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Paypal limited for SSN or EIN. What worked last year isn't working this year.
 

So, in a nutshell, my Paypal is limited from receiving payment or me closing the account. Last year, I was able to call in around the same time (August) and talk to reps and give the song and dance that "I'm getting an EIN, it's just I did it through the mail and it would take 10 weeks to receive", etc, etc. They would "unlimit" the account so I could receive payments and make withdrawals, just not be able to close the account. (Who cares?) Anyways, I did this till November/December, then just let my accounts sit till they "reset" in January/February.

Well, I just got off the phone and tried the above with a rep, she denied me, then I asked for a supervisor and was denied by her too. They insisted that it is out of their hands and even if they override it, the first payment I receive, the limitation will kick in again.

So, the question is...was I incredibly lucky getting away with that last year on 6 different accounts? Have they closed that loophole? Have they completely revised the system? Did I just get two nitwits on the line that don't know the policy?! Or....?

It's only happened on one of my accounts so far, but I am worried now for September-December! This account only has 152 transactions and $4800 in sales!! ***Forgot to include the roughly 9k I received in Paypal "off" ebay so, actual total received in Paypal was around $13,800. But the point of posting is the inability to "sweet talk" your way into leaving the account open to accept payments while you're "waiting for your ein".

Any input is appreciated and if the thread needs to be moved, move away. Thanks!

The law kicked in for 2013 , the started doing soft inforcement or warnings last year , but this year it's in full affect

Just out of curiosity were all your sales this year spread out over the last 7 months or did u do the majority of those sales in one month

Spread out. First item sold was in February. Insane. I think what probably kicked in the limitation was receiving payments outside of Ebay. I'm going back through my records to see what the total amount received for 2013 is. Either way, it's a bummer, because this was one account I could CRUSH in December. Oh well, onto the other accounts till 2014.

ALWAYS have backups!

:cheer:

Those are the lowest numbers I have heard this happening this early in the year. Would have figured you where in the $12-14K range to have that happen now. I had mine limited to the point I couldn't close or receive payments mid December 2012. It was was between 18-19k.

i went back and in addition to the $4800 in Ebay sales, I also had roughly $9,000 in "off" Ebay sales, but even still $13,800? Seems a bit soon, but that wasn't my point. The point was, last year, you could sweet talk and bs your way into letting your account slide along without ssn or ein. Now, nope. Bummer.

If anyone knows a way around and would like to pass it along to me in private, I'd LOVE to hear.

DMshark, I thought 2011 was the "soft" start and 2012 was the year in full effect?

Yea from what I understand it is in full effect now. I have a friend who got limited earlier in the year for selling too much. He called them up and they said the same thing. They also told him he would not get the account back next January like most of us did early this year that got the cant close can't receive funds limitation in 2012. It will be interesting to see what happens.

That I highly doubt. If you don't go over either of the limits one year, they can't penalize you for something you DIDN'T do the next year. But as it usually goes, I guess we'll find out...

Is there a reason you cannot obtain an EIN? Many times, that is enough to satisfy them and they don't require an SSN. Of course, they CAN require an SSN at any time, but that usually does not happen.

I know that Amazon requires this after 50 sales on an account. PayPal has stated they are using an algorithm to predict yearly sales on an account and when it flags your account, the information is required.

EIN's are easy to obtain, however there IS some paperwork that would need to be filed and you might have to set up a business. But you can do it yourself if you don't mind investing some time into reading the requirements on the IRS' website. If that seems like a daunting task, you can turn to a tax professional for help. They usually don't charge too much for this and it will ensure that your setup is done correctly to avoid any potential problems in the future.

Yea, I hope so. When I got dinged in 2012 they didn't release my PayPal from being limited until they mailed out the 1099ks at the end of January. So I will be interested to see what happens..

Oh ok so OP your at 13,800 and maybe over 200 transactions total, I know it's the gross that comes thru Paypal not just the ebay sales.

I'm at about 120/$5800 so far, I do have a tax ID ready , but now that my other accounts holds are lifted and limit raised I'm starting to back off this account

Was using it more to keep cash flow steady , hopefully I won't get asked but I'm prepared , all my other accounts I have spread sales out pretty thin

You should be cool for a while Dmshark25

Look at the Math, its the 8th month of the year and he was at $13,8000

13800/8 = $1725 AVG per month

$1725 x 12 months = $20,700 projection for the year (would be even more considering it is just the start of August)

You should be cool if your sales are spread out and you average about about $1250 a month

Yea now my other accounts are flowing I'm backing off this one but prepared just in case , the account is over 7 months old, but I'd rather wait to add tax ID until I have to, I like just giving necessary info and no more to ebay/ paypal

Yeah, I totally forgot about the non-Ebay sales. MOST were sent as "gifts" thus don't count against the 20k, but I have one customer that spends $1000+ each time and uses a credit card, so it can't be done as a gift, so...BUMMER.

Obviously this account is done for 2013 and look forward to see what happens in 2014. The big question now is, ironically enough, about 2 hours after I got off the phone, I got an e-mail from Ebay reminding me to pay my seller fees to "keep selling on the worlds largest marketplace". Hmmmm, yeah, you just saved me $300, in 2014 when/if the account "resets", no problemo, if it's NOT reinstated, well....I guess I'll be getting a couple of NICE kegs for the Super Bowl party this year, courtesy of Ebay! ;)

Thanks for the advice/suggestion Jeff, I sent you a PM. I always forget how helpful everyone here is. I'm so used to message boards filled with trolls bashing people or posting irrelevant rambling posts (Sometimes I boarder on that, but it's because of the Adderall :P)

Well I just got the same limitation. Can't close or receive funds. At about $9,200 for the year.

This is the first time I have even seen this limitation for below $10k

Could have limited you based on PROJECTED SALES RATE - pp does that :( it sucks

It could be because I sold pretty heavy the first 4 months then tried to back it off. But it is still definitely different than the past few years.

Because I had that annoying reminder for the Tax ID on nearly all my PayPals last year for like half the year or more and only the one I got the can't close and receive funds limitations.

has anyone tried adding a new verified paypal account to your ebay? and just stop accepting from the old one

Adding a new Paypal to an old Ebay account is not recommended.

Just curious as to what would happen? I mean, this account is pretty much worthless to me till 2014, so if I added a new paypal to the account.....?

It would be linked , because ebay and Paypal need to be same info , u may get couple days and than u will get limited

I got the tax-ID messages for seemingly months and was limited in early May. Went back to the sales reports and found only about $3,500 for 2013 up to that time INCLUDING S&H, so the notices were probably based on 2012.

For 2012 I had just over $9K in sales and $14.4K total gross including shipping and before PayPal fees. Average sale $10-11, so the number of sales was somewhere around 900.

I focused on other sites & then took a long vacation, so only now am I getting back to this. My problem is that the PPal and ebay accts are stealths. I had gotten the EIN for Amazon, which is not a stealth (probably a mistake). Also no business name but as sole proprietor, so in looking at what the IRS sent me back I just see my real name.

(Question: Have screenshots of the tax-interview screens from PayPal been posted anywhere here? That would seem to be very helpful)

If PayPal gets the real name they *might* link it (though I've never been suspended from PayPal). It's not the same name they've had for all this time, so I dunno if that's cause an SSN demand. Address would definitely be linkable.

I've had to rebuild from the ground up and it's no fun with a 500-item inventory and low-value items, and I know I might have to spread it. I also use Turbo Lister.

Might have to spin the wheel and take my chances, as the worst case of losing the accounts and starting from scratch (last done in 2006) isn't much worse than having the 2 accounts dead in the water, as now. About all I can do is pay non-ebay vendors via PayPal.

i'm actually trying this right now..my current paypal isn't limited..they just asked for a ssn and i made a new paypal under a business account and verified it..it's been almost a week..i won't sell on there until next week as i already hit my limit...we don't know unless we try..i have nothing to lose..that's what a crap load of back up accounts are for :)

Hard to say. Similar situation. I got the Tax ID Email request and the reminder every time I logged into PayPal for at least 3 months then just got the can't receive funds limitation. It is hard to say and I am speculating but I think once you get the initial Tax ID Request where you have the reminder page every time you log on. You have about 3 months before it you get hit with the can't receive funds limitation.

It even says when I log into my can't receive funds PayPal account that they tried to contact me several times. Can still withdrawal funds, send money, etc. Just can't receive money or close the account. Hoping that it gets reset in 2014 like the one I had with this limitation in 2012.

This goes against principle of stealth and causes link with old banned PP - lot of posts about this

well the first paypal account isn't banned..do you know how to read? obviously this won't work if it's limited..but it's not..and you know there are other methods that work that aren't listed in the stealth book..i've been doing my own things for years and many here disagree with it and it works fine for me

I think they must be getting a bit stricter on this now.

For this year on 1 account I have 190 sales @ $3350 total gross sales for the year.

Got the account can not be closed limit today. Still can receive fund tho.

My guess is the amount of sales had to trigger this...and not the dollar amount.

Just a heads up for anyone doing low dollar sales and trying to do volume.

I think you could be right. When I just got the can't receive funds limitation I was at 197 sales.

Re: Paypal limited for SSN or EIN. What worked last year isn't working this year.
 

Having gotten more requests on different stealth accounts. I am certain now that the even if you are well under the 20K threshold if you get close to the 200 transaction limit you get the dreaded can't receive funds or close your account restrictions.

Which is different than previous years. Had multiple accounts with well over the 200 transaction limits and well below the 20k thresholds with no complications.

Looks now like once you get to close to either they shut you down to protect themselves. Time to start prepping extra accounts so they are ready for the new year.

Re: Paypal limited for SSN or EIN. What worked last year isn't working this year.
 

@vogeltron

Interesting variation (again).

Agree with multiple accounts to spread sales.

Should be standard practice by now.

Re: Paypal limited for SSN or EIN. What worked last year isn't working this year.
 

Sooner or later, the account goes down and funds are held :(

Re: Paypal limited for SSN or EIN. What worked last year isn't working this year.
 

Hope the poster notices after making that post 5 weeks ago.

:juggle:

Re: Paypal limited for SSN or EIN. What worked last year isn't working this year.
 

My main account I am at 36k and 145transactions and have not been requested to provide info yet. I did about the same last year so maybe it is taking that info into count.

I did get a request last year around this time and it reset at the begining of 2013. I was going to push this account to 170 transaction but after reading this thread I might back off. No one knows if it will reset again in 2014 :(

Re: Paypal limited for SSN or EIN. What worked last year isn't working this year.
 

Wow you have been lucky.

36k is way over the number but your sold items is only 145 and that might have saved you.

I would put this account away until Jan 1 if it were mine.

Re: Paypal limited for SSN or EIN. What worked last year isn't working this year.
 

hi guys

So my paypal has just gotten limited. After a week for IRS info requests and around 3 emails from paypal, I hit my 200 Item sold today and got limited. I thought paypal would wait until i get near the $20k mark
(Around $2000 in sales in under 2 months) my paypal has just gotten limited. Yes.. I made the mistake of not spreading sales as Im using only 1 stealth account.

By the way, this stealth account has 300/$15000 limits with over 90 feedback and perfect DSR so i don't want to give up on it!!

I dont know what to do to save this account, should I get a EIN with my real info for a corporation?

Re: Paypal limited for SSN or EIN. What worked last year isn't working this year.
 

This is exactly what I have been thinking. Noticed myself the closer to 200 payments received the more frequent I would get those reminders even way way way under the 20k threshold. Last year I had PayPal accounts with 300-400 payments received but was way under the 20k and had no problems. So it has definitely changed. Time to start making more stealth accounts.

As far as the EIN and all that goes. It is an option. Depends on how serious you are about selling. Even if you have "legit" account with Tax ID etc. Almost all the senior members on here would still advise you to have extra stealth accounts as backups.

Re: Paypal limited for SSN or EIN. What worked last year isn't working this year.
 

Arrange an EIN as soon as you can.

Avoid underestimating paypal for the future.

Work on the basis they will ask for info for IRS purpose at any time.

There is no definitive amount.

Much is done of projected sales.

Good Luck

Re: Paypal limited for SSN or EIN. What worked last year isn't working this year.
 

I can't believe u didnt receive a motice yet I received 3 in total and average of all 3.


125/ $4500, so that is crazy that u haven't received one yet, but I really don't see a problem with this requests, if ur accounts make it to this point than u probably have a solid account and are given the option get an EIN which is free and can be done online one per day and u get the. Number instant and I used it right away on all 3 , and months later no pronlrms.


I have a lawyer and accountant for various other businesses I was and am involved in and let them handle everything, just try to put all expenses for each account on a separate credit card if possible ,

Re: Paypal limited for SSN or EIN. What worked last year isn't working this year.
 

Most important step is to take action as soon as possible to get the account restored.