Paypal Tax ID Info Requirements

gemint · December 6, 2011 10:51PM

Has anyone else who has not exceeded both the 200 transaction and $20k threshold in a calander year received the email from Paypal asking for tax information? I just did. I'm nowhere close to $20k in sales this year. I haven't tallied it up to the cent yet but I'm sitting somewhere around $12k for the year, far from the $20k threshold. If someone else has been in this situation, what did you do? Ignore the email? Contact Paypal to ask them to remove the requirement from your account?

wallst32 · December 6, 2011 11:35PM

What is the subject of the email message? Also are you sure it's legitimate and not a spam attempt? I don't recall receiving it, but I want to double check. I have not exceeded the 200 transaction and $20k thresholds either.

jlzinck · December 6, 2011 11:50PM

I ignored it and August. You will see the same messgae when you log onto Paypal.

bziddy · December 7, 2011 1:12AM

I'm at about 500/$10k and just got the email. I've ignored it so far.

Goldlabels · December 7, 2011 1:14AM

I just gave them the info so they would stop emailing me and calling me. According to their policy, they will only be reporting those individuals that went over both thresholds of 20K and 200 transactions. So if you're under those thresholds then you should have nothing to worry about. Don't see the big deal with providing them the information. If you're that worried about it probably shouldn't be selling online using paypal.

bking · December 7, 2011 1:18AM

<< I just gave them the info so they would stop emailing me and calling me. According to their policy, they will only be reporting those individuals that went over both thresholds of 20K and 200 transactions. So if you're under those thresholds then you should have nothing to worry about. Don't see the big deal with providing them the information. If you're that worried about it probably shouldn't be selling online using paypal. >>

Given Ebay/Paypal's tendency to unilaterally jack sellers around, I wouldn't give them one single piece of info before it is required by law.

Sportsamerica · December 7, 2011 1:25AM

<< 

<< I just gave them the info so they would stop emailing me and calling me. According to their policy, they will only be reporting those individuals that went over both thresholds of 20K and 200 transactions. So if you're under those thresholds then you should have nothing to worry about. Don't see the big deal with providing them the information. If you're that worried about it probably shouldn't be selling online using paypal. >>

Given Ebay/Paypal's tendency to unilaterally jack sellers around, I wouldn't give them one single piece of info before it is required by law. >>

I agree with you.

fiveniner · December 7, 2011 2:07AM

I personally never recieved an Email from them indicating anything to do with transactions and dollars.My notice had to do with user agreements that PayPal may impose at any time.I was not asked to give any info.I was just asked to accept the agreement before 1/1/12 if I were to continue with ebay.
PayPal says it will not report to the IRS unless you meet both threshold limits.I am well under in transaction and under the $ amount.I talked to a rep from Paypal and he confirmed this with me. You must have BOTH 200 transactions and $20,000 in gross sales.Hope they keep it that way.You never know.

shagrotn77 · December 7, 2011 2:10AM

I got the email, am well under both thresholds, and gave the information requested. Saw no problem with doing so.

thedutymon · December 7, 2011 4:11AM

Afternoon,

I am Way Way over (1000+ transactions and $35K) and have never recieved this E-Mail that I can remember, so I am assuming they have the info already.

Neil

grote15 · December 7, 2011 4:35AM

I don't believe they will take any action against your account unless you exceed both thresholds and refuse to comply.

ShootyBabitt · December 7, 2011 4:57AM

I got the message and ignored it for several months until eBay called and threatened to suspend my seller's account. I'm still under the $20k threshold, but I'm close to it.

gemint · December 7, 2011 5:28AM

Thanks for your replies everyone. Looks like I can ignore it until they threaten me. I don't plan on getting close to the $20k mark within the next three weeks. Filling out tax forms for eBay sales is one hassle I could do without. For the money the state would get from me, it would cost them more to process the claim than any tax revenues they'd receive.

Southsider · December 7, 2011 7:00AM

Does anyone know an easy way to check this? I don't know how many items I've sold this year or what my total sales are for the year. But, if I'm close, I may put off selling some things until next month.

elsnorto · December 7, 2011 11:14AM

Log into Paypal. Go to My Account > History > Reports.

I ran the Monthly Sales Report for every month since they don't have a YTD option.

If you do this, make sure you are looking at the Amount Received column and not the Net Amount one.

Alternately from the My Account > History > Reports screen you can select Download history to get a YTD dump in CSV format... if you are comfortable importing that into a spreadsheet and slicing it up with some pivot tables, that should give you what you need too.

Snorto~

jeff8877 · December 9, 2011 11:28PM

Hi guys,

Another question on this subject...can you have two ebay/paypal ID's and would the requirement be the same on both or would they combine them for the threshold?

Thanks

Jeff

kingbeeswax · December 10, 2011 12:08AM

Paypal gift payments come up in the Monthly Sales Report. I hope these are not counted for taxes!

fiveniner · December 10, 2011 12:49AM

I am not 100% sure however I believe they are.The only thing you eliminate is an ebay and paypal fee.

grote15 · December 10, 2011 1:18AM

According to the official paypal Q&A, gift and personal payments, as well as refunds are subtracted from the amount to be reported. Only those payments for "goods and services" will count towards the 20K/200 thresholds.

kingbeeswax · December 10, 2011 1:25AM

Thanks Grote!

thedutymon · December 21, 2011 4:25AM

<< Hi guys,

Another question on this subject...can you have two ebay/paypal ID's and would the requirement be the same on both or would they combine them for the threshold?

Thanks

Jeff >>

Afternoon,

That's a really good question and hope somebody has some sort of idea. I am thinking of spinning my Smut selling and my Rare Paperback Book stuff out of my Card store stuff and opening different Stores for those?

Anybody know the answer?

Neil

grote15 · December 21, 2011 5:16AM

You can be sure that if paypal has to file a 1099k and you haven't provided a SSN your account will be suspended. They fought the requirement to even report income to the IRS so I don't think you will be receiving a 1099k unless you exceed BOTH thresholds.

grote15 · December 21, 2011 5:23AM

Neil, it goes by SSN. so if both accounts have the same SSN they will combine both accounts for reporting purposes.

thedutymon · December 21, 2011 6:11AM

<< Neil, it goes by SSN. so if both accounts have the same SSN they will combine both accounts for reporting purposes. >>

Duhhhhhhhh

Slaps self in forehead!!

YeeHah

Neil

JMDVM · December 21, 2011 9:26AM

<< 

<< I personally never recieved an Email from them indicating anything to do with transactions and dollars.My notice had to do with user agreements that PayPal may impose at any time.I was not asked to give any info.I was just asked to accept the agreement before 1/1/12 if I were to continue with ebay.
PayPal says it will not report to the IRS unless you meet both threshold limits.I am well under in transaction and under the $ amount.I talked to a rep from Paypal and he confirmed this with me. You must have BOTH 200 transactions and $20,000 in gross sales.Hope they keep it that way.You never know. >>

I would not trust Paypal. There is no law preventing them from issuing you a 1099 even if you are below the threshholds. If they issue you a 1099, they move the tax issue off their plate and onto yours. They no longer have to deal with collecting it for the state. >>

Agree 100%. Plus, should we trust the pinheads that run Ebay and Paypal with our SSN??? I sure don't.

TheCARDKid · December 21, 2011 3:55PM

It sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it seems like ebay/paypal, the TSA, and all this big brother is about the same.

At the airport, "show me zee papers", to the TSA guys standing around.

Online now, basically the same thing..."show me zee SSN number", they basically force it out of you.

Are the cops going to ask for your SSN if you're holding a garage sale? The irony is, how many of these billion dollar corporations pay no income tax?

08HALA20 · December 21, 2011 7:03PM

I received 2 messages from eBay on my home phone asking to give Paypal my ID number or my listings could be stopped.

I havn't listed an item in about 3 weeks.

211 transactions and almost 18K

Joe

alnavman · December 21, 2011 11:24PM

haven't received any requests for info but my $$ threshold is way low, probably not even 3K for sales....also haven't sold anything for over a month so who knows what is going to happen next time I try to list an item.....al.

sam1952 · December 22, 2011 3:52AM

I think paypal kind of sucks if you ask me. Google checkout is good but ebay wont accept it on there site right now. also i think the best site for large transactions lets say over 2k is escrow.com and with these sites you dont have to have a tax form. I think google is trying to get there service to be accpeted on ebay if that happens paypal is finshed in my opinon

elsnorto · January 8, 2012 2:47AM

I quit selling in 2011 before the holidays and was close enough to the limits that eBay suspended my listing.

With the holidays behind us, I tried to relist some items, but eBay still wouldn't let me until I provided my Tax ID.

I didn't try calling them to see if they would let me sell without providing it since both counters go back to zero with the new year... I just gave them the number.

Curious as if you are able to get them to let you continue selling without providing this? Maybe it is a non-issue for you because they didn't shut you down as you got close to the limits in 2011?

Snorto~

grote15 · January 9, 2012 3:07AM

They do it randomly--it may happen to you at any time whether you cross thresholds or not.

bking · January 9, 2012 3:31AM

<< I think paypal kind of sucks if you ask me. Google checkout is good but ebay wont accept it on there site right now. also i think the best site for large transactions lets say over 2k is escrow.com and with these sites you dont have to have a tax form. I think google is trying to get there service to be accpeted on ebay if that happens paypal is finshed in my opinon >>

You may have just posted the best news ever. I'd love to see Google drag Ebay into court for not allowing them as a valid payment provider.

Paypal Tax ID Info Requirements

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