Tax refund system and method

Abstract

A tax refund system and method are disclosed. By the tax refund system of the present invention, a tax refund card embedded with memory is utilized to purchase merchandises in a tax-free shop so that the work of the tax-free shop can record the information relating to those purchased merchandises matching tax-refund regulations into the memory of the tax refund card for enabling the recorded information to be used as refund basis. The tax refund system and method can avoid the trouble of safekeeping many tax-return receipts while purchasing merchandises, and also it can facilitate tax refund procedure and thus enhanced the service convenience. Moreover, the tax refund card can be integrated with passports so that the certification of identity for tax-refund can be facilitated. Not only the marketing strategy and production planning can be promoted and scheduled according to the shopping records gathered from the tax refund cards, but also the shopping records can be used by authorities as reference for identifying abnormal shopping behavior.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the architecture of a tax refund system according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating the architecture of a server adapted to be used in a tax refund system according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating the architectures of a shopping data mining module and a abnormal shopping evaluation module, both being adapted to be used in a tax refund system, according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram depicting an operating framework of a tax refund method according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart depicting the tax refund steps of a tax refund operation according to a tax refund method of the present invention.

FIG. 6A is a flow chart depicting the tax refund steps of a tax refund method according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6B is a flow chart depicting the tax refund steps of a tax refund method according to a second preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6C is a flow chart depicting the steps of data analysis of a tax refund method according to the present invention.

Claims

1. A tax refund system, comprising: at least a tax refund card, each for recording an identification data and a shopping record;a first reader/writer, disposed in a store, capable of accessing the identification data stored in the tax refund card while being enabled to write a shopping data into the shopping record and accessing content stored in an identification tag arranged at a merchandise of the store;at least a second reader/writer, disposed in a tax refund booth, capable of accessing information stored in the tax refund card; anda server, electrically connected to the second reader/writer, further comprising: a tax refund logistic module, for receiving information accessed by the second reader/writer so as to use the received information to perform an operation of tax refund evaluation and calculation; andan object name service (ONS) module, connected to a merchandise database, being enabled to receive merchandise-related data of the information accessed by the second reader/writer while searching the merchandise database to find merchandise names matching to the received merchandise-related data.

2. The tax refund system of claim 1, wherein the server further comprises: a shopping database, for recording shopping data;a shopping data mining module, being enabled to access the information stored in the shopping database while performing a data analysis with reference to the nationality, gender, and season so as to form a report relating to shopping habit and preferences; andan abnormal shopping evaluation module, being enabled to access the information stored in the shopping database so as to use the accessed information to perform an evaluation for determining whether a shopping behavior is abnormal.

3. The tax refund system of claim 1, wherein the second reader/writer is further connected to a terminal embedded with a human-machine interface, while the terminal is further connected to the server, by which the human-machine interface of the terminal is used to communicate with the server through a communication protocol and an encryption mechanism for editing shopping record in a manner that at least a shopping data is selected therefrom to be used for tax refunding.

4. The tax refund system of claim 1, wherein the tax refund card is arranged at an article selected from the group consisting of a passport, a credit card, and a debit card.

5. The tax refund system of claim 1, wherein a handheld device is enabled to be used for accessing the content of the tax refund card while editing and browsing through the shopping record stored therein by the use of a human-machine interface.

6. The tax refund system of claim 5, wherein the human-machine interface is java interface.

7. The tax refund system of claim 5, wherein the handheld device further comprises: a tax refund logistic module, capable of performing an operation of tax refund evaluation and calculation.

8. The tax refund system of claim 1, wherein each of the first and the second reader/writer can be a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader/writer, and the first reader/writer is able to utilize a point-of-sale (POS) system to write shopping data relating into the shopping record.

9. The tax refund system of claim 1, wherein the first reader/writer further comprises: a bar code reader, for reading a,bar code of a merchandise while transmitting the reading to a point-of-sale (POS) system; anda radio frequency writer, capable of utilizing the POS system to write shopping data into the shopping record.

10. A tax refund method, which comprises steps of: using a tax refund card storing an identification data and a shopping record for performing a shopping operation at a store;enabling the store to use a first reader/writer for accessing the identification data for identity certification;enabling the store to use the first reader/writer to read a tag of a merchandise to be purchased and then write a corresponding shopping data,into the shopping record;using the tax refund card to perform a tax refund operation at a tax refund booth;utilizing a second reader/writer to access identification data and shopping record of the tax refund card at the tax refund booth while transmitting the accessed data to a server; andenabling the server to use an object name service (ONS) module connected to a merchandise database for finding merchandise names matching to the accessed shopping record from the merchandise database, while enabling a tax refund logistic module to refer to the access shopping data for perform an operation of tax refund evaluation and calculation.

11. The tax refund method of claim 10, further comprising steps of: basing on the result of the operation of tax refund evaluation and calculation performed by the tax refund logistic module to print out a tax refund check and corresponding receipts; andbring the printed tax refund check and the corresponding receipts to the tax refund booth so as to be used as certificate of tax refunding and thus complete the tax refund operation.

12. The tax refund method of claim 10, further comprising steps of: enabling at least a terminal with the second reader/writer to connected to the server for facilitating a self-help tax refund operation to be performed; andutilizing the terminal to mark those shopping data of the shopping record intended to be refunded.

13. The tax refund method of claim 10, further comprising steps of: registering shopping data into a shopping database by the server;enabling the server to use a shopping data mining module to search and analyze data stored in the shopping database so as to provide a report relating to the shopping habit and preferences; andenabling the server to use an abnormal shopping evaluation module to search and analyze shopping data stored in the shopping database so as to form an evaluation for determining whether a shopping behavior is abnormal.

14. The tax refund method of claim 10, further comprising steps of: using a handheld device to access the content of the tax refund card while editing and browsing through the shopping record stored therein by the use of a human-machine interface; andenabling a tax refund logistic module embedded in the handheld device to perform an operation of tax refund evaluation and calculation.

15. The tax refund method of claim 14, wherein the human-machine interface is java interface.

16. The tax refund method of claim 10, wherein the first reader/writer is able to utilize a point-of-sale (POS) system to write shopping data into the shopping record.

17. The tax refund method of claim 16, wherein the first reader/writer further comprises: a bar code reader, for reading a bar code of a merchandise while transmitting the reading to the point-of-sale (POS) system; anda radio frequency writer, capable of utilizing the POS system to write shopping data into the shopping record.

18. The tax refund method of claim 10, wherein each of the first and the second reader/writer can be a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader/writer.

19. The tax refund method of claim 10, further comprising a step of: informing a logistic service provider by the store to send merchandises purchased in the shopping operation to a specific location.

20. The tax refund method of claim 10, wherein the tax refund card is arranged at an article selected from the group consisting of a passport, a credit card, and a debit card.