface unit may consist of a combination of hardware and software, including a touch screen or other display means such as LCD screen and/or voice interface, designed to communicate with TTRS server, and buttons, keypads, or keyboards with which a user inputs data to the terminal. Interface unit may also include an ID code reader (e.g., barcode reader) or an imaging device (e.g., a camera) through which a user scans the unique ID code in order to identify and verify the product. The configuration of the terminal 6 is not limited to that shown in Fig. 1. More or fewer terminals may be contained around that terminal, depending on the space available, the privacy or security desired, or aesthetic tastes of users or departure port space planners. An optional display screen is shown as being fixed and generally flat in the terminal 6. However, the screen could also be movable or tilted at an angle for better viewing, for more privacy or security, or for more flexibility to accommodate users of varying heights.

Fig. 2 is a flow chart generally illustrating the tax refund method of the present invention. The method may involve the following steps:

purchasing an item in a taxing country by a user registered to the TTRS service (block 21). For example, a traveler visiting a taxing country may purchase an item via a POS transaction terminal that is in communication with the TTRS server;

if that item is subject to refundable tax (block 22), applying a unique ID code to the purchased item (block 23). Applying of the ID code can be part of the items marking arrangement described hereinabove, and it may include physical marking and/or sealing of the item itself with an attachment of a representation of the unique ID code to the item;

after the application of the unique ID code, storing in a database associated with the TTRS service data representing the purchased item and its applied unique ID (block 24). The stored data may also include the item's price and its tax refund value, tax refund calculations, incremental calculation, etc.; and associating the stored data with the account of the registered user in the TTRS (block 25);

during or after the departure from the taxing country or when the user is about to depart (block 26), acquiring the ID code and the identity of the registered user and comparing them with the stored data in the TTRS for identification (block 27). For example, invoking the TRA (via any available terminal) to recover a refund for that purchase by identifying the purchased product using the unique ID code applied to it by the marking arrangement in conjunction with the authentication of the user;

if identification succeeds (block 28), refunding the registered user according the tax refund calculations, e.g., by crediting the user account at the TTRS.

It is important to mention that the tax refund calculations can be executed at any stage after the actual purchasing of an item or product. For example, the tax refund calculation can done as part of the marking arrangement, after the departure, as of the identification process, or at any other timing as required by each specific taxing authority. The tax refund calculations can be done at the tax authority terminal, at the TTRS, or any combination thereof.

The following discussion is intended to provide a brief, general description of a suitable computing environment in which the invention may be implemented. While the invention described hereinabove in the general context of program modules that execute in conjunction with an application program that runs on an operating system on a terminal or on the TTRS server, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention may also be implemented in combination with other program modules.

Generally, program modules include routines, programs, components, data structures, and other types of structures that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention may be practiced with other computer system configurations that are able to identify the purchased product and its owner using any suitable detectors, sensors, and readers/scanners, including hand-held devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. The invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed b)' remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.

All the above description and examples have been given for the purpose of illustration and are not intended to limit the invention in any way. Many different mechanisms, methods of analysis, electronic and logical elements can be employed, all without exceeding the scope of the invention.

Claims

A system for automated processing of tax refunds, comprising:

c) a Tax Transaction Refund Service (TTRS) server which stores said purchase transaction data and which provides, in response to said purchase transaction data, the amount of tax refunds, by communicating with a corresponding tax authority (TA) server; and

d) a terminal adapted for acquiring the applied unique ID code and the identity of the user who purchased said item and for communicating data representing the user identity and said unique ID code to said TTRS for verification of said purchased item in conjunction with said user identity, wherein upon verification crediting an account of said user with the tax refund.

A system according to claim 1, in which the marking arrangement is an attachment in form of a chemical sticker printed with the unique ID code thereon.

A system according to claim 2, in which the unique ID code is a barcode.

4. A system according to claim 1, in which the marking arrangement is an attachment in form of an RFID tag.

5. A system according to claim 1, in which the POS transaction terminal is implemented as part of a virtual store.

6. A system according to claim 1, in which the POS transaction terminal is implemented as an equipment of a real store.

7. A system according to claim 2, in which the chemical sticker used for sealing the product or its packaging.

8. A system according to claim 1, in which the marking arrangement includes additional information in a visual and/or electronic form.

9. A system according to claim 1, in which the amount of tax refunds are calculated either by the TTRS server/system, by the tax authority server, or a combination thereof.