What is the complete operation process for online handling of the 2026 Individual Comprehensive Income Tax Annual Final Settlement Refund
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I have been providing cross-border freelance design services throughout last year, with a total annual income of more than 420,000 RMB. I paid a total of nearly 30,000 RMB in individual income tax through monthly advance declaration previously. After calculating the 2026 annual final settlement, I am eligible for a tax refund of around 18,000 RMB.
I stopped halfway when operating on the Individual Income Tax App before, fearing that wrong information input would trigger system warning and lead to more supplementary tax payment. Nearly half of my income was remitted in foreign currency directly by overseas clients to my foreign exchange account.
I do not know whether this type of cross-border income is eligible for normal tax refund, nor how long the whole process takes or what additional documents I need to prepare. I need this refund urgently to pay the rent for the second half of the year, so I am very anxious now and have no idea how to proceed properly.
CharlotteYears of service：4Customer Rating：5.0
Currency Exchange AdvisorStart a Chat
You can proceed with the refund application in accordance with the full-process compliant operation steps. First，complete the pre-document review stage: log in to the Income and Tax Payment Details section of the Individual Income Tax App，check each domestic advance tax payment record one by one. For the cross-border foreign currency income，convert it into RMB at the central parity rate published by the People's Bank of China on the date of fund receipt. Verify that the converted total amount fully matches the amount on your actual received foreign exchange settlement memo，and organize the electronic copies of corresponding contracts，delivery achievement vouchers，and foreign exchange collection memos for all income for standby.
Next，proceed to the core declaration node: enter the 2026 Annual Comprehensive Income Final Settlement Declaration page，fill in the information of special additional deductions and paid advance tax amount one by one as prompted by the system，confirm that all data is correct before submitting the application，do not modify the submitted core data arbitrarily within 72 hours after submission，so as not to trigger repeated system verification.
If you encounter abnormal audit that triggers application rejection，check the rejection reason pushed by the system immediately，supplement the corresponding supporting documents as prompted and submit for manual review. Common abnormalities include mismatched cross-border income data and missing supporting documents for special additional deductions. The audit process will be restarted within 3 working days after the documents are corrected and supplemented.
After the whole process is completed，the compliant tax refund will be directly transferred to your bound Class I bank card account within 7-10 working days after being approved by the tax authority. You do not need to visit the offline tax service hall throughout the process，and you can check the real-time status at any time in the Declaration Progress section of the Individual Income Tax App，no unreasonable delay will occur.
DanielYears of service：8Customer Rating：5.0
Legal AdvisorStart a Chat
The customs declaration data related to personal cross-border trade income must match the income amount declared in the individual income tax declaration system, with a difference no more than 8% of the total declared amount, otherwise the system will automatically trigger a cross-department data comparison warning. If the difference between the customs declaration filling date and the income recording date exceeds 180 days, you need to prepare a personal signed statement of explanation in advance, upload it to the supporting documents section of the individual income tax declaration at the same time, and also submit the historical customs declaration records that have been deleted and re-declared, to ensure that all data logic forms a complete closed loop, and the refund application will not be directly rejected due to judged abnormal declaration.
EmilyYears of service：3Customer Rating：5.0
Client Success AdvisorStart a Chat
All logistics track vouchers corresponding to cross-border service delivery must be kept completely. The sending records and sign-off confirmation screenshots of electronically delivered services must fully correspond to the delivery time stipulated in the contract.
For small-batch goods with physical delivery, the goods description on the logistics waybill must be completely consistent with the name of the deliverable marked in the contract, and the bill of lading endorsement related ownership transfer records must also be organized and archived. All these documents can be used as valid supporting proof of income authenticity, and can be submitted directly when the system initiates income authenticity verification, which greatly shortens the time consumption of manual review.
EllaYears of service：10Customer Rating：5.0
Senior Financial AdvisorStart a Chat
Under the latest 2026 cross-border tax credit rules, taxes that individuals have paid legally overseas in relation to the corresponding income can be included in the credit scope of individual income tax final settlement at a corresponding proportion, with the maximum credit amount not exceeding the payable tax amount of the corresponding income calculated in accordance with domestic individual income tax rules. Note that the pricing of cross-border income of related transaction nature shall not deviate more than 15% from the fair market price of similar services, so as not to trigger BEPS-related risk investigation and affect the normal audit progress of the refund application.
JohnYears of service：6Customer Rating：5.0
Export Tax Rebate AdvisorStart a Chat
The foreign exchange settlement memos and CIPS payment message records corresponding to foreign currency income must correspond to the declared income amount one by one. The transaction annotation content in SWIFT messages must be consistent with the declared income type, and the full electronic vouchers of offshore account entry records shall be kept.
The exchange rate conversion shall uniformly adopt the central parity rate published by the People's Bank of China on the date of fund receipt, do not use a self-negotiated settlement exchange rate to convert the income, to avoid declaration difference caused by wrong exchange rate conversion that leads to failure of refund audit.
OliviaYears of service：5Customer Rating：5.0
Senior Customs AdvisorStart a Chat
For service contracts signed with overseas clients, the service delivery place, payment cycle, rights and responsibilities division details shall be clearly marked, and the income reduction part corresponding to force majeure clauses shall be marked separately.
The contract signing date shall fully match the income recognition time, and there shall be no illegal content in all intellectual property related clauses in the contract. All contract texts shall be sorted into PDF format for retention, which has full legal effect as supporting documents for refund declaration and will not be judged as invalid materials.
SarahYears of service：3Customer Rating：5.0
Foreign Exchange AdvisorStart a Chat
If you receive an on-site document inspection notice from the tax authority, you shall sort out all paper supporting documents in order in advance, export the electronic vouchers in advance and store them in a normally readable U disk. All content of electronic vouchers in the machine inspection verification stage shall be completely consistent with the paper materials.
If the inspection and appraisal report involving cross-border service delivery achievements is required, you shall mark the corresponding income declaration period on the first page of the report in advance, and affix your personal signature for confirmation, to avoid direct on-site document return for supplementation due to incomplete document information.
DavidYears of service：3Customer Rating：5.0
Business Development AdvisorStart a Chat
If the delivered cross-border service achievements involve physical storage media, the corresponding transport packaging MSDS records and logistics waybill information must match the deliverable information. If the storage media belongs to low-risk categories, the corresponding compliant transport certificates shall also be kept.
Packaging reinforcement records and screenshots of intact outer package confirmation upon receipt can be used as valid proof of physical delivery, which further supports the authenticity of income and reduces the probability of random inspection in the audit stage.
RobertYears of service：6Customer Rating：5.0
Warehouse Management AdvisorStart a Chat
Before submitting the individual income tax refund declaration, you shall verify that the four flows information is completely consistent, namely the information of contract flow, capital flow, achievement flow and invoice flow all correspond to each other. You can quickly provide corresponding documents for verification when tax document verification is initiated.
The cross-month income entry records shall be marked and explained separately, all data shall be checked for more than 3 times in advance in the pre-declaration verification stage, and the foreign exchange settlement and verification records shall be completely consistent with the total income declared in the individual income tax return. All electronic documents for document filing shall be sorted in chronological order and can be retrieved and uploaded at any time.
WilliamYears of service：10Customer Rating：5.0
International Logistics AdvisorStart a Chat
Classify the annual cross-border income according to corresponding trade terms, adjust the income recognition nodes corresponding to FOB and CIF clauses to fully match the period covered by the individual income tax annual final settlement, accurately calculate all deductible cost items of the whole year, reasonably match the corresponding special additional deduction quota, and bring the separately taxed part of eligible annual one-time bonus into the overall calculation scope, so as to maximize the individual's legitimate tax refund under the full compliance premise, and avoid abnormal declaration issues caused by misplaced income accounting.