Should I give paypal my SSN??

AJS914 · #1 08-26-2016

Paypal is now asking for my SSN or my account may become "Limited". I've done some reading here and elsewhere.

I have 161 payment2 received transactions though 10-20 are friends and family. I read that those done count. I'm well under $20,000. I'd guess $10-12K.

I'm not running a business. Probably 98% of my sales are basically a personal garage sale. The other 2% are where I flipped something for a profit I found at a thrift store.

I just don't want the nightmare of 1099k so that I have to go back and recreate documentation for a years worth of ebay to show that the vast majority were personal items sold at a loss from the original price.

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Also, if I know I'm not going to hit $20K or even come close, should I just give them my SSN and not worry about it assuming they are not going to send a 1099K?

When I was reading about this, there seemed to be some confusion on whether it's "200 transactions AND $20K" or "200 transactions OR $20K".

TIA

elmo · #2 08-27-2016

Personally I only provide EIN #'s, never gave PayPal a SSN.

You either can provide what they need, an alternative, or move onto additional stealth accounts

AJS914 · #3 08-27-2016

I'm still curious whether Paypal will press me on the issue and limit my account if I stay under the 200/$20K. Or, will this reset in January and they will stop bothering me?

slokor · #4 08-27-2016

Stop using the account until next year and start operating stealth accounts for the time being. Go with multiple accounts to hedge the risks involved and make sure youre always running even if one goes down.
In the new year the account should be good to go again
One more thing - paypal dont just send you that notice when you hit 20k annually. They send it if they project youll hit that amount. If you experienced a spike for the last couple of month in the amount the account has ben receiving it would be enough to trigger their system to the fact that a projected 20k would be reached. if you have multiple account you can spread your sales across those and avoid this issue as well.