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Upgrading to business account?
 

I want to upgrade to a business account but im afraid it raises a red flag or something i already have a personal account but i want to upgrade it to a business account does it raise a redflag does it shorten your accounts life span? (im only running one) or is it safe to bump it up to a business account?:pop2::juggle::bounce:

I always raise mine to business accounts. Especially with pp. If anything you would be less looked at since regular accounts are not for tons of sales.

Alright so it's a good idea to do it?

Yep, Go for it. I think GrannyT does that as well. I read on her post that she does all business accounts. I do to. The only way in my opinion.

What's the advantage of a business account?

1st off you need one if you sell more than just on occasion. another thing is that you would obviously get looked at differently if you were selling bulk and using a personal account. That isnt what the personal accounts are for.

Well, I sold 2k last month usin a personal ppal account and am hoping to sell that much again this month. Is this considered occasional?

2k is a high amount - first time? one sale?

what info is needed for business acct.?

If you are going to start a business account, be prepared for all that comes with it. You will need an EIN number and have to report to IRS. If you are a business one year, and not the next, IRS WILL want to know what happened to your business. I agree that it is less looked at, has higher limits, and you can use a business name vs. a real one. IRS and your bank will know you, but Ebay & PP will only know what you give them. The bank can know you as your business name. Good luck!

Is this your first stealth account? If it is, you have a lot of wiggle room. You can vary your name, address etc. You should definitely upgrade. Have ID documents ready in case they do ask. If they ask don't delay in sending them. Be prepared before you do anything. Take your time.

Not quite.
More like 100 auctions.

Why should I "definitely" upgrade?

Because someone just selling things to clean out a house dont make 2k per month. Those numbers are business numbers. I hope you are reporting it as well. If not they will find out eventually. I have seen this go very bad for 3 sellers I have known in the past.

I change all my pps to business.

Selling 2k is not a normal run of the mill part time ebayer and both eb and pp know that.

If you list consistently and do this kind of business then it needs to be put into business mode.

Besides if you do this and increase your sales the you will have a lot more options down the road such as business related write offs etc.

Correct.. Some of you guys have no idea what can be deducted. A good 20-30k in sales can easily be zero'd out with deductions. Then you would have little or no due taxes on it. I come close to zeroing out about every year now. Not hard to do.

:clap:

Those overnight stays in a nice hotel to find products to resell add up fast dont they KingRay?

Yeah, it might be time to take that *cough* business trip overseas for sourcing suppliers!

I don't get it. I've sold on ebay for over a decade. Back when I was 100% legit, I had a couple of years where I was doing $5K/month. Not once...NOT ONCE, have I ever claimed any of that income, and I've never been contacted in any way by the uncle sam.

Now, I believe Kingray when he says he knows of others that have run into issues...but all I'm saying, is I'm no newbie at eb ay, and I've never had an issue when I was legit. Now that I'm stea lth, this income seems to be even more hidden.

Also, right now my ste alth accnt is limited at 100 items.... So, it'll prob. be difficult to increase my income too much more.

What about the 200/$20,000? They didn't have that in the past. How are you going to get around that? Do you suggest multiple accounts to bypass the EIN/SSN requirement?

There is 2 ways to get "around" it. One is to split up your sales on multiple stealth accounts.

The other is to apply for the EIN with the IRS. You need to start paying taxes anyway. There is much more to this so if you plan on just using it to pacify paypal then you might be in for more of a mess that you know.

Either way you need to file taxes on all your sales.

To the poster that made 5k per month and didnt pay a dime. Good luck in the future and hope you have some records becuase if they ever do they can go back 7yrs.

Plus the IRS has many more options when it comes to finding hidden income. using someone elses name and info is just ID fraud. many of you feel that since you arent using someone elses SSN you are fine. WRONG..

One of you said that they probably cant find you. I know of someone personally that had all stealth and the IRS found it all. He now is broke and has 100k in back taxes and penalties to deal with. They went back 5 yrs and ebay gave them all records because all the IRS has to do is get a court order.

If you didn't pay taxes on 100k then I would be worried too. However not paying taxes on 5k or so for the year wont get you much in a bind. Yes morally you should pay taxes on that 5k, but then where are those taxes going? A whole other discussion....lol

The poster said 5k per month. The person that I am talking about just didnt file for 2 years at 20k per year. It was over 5 year late and the IRS counted all sales as profit since he had no records. That plus penalties went to over 100k.

He messed up bad.

You are right its just morally wrong to do so at smaller amounts. The only way to get really caught into a lot of trouble is if you get caught up in some kind of lawsuit with a VERO rep and court orders get tossed around. then you are hosed because ebay gives them what they ask for. They have to.

If I supply my legit business EIN to pp, and the addresses don't match, nor the name, because one is legit and one stealth, will this raise a red flag to pp/ba?

Your business name has to match the name you gave the IRS as a business name. the start date of the business you gave the IRS also has to be the same one you put in paypal when upgrading to a business account.

The personal name means nothing. To paypal when using the EIN your name is the business name now. same with the IRS. You are no longer joe blow. you are now JB industries or something like that.

Is there a way for IRS to find you and see your Ebay profits if you are operating under a variation of your name using a real bank account? It would be tax evasion if you are caught, right?

If you are sole prop you only get one ein
 

But if you have more than 1 business with that ein and multiple addresses, then how would that be handled?

I have multiple EIN's and separate each one as a different business. I have 7 of them. 3 for ebay/paypal accounts and the others for local partnerships with family,etc (Brick and mortar businesses).

The address on the EIN means nothing. Just where to send the EIN paperwork which you get in about a week or so. Businesses change locations all the time. That would be impossible to match up for everything when it comes to business stuff. The SSN is what is most important for the IRS.

If you get suspected for tax evasion they just get court orders on all your bank accounts and anything else associated with your SSN or name. Then by seeing what was deposited here and there and uploaded to this and that account they will see ebay on there. This is why people on here try to warn people all the time about keeping good records of product, sales, profit, assets, deductions, interest earned, sales tax paid, etc.

I hear you! It is some serious trouble...there are a lot of people operating this way, without IRS knowing. I'm going to pay my taxes!:bounce:

Apparently now the IRS will only allow you to get one if you are a sole proprietor because you can only use one to file your taxes, no matter how many separate businesses you have. :(

does having a buniness paypal account mean that i can have more money coming in without limitation ?

Not sure where you heard that. I have gotten another one recently. I have ALL mine with my ssn and file separately on all of them. 3 of them are sole Proprietorships.

I would assume the answer is yes, but it depends on the nature of your business. If you are 100% legit, the answer is almost certainly yes. If not, you are probably more likely to get noticed.

Personally, I've been selling ~50K+/mo on eBay / Paypal. The account I'm selling on is a brand new business account, only started 6 months ago, and pretty quickly after starting, the Paypal account got Limited. They asked for receipts, I provided them, and they removed the limits a day later. Since then, the Paypal rep who originally called and limited my account has been assigned to my account, and we've spoken around once per month. They have generally been really cool with us, and no real problems to speak of.

Wow, ebay let you sell 50k in your very 1st month. Good for you. :croc::suspicious:

This is not true.... Once again goes to show that any advice gives you an avenue of research, however I wouldn't take it all at face value.

eBay actually had limits for the first 2 months, but raised it after 30 days and removed it after 60 days.

New EIN for pp
 

Thanks! So I can get another EIN # use the actual address where it is & then use my stealth address on the mailing address? Do you think PP can see the actual SS# of the responsible party or just the business name & address?

I would like to stick with PP since it seems to be the most cost effective, especially if I go with a business account, and if I get limited then go with one of the other companies.

Thanks again for all the advice!!!! :hail:

IRS will assign you one number. If you do get more, you will pay taxes on the amount from all the EINs. PP CAN'T get your ss# or name from IRS. Would be a felony. :pop2: