For cross-border e-commerce retail imported goods returned within 30 days from the date of customs clearance, tax refunds can be applied for, and the personal annual transaction amount will be adjusted accordingly.
Interpretation: This policy is a big boon for e-commerce companies. According to the requirements of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, consumers can “return goods without reason within seven days” after purchasing goods online. However, the customs has been unable to meet the return needs of cross-border e-commerce retail imports, resulting in many companies having to bear the return losses on their own. Now, cross-border e-commerce retail imported goods can be returned within 30 days from the date of customs clearance, and the customs will refund the taxes previously paid by consumers and increase the personal annual transaction amount accordingly.
The identity information of the purchaser (orderer) of cross-border e-commerce retail imported goods should be authenticated; if not authenticated, the identity information of the purchaser (orderer) should be consistent with the payer.
Interpretation: This policy was beyond the expectations of many e-commerce companies, because in the previous pilot, Hangzhou authenticated the identity information of the payer, while most other cities authenticated the identity information of the consignee.
According to the new policy, cross-border e-commerce retail imports should be authenticated with the identity information of the purchaser (orderer). In fact, from the perspective of trade, it is very easy to understand the intention of the customs. It has been explained before that cross-border e-commerce retail imports are a trade behavior involving both buyers and sellers. Obviously, the purchaser (orderer) is the buyer in this trade transaction. The payer can be the buyer or not (for example, entrusting someone else to pay). Similarly, the consignee can be the buyer or not (for example, the orderer gives the goods to the consignee as a gift). Therefore, from the perspective of the sales “contract”, cross-border e-commerce retail imports should authenticate the identity information of the purchaser (orderer) rather than the payer or consignee.
In fact, many e-commerce websites are not registered with real names. In other words, the purchasers (orderers) on most websites have not undergone identity authentication. In this case, as long as the purchaser (orderer) and the payer are the same (that is, the purchaser has not entrusted someone else to pay), they can also be released. The logic behind this is this: the payment company contains the identity information of the payee. If the payee is the same as the purchaser, then the identity information pushed by the payment company is the identity information of the purchaser, thereby achieving the purpose of indirectly authenticating the identity information of the purchaser.
As for the consignee information, although it is not used for identity information authentication, it is equally important for customs supervision. For example, once the system finds that a consignee has received goods that exceed the reasonable personal use multiple times, the customs can conduct targeted risk control and investigate possible violations. The same logic may also appear between the purchaser and the payer. If the purchaser and the payer are not the same, the customs can also conduct risk control for this order and increase the inspection of such orders.