I received an email from Paypal asking for my SSN/EIN.  My sales velocity has picked up recently so I'm assuming they ask for this when there is a chance you might reach their reporting thresholds.  I should have a EIN by the end of the day today.  My Paypal account appears to be fully functional but I have a notification that says "some of your account features may be unavailable because your tax info needs updating."  I went ahead and set my eBay store to vacation while I wait on my accountant to process my EIN.  I didn't want any sales to go through and have them rejected by Paypal.

A few questions for those that have run into this before:

1. Is there a way to officially tell if Paypal has your account on hold for receiving payments?  Other than this notification I can't tell if my account will still accept payments from eBay.
2. Will Paypal ask for a W-9 or other supporting documents when I enter my EIN?  If so, do they require this immediately or is that typically a follow-up request?
3. If I enter an EIN, Paypal will require me to upgrade to a business account or create a new (business) account .  Anything I should consider when doing so?  Do you use a separate personal vs. business account for paypal?

Thanks for the help.

Had this happen to me last year. We hit over seven figures, and our account got flagged by PP to match records to our taxes

Any PP account will get flagged once 20k of transactions have been placed annually. Sometimes sooner, sometimes later.

The IRS is cracking down on all online payment accounts (PP, Amazon, Square, etc). to have proof of gross income for most online retailers.

Follow there guidelines, and submit the information they request, and you should be good to go. 

Make sure all names, match what PP already has on file, or it turns into a HUGE headache.

To help answer your questions:

1. PayPal wont close the account, you just will not be able to accept payments until they have the required information.

2. They may ask, they did for me, But it was a few weeks later for me that they wanted that information.

3. Yes, you will be required to turn into Business Account. Same thing, just more features and support. Not really a big deal.

 

Hope that helps.

I recieved your message, but ill post here, perhaps others may read this and the information may help.

They most likely will have you submit a W-9 from the previous tax year, and also the confirmation of your EIN.

Once paper work is submitted, it will probably take a day or few to get re-instated to recieve funds. When I mean "names match". This pertains to the name you have on the EIN form. It must match the name on the W-9. They were very specific about this.

I may have been in a slightly different scenario, because of our account status was already a business account. But I assume the procedures are the same as you are already dealing with.

PP will most likely simply switch your personal account to a business account. No need to re-sign up or add bank accounts.

 

All in all, dont be scared or stress out. EVERYBODY who uses PP and sells over 20k, will have to do this procedure sooner or later.

 

Hope that helps

 

Edited November 19, 201510 yr by jdmpartz