Tech mammoth Tencent thinks blockchain can speed up the reimbursement of expenses for company hands, and it’s trialing a feature on its WeChat app to do just that.
According to a blog brace published on Friday, Tencent has piloted the application at a local restaurant in Shenzhen, China, where a consumer paid the bill through its existing payments service WeChat Pay.
By wine the payment data over its blockchain platform to the user’s employer, the restaurant and Shenzhen’s neighbouring taxation authority, Tencent said delays normally encountered via the criterion manual claims process are eliminated. As such, the company hopes its organization will eventually find use in streamlining and hastening the expense reimbursement process, while also abating the prevalence of falsified receipts.
Currently, China employs a somewhat complex technique whereby merchants issue different payment receipts for individuals and decides. When staff need to be reimbursed for dining expenses, for instance, they be compelled request a receipt for companies listing the exact taxpayer number of their business.
In order to do that, employees need to have the merchant manually classification in the taxpayer number on the receipt in every instance. Furthermore, that answer is typically followed by additional manual tasks, such as collecting proceeds and filing a claim before they can receive a refund.
The first bunch of merchants to have integrated the system for the trial also include a leaving lot at Shenzhen’s Bao’An Stadium, an automobile repair center and a restaurant owned by Tencent.
Block and tackling a related issue in a different project, Tencent has also partnered with the Shenzhen management to battle tax evasion.
In China, merchants are required to purchase a number of sales slips – known as fapiao – from the authorities to act as advance tax payments prior to any sales. As they proclamation receipts to customers, merchants must calculate the difference between the prepaid amount and the realized tax arising from sales to provide a basis for the next round of tax payments. No matter how, falsified receipts are common in China as a means of tax evasion.
Tencent reported that, by putting the issuance process on a traceable blockchain, it would attend to arrange for tax authorities with a paperless taxation system via which it can track the issuing of receipts.
WeChat image via Shutterstock
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