US Expat in Ecuador has question about Paypal

[Ray_Hood]

Perhaps someone knows the answer to this.

I'm receiving my first payment from a friend for $200.00 and have a question. If I accept a payment, does the money actually enter Ecuador? My reason for asking is that Ecuador charges a 5% tax on money leaving the country. In other words, If I actually transfer the money into my account here, and then make a payment outside of the country, I will be taxed. However, if the money stays outside the country, I could use it to make a purchase outside of Ecuador and perhaps avoid the 5% charge. Many thanks for any help.

[DPCreations]

Best to check on the PayPal rules for Ecuador.  You will be operating from an Ecuador IP adress.  You may need an Equador PayPal account for business in Equador.

Make sure you are operating within PayPal policies so you don't get your account limited.

[Ray_Hood]

Thanks for your response DPcreations. Just for some further background, I've been using Paypal for many years now in Ecuador and it works well linked to my credit card. I've always made purchases in the past through Paypal and Paypal charges the local card. In this case I will have $ in the Paypal account sent from a European destination, so I'm just curious: Once I accept the payment, is the money in Ecuador and therefore taxed if it leaves again, or is it in some external digital location? I would ask here in Ecuador if there were someone to ask, however the Ecuador Paypal client assistance goes right to the US Paypal phone system where I couldn't get an answer at all.