Forum

How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

Ok so I think we need a updated thread pertaining to this topic.

The old stealth strategy was one opens a regular personal paypal account, wait until you get the request for tax id, then upgrade to business while supplying the EIN # as either a LLC or S Corp.

I don't know when this came into full effect but when trying to upgrade to a business paypal no longer allows one to do so because they "limit the account from being able to close"

Its a catch 22 because if you add the EIN the limit goes away but you can't add the EIN while upgrading to business because your limited.

I've PM'd a couple members and have heard some contradictory answers so here's what I know....

The only way I know but I haven't tested myself is when adding the EIN you can also add the 4 last EIN for the S.S. I'm strictly talking when paypal asking for your tax id not that your account is FULLY limited for instance I'm only at about 160ish sales and 7K gross but they are requesting my tax id off the 7K :doh:

Not even half way there and have been using this since the start of the year.

Whatever but I think we either need to figure out some strategy or come to a consensus on how one becomes an actual business account with EIN. As far as I'm concerned once this is set up and in place, its just as good as a REAL account meaning although they still can ask for S.S anytime the chances go down and your account no becomes ALOT stronger with the EIN attached.

Shootout to Jeff, I'm waiting ..... :help:

haha

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

I've ran into this problem as well on a few accounts..

You are going to have to call them to have the EIN manually added, after that you can fill out the business info from your end on the computer.

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

Soo....are you a business account w/ EIN and all is working smoothly?

I did this too...

I called and took no for a answer (speaking to the supervisor) and got him to allow me to upload the EIN doc which they will manually add and hopefully all goes well after that.

I kept telling the guy "stop questioning my intelligence" because their hypocrisy now is unbelievable. When this happening it CLEARLY states the soft limitation is STRICTLY due to a need for a TAX ID. But you call and they say nope we need a S.S. Then its a back and forth convo until you get them to cave...

:smash:

I'm about to spend money on a S-Corp in the next week, they BETTER follow threw. I doubt this would work on any account that is LESS then perfect and is squeaky clean in regards to your eBay account.

I'll update this once I get my S CORP.

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

Has anyone else tried this method ?

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

any updated info on this....i'm having same issues....PM is need to but I'm really hoping someone has ideas or solution...

Thanks in advance....

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

Bump as well ^^

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

Went through the upload doc process and got hit with:

Thank you for contacting us about the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax law that affects online sellers.
In order to upgrade your account to a business, you will first need to add your SSN. This will then auto-lift the limitation; then you will be able to upgrade to a business account and add your EIN for tax reporting purposes.
While we do not report this information unless required to by law, we may still require this information be provided to continue uninterrupted access to your account.
We’re always here to help. Please visit www.paypal.com/irs today for more information.

If you have any questions, you may contact us by clicking “Contact Us” at the bottom of any PayPal page.


Someone shed some light here :mod:

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

I am am not suggesting this as a solution because it is far to soon to know for sure if it is a viable long term option but some people have had success adding the EIN number for both. Only time will tell if this is a good option.

This is copied and pasted from that link. It says by providing a tax ID number, which is SSN, EIN, or ITIN. They should be appeased with just an EIN. They even say providing 1. Hopefully, this is an issue they will fix.

Again, copied and pasted from that link

Business Entities with an EIN
If you operate through a business legal entity such as a corporation or partnership you will need to provide your company EIN and company name.

Sole Proprietors with an EIN
If you operate as a sole proprietor using an EIN you will need to provide your company EIN and your own name. Do not provide a business name or a DBA name ("Doing Business As") with your EIN.

Individual Sellers and Sole Proprietors without an EIN
If you are an individual seller or sole proprietor and operate under your SSN or ITIN you will need to provide your SSN or ITIN and your name. Do not provide a business name or DBA name with your SSN or ITIN.

Another from that link:


Will I need to upgrade to a business account?
If you have a Personal or Premier account and you provide an Employer Identification Number (EIN) to PayPal, you will be asked to upgrade to a Business account. If you have a Personal or Premier account and you provide a Social Security Number (SSN) to PayPal, you will not be asked to upgrade to a Business account.

Seems like an argument could be made by calling paypal about inconsistencies in their FAQ. I would hope they would accommodate

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

JUST AN fyi... the SSN page now is NOT going away when you upgrade to a business account. They added it for me manually, but then i logged in and made it a business... Now i am stuck on the SSN page on ALL browsers

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

So sad. End of story.

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

Does this mean we cannot upgrade PP to a business account any more?

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

Why don't people just add an EIN than upgrade? I never wait til they limit my account and usually add one after $2000 or so has been ran into the account.

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

paypal has still been asking for the last 4 of SS.

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

So you can't upgrade to business even off the bat?

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

people have been adding last 4 of EIN with success…

ah, i see yankee beat me to it

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

Can anyone confirm that you can use the last 4 of EIN? I decided to legit my stealth account as much as possible yesterday and added a bank account, as well as trying to upgrade to business but got slapped with the SSN prompt when switching.

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

there have been other confirmations elsewhere on the forum

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

So far the last 4 of the EIN seem to be fine. Only time will tell if it is a long term or permanent solution.

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

This is very true.

I called in about one of my accounts stating the same thing AND got the person to manually add the information. You have to be firm because it is a contradiction in terms. Until the specifically state they are requesting a S.S they CANNOT demand S.S when you call in.

Now it would be different if they actually requested the S.S as a means to pass the 200/20K but that's not the case. You call in and they say they "really are requesting your social etc". It's true that at some point they might but when they say this they figure we are NOT stealth. It's easy after the EIN passes to stay under the radar.

It's true once you add it it makes your account "real" and subject to far less scrutiny BUT you can still trigger it with odd behavior. It's just like getting a huge limit increase... List to fast and you can flirt with limitation but move slow and steadily and your good to go :)

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

This situation is still fairly new and we do not yet have enough information to be 100% certain of anything. But it appears that calling in and having them add it manually is the best solution. If the SSN request persists, I would just add the last 4 digits of the EIN - if you are ever questioned on it, you could just say that since it is a business account, you thought that was what they were looking for.

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

Actually if it's the past four only, how can they truly verify the account based off that? They can't.

If you open the LLC or S CORP properly our name is NOT seen by anyone in the PayPal department, ever. So they technically can't do a cross check with the last four and see if it matches our business. Now if it's to match our name on the PayPal account then ya we're screwed but I would think they would need the full social, but I could be wrong..

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

I got the email from paypal this morning asking for my SSN and i have only made about 5 grand at this point. I went to a website that charges 60.00 and will have the EIN number to me in 1 business day. I am not sure if i filled out the docs correct. I used my real mailing address and under business name i just made a name up Goods For Sale in the DBA section of the form i used my stealth name from my paypal account. Did i do this right?? Or should i have filled out the form with all my stealth information??? With the business and DBA as the name on my stealth account?? I do NOT have a Paypal business account Please someone reply

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

Ok so i just posted a little while ago about receiving the paypal require tax details email i got this morning.

I have been freaking out all day about this and have been reading as much as i can fine about what to do about this. and have not logged into my paypal account until just now

The email i received this morning from paypal said that the next time i log into my account i would be presented with a screen that would ask me for my tax info

Well i just had the balls to log into my paypal account 9 hours after getting that email and NOTHING no screen asking me for any tax information.

I was taken right to my account summery No warning anywhere that i need to enter my tax info.

I have only run about 3 grand through the account and when i got that email this morning i thought it was strange because i have run so little through the account.

Anybody have any ideas on this one. I did apply for an EIN this morning but from what i read i will have to wait 2 weeks before inputting that new EIN into paypal because it takes that long for the gov to update there data base

Could i have gotten that email in error?????

Please give me your input on this guys

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

I clicked on the links to upgrade, got to the SSN screen and closed it. Now, whenever I log in, I get the following:

I can't bypass it so don't click on upgrade links unless you are trying to upgrade. Question is, can I just enter the last 4 of the EIN? Also, what do I do about the birth date?

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

They also base it off your amount of sales, not just amount in sales. Not sure where your at with that. Also how long did you space out the 3K? Thats a big factor also.

Honestly usually 3K won't pull the trigger but it did and I highly doubt its a error. Regardless if it was or not your account got flagged and generated this email to get sent to you.

I believe you should have till the 2nd "request to address the tax id problem" before you CAN'T upgrade without calling in and having them manually add the EIN. You should be able to now, if not just call and have them downgrade you.

I just had this happen on a somewhat young account. I went to upgrade to see what would happen and although I closed the page BEFORE entering in a EIN it still "upgraded me" and wouldn't allow me to withdraw so I just called and asked to be downgraded and all is good :)

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

I'm just wondering why you paid 60 bucks for a EIN.

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

You get the warning based on you 20k/200 payments received projection. The issue comes from when PayPal projects you are going to surpass that threshold. The past 4 years it has been this way.

A notice is not a death nail, at-least it has not been in the past. I get them every year on my account late in the year because I spread sales out accordingly. It is a warning that you need to slow down sales and transition to other accounts. The limits reset later the next calendar year. Its called Operations Management.

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

Ok so i did in fact get the paypal email requesting my SSN number and every time you log into your paypal account after receiving that paypal email you will be asked to enter your SSN There is no way around that.

Also once you receive that email you will NOT be able to upgrade to a business account to enter an EIN number

But i did find a work around and my paypal account is fine now. I do not want to reveal any thing on this open forum but i did find a way to restore my paypal account. And once you restore your paypal account you can then upgrade to a business account and enter your EIN :humble:

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

So is the consensus that when this happens the only choice is to call in with the EIN? I've got one ready but can't upgrade since already limited due to tax ID request. Someone recently mentioned a workaround... any idea what it is?

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

can you pm me the info of your workaround

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

i appreciated if anyone could PM of a workaround on this matter

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

Are you saying I can rotate like 20 accounts throughout the year and avoid taxes? :FF:

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

In the United States you are responsible for all the income you earn. My comments are simply about running stealth accounts as best as possible without getting shut down for the Tax ID request.

You will see many other U.S. members on here running tens if not hundreds of stealth accounts. I can guarantee you that haven't gone the Corporation route to get EINs for everyone.

In the U.S. you have your SSN and one EIN you can register as an individual. Everything additional EIN must come through some form of corporation.

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

Alright, that's understood. But without providing any tax information, how do you be responsible for the income you earn if the IRS hasn't learned about it from paypal? Tell the IRS what you've earned on your own? especially if someone used 50 accounts? How will they believe you that you're not hiding more? I tried doing that, but I got weary about opening a bank account for each eb/pp account. It seems odd to have 50 bank accounts.

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

I was able to upgrade my PayPal to a Business Account after being restricted. I first called and spoke to a representative. I was then transferred to another department which specializes in "restrictions". I was asked a number of times for my Social Security # and my Tax ID #. I explained that my Accountant does not want me to have any business transactions associated with my Social Security. I had to make it very clear that the error message that I received asked for one of 3 options, My SS#, My Tax ID, or my Individual Tax ID#. There was nowhere that asked for both. I said I wanted to use my Tax ID only. I asked him to kindly please enter my Tax ID# in the system. After much back and forth, he finally did. After this, I logged onto my account and it asked for the "last 4" of my SS # for which I used the "last 4" of my Tax ID. It worked and I am back up and running. I will re-post if I receive another notification down the road, but so far so good.

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

awesome! great to hear you're back up and running! I will have to do the same right now, but since I just created my EIN number last friday, Jeff mentioned I should wait a week or so to call in and do the exact same thing as you did because the EIN apparently won't be completely recognizable right away in the system. So hopefully Friday I'll call in and do the exact thing you did and hope the EIN enters and I'm back in. Thanks for the update!

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

This is for myself personally. I run a main account with with my Tax ID etc. Then I have a less than 10 stealth accounts that I run on the side.

For the same reasons I don't feel comfortable having 50-100 bank accounts and and VPNs and tracfones and everything else. I try to keep it within reason and use my stealth accounts more to spread out certain items and as a backup plan incase anything happens.

For stealth accounts its really not that hard you can access your monthly reports on PayPal assuming that is what you are using. You can get your sales totals, refunds, etc. Add up all your fees, postage, etc and going the schedule C route. You may have over 6+ figures in sales but unless something seems really strange and off. To be honest they have no clue how many bank accounts you run. Maybe something like having to high of phone write offs for a boatload of tracfones or something like that might be odd.

Overall, in my honest opinion its not the IRS that is the problem. Like you mentioned it is the banking laws with the mis-matched names and too many accounts that would cause problems. All the IRS tax stuff boils down to a few lines on one or two sheets.

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

What about fresh accounts just made.Do they ask for the EIN/SSN right away now as well when you try to upgrade? Haven't made any in recent time to see.

Re: How to upgrade to a BUSINESS PAYPAL w/ EIN number
 

Has anyone had any success with entering a random SS and not getting any restrictions after 2 weeks or so? Would really appreciate any input in regards to this dilemma.