Paypal limited, best path to follow?

xb5869 · #1 09-28-2014

I started a stealth ebay and paypal 4 months ago, following all the proper procedures (as far as I know anyway). Built things up slowly until this months where things started to take off. I made the mistake of thinking that b/c it is so close to the end of the year that I would be able to sell a fair amount per month and it still would appear that im not on track to cross the 200/20,000 mark. Its almost Oct and ive only sold about 3,500 so I thought I was ok, but still got limited this month.

I'm guessing I crossed the line with $ for the month and it was triggered, I didn't realize this would happen on a monthly basis, only yearly. I was using this account in order to build up funds to purchase several more stealth accounts and hopefully not run into this anymore, however im debating the best actions to take now.

Do you think it would be best to get an EIN for this account to allow for me to sell for this holiday season while letting other stealth accounts age and then hopefully be able to have enough to spread things out to avoid for the future? I'm assuming that if I get an EIN for this account, purchase a few more, continue to sell on it but keep it under 20,000 I will be ok come tax time and this will give new accounts time to age and build up. What is the max that should be sold per account to avoid limitations?

plumsake2 · #2 09-29-2014

If this is your only account, then yes getting an EIN is a good idea since I'm sure you don't want to miss out on the holiday season. Although getting an EIN online is pretty simple, you need to make sure to talk with an accountant to figure out how this will change your tax situation in regards to properly paying your taxes.

Getting an EIN would allow you to break the 200/20k mark so you wouldn't have to worry about staying under $20,000 unless you actually wanted to.

GreenBean · #3 09-29-2014

paypal asks for tax info on projected sales. So that may be why you got the notice.

123 · #4 09-30-2014

EIN is a good option but remember it doesnt make your account bullet proof, can still get limited. So I recommend having backups ready.

xb5869 · #5 09-30-2014

ok, so EIN with exact matching business name as paypal business account will get me back to selling with primary account in order to allow me to make some money while the new accounts age 2-3 months?.?.? Long term goal, 10 or so stealth accounts at no more than $1,000 a month each... Does that sound like the best idea at this point?

plumsake2 · #6 10-01-2014

Only you can determine what makes the best sense for your business, but yes all sounds fine. Those extra 10 accounts will help spread risk (should any one get suspended or limited), and will help spread out your sales well.

Just be sure to have a plan in place on how to run that many accounts. You'll need 10 times the IPs (dongle/hotspot/tethering would be an efficient way), 10 times the bank accounts (probably shouldn't open them all at once at the same bank, so do research for multiple different banks and pay attention to their terms and fees), etc.

xb5869 · #7 10-01-2014

Awesome, thank you. It was more of a "what would you do in my shoes question" as many of you are far more advanced at this stuff and know the most efficient ways of getting things done.