Mobile payments platform Alipay has partnered with Global Tax Free to launch the ‘world’s first’ paperless mobile tax refund solution.
This new solution will simplify tax refunds by empowering Chinese tourists to apply for and claim tax rebates via their mobile. It works by a tourist scanning their passport at a self-service kiosk before traveling to South Korea, following this, the user can scan tax refund receipts on their phone and receive refunds within 90 days.
The companies have plans to launch the services to more merchants and other countries within Asia in the future.
Earlier in the year, Alipay’s parent company Ant Financial raised $14bn in its Series C round of funding. The capital was supplied by a number of firms, including GIC, Temasek, Khazanah Nasional, Warburg Pincus and Silver Lake, among others.
Alipay Korea general manager Danny Chung said, “With this unique new function, Alipay users can skip the queue and process tax refunds on their mobiles, without filling out and submitting any paper work. This will both save time and make it easier to claim refunds.
“We look forward to working with our partners and leveraging our technological capabilities to bring more convenient tax refund solutions to outbound Alipay users.”
Alipay is a Chinese online payment provider and is the primary means of online and mobile payment for Chinese consumers. Through the partnership, Alipay’s 520 million-plus users in China will be able to use their Alipay Mobile Wallet at point-of-sale with Motion Pay merchants, both in-store and online.
Earlier in the year, the company formed partnerships with three companies within the Americas in a bid to boost its usage outside of China. The company has partnered with, Motion Pay Technology, FreedomPay, and Openpay to enable its Chinese userbase to utilise the services when traveling.
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