Have Tax Information questions? Post here!

[PayPal_Adrian]

Welcome to the Tax Information thread!

Should I post my question here?

Starting in 2011, all U.S. payment providers, including PayPal will be required by the IRS to report sales information about merchants who exceed $20,000 and 200 transactions to the IRS. If your question is related to this topic, please reply with a question or to assist another member.

We will  be merging existing questions in the Community into this board.  More information will be made available later.  Until an update is provided, please check out the previous IRS Workshop and www.paypal.com/irs. 

What questions don't go here?

All other tax-related questions, such as Profile settings for Tax, adding tax to invoices, adding tax to payments, whether or not you should charge your buyers tax, what tax rates to charge, are considered Off Topic and will be moved.  These questions are better placed in the About Business board instead.

Why can't I start a new Topic?

To facilitiate productivity in this board, and to keep questions and answers in one place, members can only post questions in this thread.  You will be able to reply to this topic, but not start a separate, new thread.

Will a PayPal Employee answer my question?

The PayPal Community Help Forum is a venue for members to assist other members, and is not an avenue to reach customer service.  If you require immediate assistance, assistance directly from PayPal, or account specific information, please contact customer service. 

Another community member is not an employee and is providing assistance to you as a fellow customer. PayPal employees will post in the Community from time to time, but they will always be marked as an employee.  This is noted by the PayPal logo next to their user ID. 

How will this board be moderated?

To help foster this board into a valuable help resource for members, we will be removing any unproductive posts.  Please review the Community Rules and Guidelines to learn more about posting guidelines.

Posting Tips

If you are asking a question, please provide as much information about the situation as you can.  The more information you can provide, the easier it will be for another community member to understand the issue and provide an insightful answer.  Please remember that posting your own or another person's contact information, physical address, email address, full name, phone number, or any other personally identifiable information is prohibited.

Thank you for helping us keep the Community Help forum a friendly and productive environment for all members. We look forward to your contributions! 

[mel150]

Internal Revenue Code Section 6050W requires PayPal’s non-US subsidiaries to comply with the new law. As a result, non-US account holders may need to certify their non-US status and their address.

I would like to do that, but I don't know how. If I certify as stated, then this will not happen, I hope:

•   You’ll be unable to receive funds into your account.
•   You won’t be able to close your account.

Thanks for your help.

[mel150]

How about if I fill out form W8BEN and mail it to:

PayPal

WIll that work for the question I have about non-US citizens?

[PayPal_Frank]

Hi mel150,

The W-8BEN may be an option for you but I have to recommend that you consult with a tax professional to determine if that is the route for you.  I know typically that form applies to US PayPal account holders who are not subject to US taxation.

If you find out you need to send us a W-8BEN, please contact Customer Service for additional instructions.

- Frank

[khrispetro]

Hello all,

I did not keep tracking off my total shipping paid to USPS for taxes, is there a way I can get this information now?

Please help! 

[mystikkeyz]

On April 10, 2012  I attempted to withdraw some funds from my bank account to my paypal balance, only to be asked for my social security number and tax info. This is the first time this has ever happened to me in 6+ years of using the service. In my many years of using paypal, I've only received payments a handful of times, and those payments were from friends that owed me money, not from selling anything! Why am I being asked for this kind of info when I'm clearly not a seller??

[naseller]

because PayPal wants everyone's social in order to verify the user does or does not meet tax criteria. correct me if I am wrong, but I thought in order to open a PayPal account, user must provide tax information. in April, PayPal was scrambling to affix any number at all to existing accounts. see my mess I posted and see what happened to me when PayPal affixed my husband's social to MY account. PayPal told me it may have happened if I had provided an incorrect or transposed number 11 years ago when I opened my account, and in scrambling to get tax IDs, PayPal cross referenced phone numbers. So give them your number or it might get messy. mine has.

[JudysGold]

If one person wins 10 auctions and pays once via paypal, does that count as ONE transaction toward my 200 or does it count as TEN transactions?

[naseller]

one

[naseller]

It is 200 PayPal payments received transactions, not the number of eBay sales.

[naseller]

For some reason, my PayPal account and that of my husband were linked by his social.. bundling the two caused two 1099s to be created and submitted to the IRS by Paypal.. after hours and hours of correcting the socials neither account meets criteria for filing 1099. all I can get from Paypal is their "word" that the 1099s submitted to IRS which fall well below the requisite 200 transactions, but show over 20K in gross receipts, will not be added to our tax bill for 2011. no provisions for electronically advising the IRS of the error have been devised, apparently. All I can see is having to pay a tax consultant or spend more hours on the phone with the IRS trying to clean up this mess.PayPal supervisors I have spoken with decry Paypal for having put them in the position of tax experts. is there any remedy to my problem?