Before you start
You need three things on you whenever you shop with a refund in mind: your passport, room for paper receipts, and a little patience at checkout. Registered stores are usually marked with a refund-scheme sign near the entrance or checkout counter, but it is worth asking directly if you don't see one, since signage placement varies by shop.
Keep your passport in your bag rather than your hotel safe on shopping days. Every version of this process, in-store or airport, starts with matching your purchase to the passport you used to enter the country, and a photocopy or photo on your phone is not treated as a substitute at most counters.
The general steps
A connective note worth sitting with here: steps 5 through 7 are the part most travelers get wrong, not because the process is complicated, but because they assume they can handle it after clearing security or after checking in bags that contained the items. Sort out the order at your specific airport terminal before travel day.
If the store doesn't offer an on-the-spot refund
Some smaller boutiques and older shops simply aren't part of the scheme, and no amount of asking will change that. If a purchase matters enough to you that the refund affects your decision to buy it, ask before you pay rather than after you're holding a bag and a receipt with no scheme marking on it.
Larger department stores and shopping centers popular with tourists are more likely to have a refund counter or service desk on-site, sometimes letting you complete part of the paperwork there instead of waiting until the airport. Ask the store's information desk, not just the cashier, since front-line staff don't always know the internal process.
If your total sits near the refund threshold
The NT$2,000 minimum applies to purchases at one authorized store on the same day, so combining several smaller receipts from different stores, or from the same store on different days, generally will not add up toward it. Ask the store directly rather than guessing, since assuming the wrong answer either means you underbuy unnecessarily or arrive at the airport with paperwork that doesn't qualify.
After you land at the airport
Give yourself real buffer time for the refund counter, separate from your usual security and immigration buffer. Queues at refund counters can be short or genuinely long depending on time of day and season, and unlike a boarding gate, there's no announcement calling you if you're running late.
Once you've completed the refund, keep any confirmation slip or reference number until you've verified the money or credit has actually come through, particularly if the refund method takes days to post rather than being handed to you in cash on the spot.
What this guide does not cover
This guide doesn't list every excluded product category, doesn't cover the goods-inspection rules for items over a higher declared value, and doesn't cover general shopping recommendations in Taipei or how to pay for everyday purchases, which are handled separately. The Ministry of Finance's own refund page and its "Taiwan Tax Refund" app are the places to confirm current exclusions before you rely on a specific purchase qualifying.