In this article
Register a Shopper and Initiate Tax Free
After Payment – Creating the Tax-Free Request
Automatic Tax Refund Behaviors
Partial Returns Cancel the Entire Tax Refund
Voiding a Refund Cancels the Original Sale
This topic describes how a VAT refund transaction is completed at the POS when the store is configured to use the Planet Tax service in the UAE.
Register a Shopper and Initiate Tax Free
Before completing payment, the cashier must register the shopper's details on the POS.
- Add items to the transaction.
- Press the button assigned to the PLANETTAXSHOPPER command. The Planet Tax Shopper panel opens.
- Fill in the required shopper fields, or scan the shopper's travel document to auto-fill them. For more information about mandatory fields and document scanning, see Planet Tax Shopper Registration.
- Choose OK to confirm registration. A confirmation message is displayed.
Note: If the shopper is under 18 years old, the system blocks the registration and the tax-free request will not be sent.
After Payment – Creating the Tax-Free Request
After payment is completed, LS Central evaluates whether a tax-free request should be sent to Planet.
The request is sent automatically if the transaction total exceeds the Minimum Amount configured in Planet Tax Setup. If the total is at or below the minimum, no request is sent.
When the request is accepted by Planet, the following information is stored on the transaction:
- The Tax Refund Tag received from Planet is saved on the transaction.
- The Tax Refund Amount returned by Planet is stored.
- The Tax Refund State is set to Requested.
If the request fails, the Tax Refund State remains blank and an error message is displayed on the POS.
Cancel a Tax Refund
A tax refund can be cancelled after it has been requested, as long as the Tax Refund State is Requested. Once a refund is cancelled, it cannot be reactivated.
There are two ways to cancel a tax refund:
- From the Transaction Register: Open the Transaction Register, select the transaction, and choose Tax Return Service > Cancel Tax Refund. The Cancel Tax Refund action is only enabled when the Tax Refund State is Requested.
- From the POS: Use the CANCELTAXREFUND POS command assigned to a button while the Transaction Register lookup is active.
After a successful cancellation, the Tax Refund State is updated to Cancelled and the name of the user who performed the cancellation is recorded on the transaction.
Automatic Tax Refund Behaviors
In addition to the manual cancellation described above, LS Central automatically triggers the following tax refund behaviors, without any explicit user action. Understand these behaviors before configuring return, void, and cancellation workflows for tax-free transactions.
Partial Returns Cancel the Entire Tax Refund
When a return sale is posted, the system automatically sends a cancellation request to Planet for the original transaction's Tax Refund Tag. This request identifies only the tag number of the whole original transaction; it does not reference specific lines, items, or quantities.
As a result, returning only part of a tax-free transaction still cancels the tax refund for the entire original transaction, not only for the returned lines or amount.
Note: There is no partial tax refund. A partial return of a tax-free sale cancels the whole refund in the same way that a full return does.
Pre-Void Tax Refund Check
Before a transaction linked to a tax refund can be voided, LS Central automatically checks the current status of the refund with Planet. This check runs only when the transaction has a Tax Refund Tag and its Tax Refund State is Requested.
The system calls Planet's transaction lookup service and expects the response to include:
- A status value equal to VALID.
- A ptfStatus value that is one of the statuses accepted for cancellation.
If either value is missing from the response, or if the values returned are not among the accepted ones, the void operation is blocked and an error message is displayed on the POS.
Voiding a Refund Cancels the Original Sale
Voiding a posted return/refund transaction re-runs the same cancellation logic that ran when the return was originally posted. If this results in the voided transaction's Tax Refund State becoming Cancelled, the system searches for the matching original sale transaction using its Store No., POS Terminal No., Receipt No., and Tax Refund Tag.
If a matching original transaction is found with Tax Refund State equal to Requested, its Tax Refund State is automatically updated to Cancelled, and the Cancelled by User field is copied from the return/refund transaction being voided.
Note: Voiding a refund transaction can change the Tax Refund State on a different transaction — the original sale — not only on the transaction being voided.
Tax Refund State
The Tax Refund State field on the Transaction Register shows the current status of the tax-free request for a transaction.
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| (blank) | No tax-free request has been sent for this transaction. |
| Requested | A tax-free request has been sent and accepted by Planet. The refund is active and can still be cancelled. |
| Cancelled | The tax refund has been cancelled. No further action is possible on this refund. |
Transaction Register Fields
The following fields are added to the Transaction Register by the Planet Tax Free integration.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Tax Refund Tag | The unique identifier returned by Planet when a tax-free request is accepted. This value is used by Planet to track the refund. |
| Tax Refund State | Shows the current state of the tax-free request. Possible values are blank, Requested, and Cancelled. |
| Tax Refund Amount | The refund amount returned by Planet for the transaction. |
| Tax Free Voucher Number | The voucher number assigned to the tax-free transaction by Planet. |
Planet Tax Logs
All requests sent to and responses received from Planet are recorded in the Planet Tax Logs page.
To open the logs:
- Open the Planet Tax Setup page.
- Choose Action > Processing > Logs.
Each row in the log represents one communication with Planet and shows:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Store No. | The store where the transaction occurred. |
| POS Terminal No. | The POS terminal used for the transaction. |
| Transaction No. | The transaction number associated with the log entry. |
| Entry No. | A sequential entry number identifying the log record. |
| Error | Displays any error message returned from Planet for this entry. |
To view the raw data for a log entry, select the row and use the following actions:
- Request – Displays the payload sent to Planet.
- Response – Displays the response received from Planet.
See also
Planet Tax Shopper Registration