Opening an e-business AND a new PP account in another country without relocating

[George13131]

Hello i would like to ask a  few questions that the (really helpful) representatives at customer support couldn't thoroughly answer.Plus i need some clarification.

I currently reside in Greece and use a personal account.

In the near future i might start an e-business in Bulgaria (single person business) where in order to get paid for services i provide to already established overseas clients, i will need to open a new paypal account, a business one for that matter as opposed yo my personal one in Greece since i can not link greek bank cards to the bulgarian business account.

Of course i will be assuming a legal entity in Bulgaria with a proper bank account and tax obligations but WITHOUT having to relocate there.

I have realized that there are the following 2 major issues with this decision seeing as paypal is my only option to receive invoices in my Bulgarian business paypal account.

1)I was informed that i will not be able to access and more importantly do actions on the Bulgarian account from Greece.I was told that i can appoint a representative for my account who is located in Bulgaria but thats still a far fetched option.

2) Since i will not be living there and since -from the get go- the invoices on this new business account will surpass the limits,this will require further verification to be fully unlocked just like it happened to the personal account here in Greece a few years back.

What i need to know is what will i be asked to provide to paypal to unlock the account?If it's a simple matter of providing paypal the legal papers that constitute my business then what are these?Apparently i wont be living in Bulgaria and it is quite possible that i wont even have a bulgarian phone number let alone a personal address there.Of course bank papers,VAT's etc will be available since, like i said ,this will be a proper company.

Please advise (and clarify as much as possible).

[PayPal_Jae]

Hi @George13131,

It is not recommended to create a Bulgaria PayPal account if you do not reside in Bulgaria. PayPal accounts are country specific and will ask for identity documents (like proof of address) for verification. I recommend creating a Greece business PayPal account to accept payments globally. I hope this helps!

- Jae

[George13131]

Hi thanks for the reply.

Apparently paypal is ,yes,country specific.Email accounts too, but there are legit workarounds for that as well.

But there is a think called off the shelf management in businesses where the people who reside in the same place your account is created can manage this for you withour your physical presence there being a requirement,for example a logistics office of a different country than the one you reside in.

The question is -and i should have written less in my 1st post because apparently i confused people- whether it is POSSIBLE

for someone to check his account REMOTELY every now and then without running the risk to lock it just because he/she logged in from another country.

The second part of the question is exactly what types of documents will there be needed to verify a business paypal account who will surpass its receiving limits from the get go.

Again, legit business, with physical addresses,bank accounts, etc.

[PayPal_Jae]

I understand where you're coming from. However, the best instruction I can give is for you to create a PayPal account with the country you currently reside in. There is a high possibility that your PayPal account would be limited if you created an account with a country that you are not currently located in. Regardless if it's a business account or personal account, we are required to verify the identity of the account holder. Therefore, if you cannot provide documents stating that you live in Bulgaria, the account would be discontinued. 

- Jae

[George13131]

All right i get it,but that is the complete opposite from what i have been told by speaking over the phone with support in the meanwhile.

So if you are a representative of paypal and the people at support are representatives as well, you have an obligation to be on the same page

because businesses that are being invoiced through paypal need to know exactly these details so that they can make business decisions.

Paypal is not a small shop last time i checked, it is a legal entity with bank status as well as bank obligations in Europe (at least) .

Making a business abroad (especially in europe) and opening a paypal abroad to support that business via local banks is not something new and is surely something that every financial institution supports.

What i was told in 2 occasions over the phone is that a business account in another country does not REQUIRE paperwork that proves that the owner of the company RESIDES there,meaning he rents or owns an apartment,but that the BUSINESS address stated on said business paypal account is real and local,that the bank account linked is real and proper, and that the id of the owner of the company is real.And apparently that paypal account there is being run locally which apparently it should (forget the remote handling part thats out of the equation for now) .

Now if you mean that the address of the owner of the business and the address of the business itself must be in the same country that would mean that half the greek businesses that have relocated to Bulgaria,Malta or Cyprus, AND use paypal to invoice shouldnt have existed in the first place.So is paypal going to verify my home address AND business address and conclude that said paypal account should not have existed in the first place because my business is in Bulgaria and mo house in Greece?If the answer is yes (which i find hard to believe) then i will need a formal writing of this statement because it is against every european rule and regulation ler alone completely incomprehensible.

Im not asking for tax advise here, i know that making business abroad requires double taxation through the implementation of intercountry tax treaties and bank information sharing etc etc (unless you have permanently relocated or changed nationality) but paypal doesnt really fit into this  scheme by design.

I think i will run this again with a support and request a formal and conclusive answer via email because i find it unacceptable (despite the good intentions here) to be misinformed.

[NikolaH]

Hey, my guy!

I have an extremely similar issue! I reside in Bulgaria and plan on opening a company in the US and use a US business PayPal for it. But the support keeps telling me the same **bleep** which I simply can't find acceptable for a huge international company such as PayPal.

The company will be 100% legit with a legitimate business address, bank account, EIN, etc. I simply won't physically be in the US. I do not understand, why that would not be possible?!

Did you get any further information from the Support staff? Have you set anything in motion already, regarding your business and PayPal?

[George13131]

NikolaH though my matter was resolved through other means (meaning i dont have to start a business abroad)

i will tell you the few things i have gathered by researching.

While SEPA and all that jazz makes sense,paypal as a financial insttution adheres to local bank laws and the parafernalia these laws bring,ie strict regulations regarding money laundering etc.

In the States especially paypal is treated as a bank-bank where the IRS has access to it.In certain parts of Europe it's kind of a bank,where the tax authorities dont really have access or the means to monitor paypal the way they monitor local banks so they can automatically send dats to the local tax authorities.

Having said that the oly thing one can do is having the logistics of the e-business in the foreign country of choise handle and operate paypal like they would a local bank account.In some cases it is doable,depending on your business and the degree the foreign logistics office/handlers accept such tasks, in others it isnt.Remote handling is not an option apparently.Nor paypal to foreign banks transfer.

So once this first step is handled then transfers from foreign banks are possible in the same ways one would transfer funds to banks abroad.It is a taxation thing first and foremost.So it has caveats but it is possible.

Also you can still send funds from ane paypal account to another which is doable but still a grey zone.

All these depend on your type of business.Mine was intellectual property rights (royalties) so there was no need after all to start a business abroad or locally.But had i been a seller of goods myself then things would be complicated.

[NikolaH]

Thanks a lot for the quick response and the valuable info! This isn't going to be easy unfortunately. I'll see what I can do for myself 🙂

[Mish143]

I live in the US and and may be able to help you out / work for you etc.   Is there a way I  can contact you privately if there is information you would like that I don’t want to post publicly ?

Mish

[NikolaH]

Hey there!

I see that you're willing to help me out and I appreciate it a lot, but I would prefer to go through someone that I personally know for tasks of this sort 🙂

I just can't bring myself to trust a random person on the internet for something like this and you having created your account today isn't really helping the case.
Nonetheless, thank you for expressing your willingness to help me, especially if it was genuine 🙂