Shenzhen pilots cross-border e-wallet tax-refund service

Alipay+ has rolled out China’s first cross-border e-wallet tax-refund service in Shenzhen,

allowing eligible travelers to receive refunds directly into their digital wallets. Photos from WeChat account "深圳发布"

Alipay+, the international offshoot of Chinese ubiquitous payment platform Alipay, has launched China’s first cross-border e‑wallet tax‑refund service in Shenzhen.

The pilot program, unveiled yesterday and currently only available to visitors from Hong Kong, enables value-added tax refunds in Hong Kong dollars to be directly transferred into participants' AlipayHK digital wallets.

After shopping at a designated tax‑refund store in Shenzhen, Hong Kong travelers must complete several steps to participate: obtain a refund form from the store, complete a brief pre‑authorization at the refund counter, and then scan an Alipay+ QR code at the counter to generate a refund code. Upon completion, the refund will be credited within seconds.

A step-by-step guide explains how to claim value-added tax (VAT) refunds using the Alipay+ cross-border e-wallet service.

To celebrate the launch, AlipayHK is offering exclusive payment discounts for Hong Kong users at popular shopping areas, including the COCO Park shopping mall in downtown Futian District.

Ant International, the overseas arm of Chinese financial technology giant Ant Group and the parent company of Alipay+, said the service will expand later this year to include South Korea’s KakaoPay and the Philippines’ GCash, and it will ultimately cover all Alipay+ partner wallets — a move expected to benefit tens of millions of inbound tourists.

Officials highlighted the service’s consumer‑friendly and ecosystem benefits. Dai Wenzhong, director of the Second Taxation Branch of the Shenzhen Tax Service, said Alipay+ has already enabled tourists from 13 countries and regions to pay in Shenzhen with their home e‑wallets.

“This new service will make tax refunds easier,” he said, noting the pilot program’s focus on Hong Kong visitors — Shenzhen’s largest inbound group — and its potential to encourage additional spending by cross‑border shoppers.

A QR code promoting Alipay+’s cross-border e-wallet tax-refund service is displayed at a tax-refund counter in a shopping mall in Shenzhen.

A spokesperson for the Shenzhen branch of the People’s Bank of China said the e‑wallet refund service delivers a faster, smoother shopping and refund experience for visitors while further enriching Shenzhen’s cross‑border financial ecosystem.

Shenzhen is positioning itself as China’s benchmark city for departure tax refunds, with more than 1,500 departure tax‑refund stores and the country’s largest number of tax‑refund ports.

By streamlining refunds and integrating non-mainland e‑wallets, the new service aims to boost convenience for travelers and strengthen Shenzhen’s appeal as a cross‑border retail hub.

Ant International introduced Alipay+ in 2020 to allow international visitors to use certain mobile payment apps from their home countries to make payments in China by scanning Alipay QR codes and in other countries via local partners. Alipay is Ant Group's largely domestically-focused platform.

Source: Shenzhen Daily