Startup, US LLC with non-US co-owners: sign up for US PayPal business account

kiril_rebrov
Contributor
Contributor

Hello Community!

 

I'm the co-founder of technology startup. We are at the stage of fund raising so we need to setup US PayPal business account for our US based LLC.

 

Some background information:

 

- I and my partner have formed an LLC in the State of Delaware in February, 2014. It is a 50/50 co-ownership

 

- Both co-owners are non-US residents. We are Russian citizens

 

- We have a certificate of formation

 

- We did NOT open US bank account yet

 

- We currently have a Russian personal bank account and debit MasterCard

 

- We did NOT receive EIN (employee identification number) yet

 

- We did NOT have US physical business address yet

 

- We have the only income source from US residents. Our startup is completely targeted on US market.

 
- According to US-Russia tax treaty, we are going to pay US-only taxes
 
- We don't sell any goods. We are providing an information technology services. The PayPal account is required primarily for fund raising, accepting payments for services and paying our users in some cases
 
We are going to setup EIN as soon as we begin to receive taxable income. And we need to understand whether we already need to have US bank account and/or physical address to effectively run US business using PayPal.
 
Our questions are:
 
1) Are we eligible for signing up for US PayPal business account w/o US bank account, US physical address and EIN?
 
2) Are we eligible to receive and send payments on US business account w/o US bank account and EIN?
 
3) Are we required to open US bank account before signing up for business account and receive/send payments?
 
4) Are we required to get EIN before signing up for business account and receive/send payments?
 
5) Are we required to to provide any documents other then certificate of formation before signing up for business account and receive/send payments?
 
6) Are there any other requirements we need to satisfy before signing up?
 
If we required to have either US bank account or US physical address, could you please advice us a best option to sign up for PayPal business account?
 
Thanks for attention to our matter. We appreciate any guidelines and help. 
 
Regards,
Kirill Rebrov
 
 P.S. We don't have physical business address in the US, but of course we have a US registered agent in the State of Delaware.
 
 
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4 REPLIES 4

snowshoe
Frequent Advisor
Frequent Advisor
1) Are we eligible for signing up for US PayPal business account w/o US bank account, US physical address and EIN?
 
Unfortunately not at this point, before you open an account, you should have everything required, else you really won't be able to do anything with the account until you can provide the necessary information.  
 
Both  a US Bank account and US physical Address are necessary for verification and it's also a good idea to link and confirm a credit card.  The card serves as a backup funding source and provides additional proof of ID.
 
As you're planning on setting up a Business Account, you will also need to provide your EIN.   In addition, who ever opens the account will need to provide an ITIN.  (If you were US citizens, then an SSN would be required.)  If the previously mentioned details are not in place before you proceed with setting your account, your account will be limited meaning you won't be able to either send or receive funds.
 
Many people make the mistake of setting up a business, getting their online site running and then proceed to open a PayPal Account only to realize that they have not met all the requirements for a functional account.  They find themselves with a limited account and in the position of having to provide additional proof of ID in order to remove their limits.  PayPal can also ask for a photo ID (usually a Driver's License) and a copy of a Utility Bill that shows the business's physical street address and name.
 
Financial institutions such as banks, credit card issues and 3rd party transaction processors such as PayPal are required by law to verify the identity of the person behind any and all Accounts into which money is collected.  This stems from the USA Patriot Act, Title III, Anti-money laundering to prevent terrorism where as institutions put into place reasonable steps to identify beneficial owners of bank accounts and those who are authorized to use or route funds through payable-through accounts.
 
 
 
 
2) Are we eligible to receive and send payments on US business account w/o US bank account and EIN?
Explained in question 1.
 
 
 
3) Are we required to open US bank account before signing up for business account and receive/send payments?
Explained in question 1.
 
 
 
4) Are we required to get EIN before signing up for business account and receive/send payments?
Explained in question 1.  
 
 
5) Are we required to to provide any documents other then certificate of formation before signing up for business account and receive/send payments?
Explained in question 1.  (Note, normally you're not asked to provide any legal documentation showing you're an LLC or Corp etc., just your EIN).
 
 
6) Are there any other requirements we need to satisfy before signing up?
Explained in question 1.   (Note, who ever opens the account will be asked for an ITIN.)
 
 
 
If we required to have either US bank account or US physical address, could you please advice us a best option to sign up for PayPal business account?
It would be difficult to make any recommendations as there are many choices.  You would have to shop around and find one that meet your needs.   As for a US physical address, there are services that can provide you with both a street address and a PO Box.  Again you would have to shop around and compare options. 
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kiril_rebrov
Contributor
Contributor

Hi snowshoe,

 

Thanks a lot for clean clarifications. We understand the set of requirements. One more question:

 

Could you please clarify the part about physical address:

 

>As for a US physical address, there are services that can provide you with both a street address and a PO Box.

 

And here you've mentioned the additional (possible) PayPal requirements:

 

>PayPal can also ask for a photo ID (usually a Driver's License) and a copy of a Utility Bill that shows the business's physical street address and name.

 

Does it mean that services that can provide a street address and PO box are not a fair option to set up US PayPal business account since PayPal can request a copy of utility bill? Are these services a legal option?

 

I'm asking because we want to play fairly and completely legally because of our personal beliefs and the policy of our company. And we want everything to be in line with the law and operational PayPal account.

 

All requirement seems to be feasible to be met (EIN, ITIN, US Bank Account) except the physical business address.

How "real" this address should be according to the US law and PayPal policy? Has it to be real address of the company or it could be any virtual PO box provided by many services as you mentioned?

 

Thanks again for your useful response.

 

 

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snowshoe
Frequent Advisor
Frequent Advisor

Perhaps something like this will give you a better idea, it just an example of what some businesses do to provide them with a presence and it's legal:

http://www.regus.com/products/virtual-offices/business-address.aspx

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kiril_rebrov
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you for the link, snowshoe

 

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