Account Verification for Businesses

[bmfg]

My company is looking to use PayPal to process online orders.  We're a decent size company but we sell very very little online.  We're just dabbling with some direct to consumer product ideas.

I created a PayPal account so I can do the pretty simple "button" method for selling stuff online.

I've created a button and practiced purchasing an item for myself, etc.  Looking into the payment option of receiving money from the PayPal account, we have the option of a check or electronic funds xfer.  I talked with our accounting staff and they don't want to directly connect a bank account.  Also, creating a new bank account just for this project requires a massive amount of internal red tape (board of directors approval) and there's fees associated with a new account.

I'd like to use the "request a check" option.

Regardless of the option, I need to verify the account to lift a $500 / month withdrawl limit.  Ok, we don't sell a lot online, but it's certainly more than $500 / month.

It says I need to do 2 or 3 methods:  1) Bank Account, 2) Social Security Number, 3) Credit/Debit Card.

I've got a company card that I can use.

The company is resistent to use a bank account number.

And I'm resistent to using my personal SS # as I especially don't want this connected to anything that could be recorded as income for me by IRS/tax purposes.

So, is there any other way to get verified as a company?  The company as a federal tax ID that they'd be happy to use as an example.

[Misty11]

Hello bmfg,

Welcome to the Forums.

Unfortunately you are right, to get verified, you would have to link your bank account to your PayPal account, or be approved for PayPal Smart Connect, Bill Me Later, or the PayPal Extras MasterCard.  Some of the benefits to becoming verified are: we lift your account limits for sending money, Payment options - You’ll be able to pay with PayPal even if you don’t have money in your PayPal balance and Peace of mind - Other PayPal members know that being verified means that you’ve given us extra information about your identity. This helps make transactions even more secure.

Misty

[bmfg]

Hi Misty,

Thanks for the follow-up.  Unfortunatly, I'm still a bit stuck but perhaps I can ask some different questions and concerns.

Verification is important for proving we are who we say we are.  As the website manager, I've setup the paypal account for my company.  If I give my social security number, is it only going to be used to verify my identify or is it going to be also used in terms of identifying income?

My concern is that if I verify with my SS#, will sales through my companies paypal site will be seen as personal income?  Obviously, I want to avoid having to deal with tax issues.  I'm just the website guy trying to setup some secure payments for my company.

Also, should I need to hand off our company paypal account to another person, will that person need to reverify with their social security #?  Is there even a way to transfer ownership of this business account to someeone else?

Thanks!

[Misty11]

Hello bmfg,

I certainly do understand the concerns you have, I would advice you to have the owner of the company or even president of the company put their name on the PayPal account. I can understand if you are the "Web guy," why you would not want your personal info tied to the PayPal account. If the account has a SSN # on it as well as a TIN/EIN the income would be reported to the TIN/EIN not the SSN#, so you could add your SSN # and a TIN/EIN if you have one to prevent the income reporting to your SSN#.

If you do hand the PayPal account off to another person the information would need to be changed to their information.

I hope this all helps, if you have further questions please let me know.

Misty

[bmfg]

Hi Misty,

Thanks for the follow up.

I've spent some time trying to find how to add a TIN/EIN number to our account, but I could not.  How would I add a TIN/EIN number to the account as you suggest?

Thanks,

John

[roddy]

I can't find it either, have the same concerns...