Tax dodgers may lose friend in PayPal
 

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/04/11/pay....ap/index.html


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Internal Revenue Service won approval from a federal court to ask PayPal to turn over information about people who might be evading taxes by hiding income in other countries, officials said Tuesday.

A federal court in San Jose, California, gave the IRS permission to ask PayPal Inc. -- a company that enables online money transfers -- for account information for American taxpayers who have bank accounts, credit cards or debit cards issued by financial institutions in more than 30 countries reputed to be tax havens.

PayPal spokeswoman Amanda Pires said the company just received the summons.

"We're still evaluating our options," she said. "The privacy of our customers' information is something we take really seriously."

PayPal enables individuals and businesses around the globe to send and receive money online. In 2005, users moved $27.5 billion through the money transmitter. The company, owned by eBay Inc., has 100 million account holders globally

:321GFY

same thing will happen to epass

Posted 2 minutes before yours

http://www.gofuckyourself.com/showthread.php?t=596976

Bullshit. A friend of mine got audited by the IRS last year. So, he brought in all of his pay pal records. The IRS had no idea what Pay Pal was.

oh well I was a little slow

shit, so your friend caused this

The whole idea of using Pay Pal and ePassporte as tax evasion vehicles has never made sense to me from the start. Somebody on the other end is sending those payments. That somebody is going to be writing those payments off. Not to mention the huge electronic paper trail that is left. Uh... hello?

I filed 100% of my paypal income

wow that really sucks balls :(

I thought ePass was a non-US company with no business presence here and thus the courts would lack jursdiction to require such a thing.

Of course the IRS knows who Paypal is - they collect taxes from em. :)

The ignorance of a member of their audit staff don't mean the org is clueless.

People prolly figured out it would work for a while...

Anyone that thought they could hide money using any of those services long term need mental help.

Brad

Nice hat he has!

Yeah its not a place to hide it thats for sure there are records kept at some level

They need a court order? Isn't ebay the company that hands over info on request, be in law enforcement or any other random person?

Don't know the actual biz arrangements of epass - so can't comment.

However, three questions introductory questions which poss start the opening of Pandora's box..

Who is the principal within epass and what nationality?

Do officers of epass have residences or business premises in the US?

What is the nationality of the staff employed by epass and where do they actually live?

It never stopped the IRS before - the actually kidnapped the manager of the Royal Bank of Canada while he was in air transit to Canada from Grand Caymen, - then apologised quickly and then imposed daily penalties on RBC in New York until that bank turned over personal account data from their Grand Caymen branch to the IRS.

If the IRS can pressure RBC successfully - epass is a walkover.

Any connection with individuals or corps owned or operated by US citizens is not exactly an easy "tax haven" facility. :)

it was gonna happen eventually

cheating on the taxes is not worth, you may have gotten away with it last year, you may get away this year, and even next year, but eventually good chance you'll get audited... and then, with lawyer fees, penalties, interest over past 7 years, etc, the total amount due can easilly add up to 6 figures or more...

Agree woj!

The hassle is just not worth it and think there is always one golden rule - keep within the laws of the country in which you reside.

If you don't like the laws/taxes - ship out to a country with little or no taxes, otherwise pay whatever taxes are due.

yeah Ebay, Paypal, accounts with bookies...god isnt anything sacred anymore :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

ps love castro's hat....i didnt know he was an affiliate with paycom..wow...where did the bay of bigs money really come from then
:1orglaugh :1orglaugh

if i understand this properly, they're not going after people trying to keep money in paypal to avoid taxes. they're going after people that have paypal accounts tied to the offshore bank accounts they're keeping their money in, to evade taxes.

since the countries where the accounts are located wont cooperate, paypal (who has the numbers to the accounts, and the persons personal info) will.

if thats really whats going on, this is only going to cause problems for anyone using tax havens and stupid enough to attach their anonymous bank accounts to a US based company that keeps records and has a history of turning info over to anyone and everyone that asks for it.

Sure... they are after undeclared revenue from whatever source.

The US is a bit of an exception as regards "offshore" simply because US citizens by law are obliged to file returns annual to the IRS - whether they are resident in the US or not. The other factor is, for a US citizen, even if they are not resident within the US, - there is still a legal requirement to declare "foreign interests". This totally screws up any concept of "offshore" which is actually mean't (normally) to be private and failure to declare and sign the paperwork is going to be an obvious problem.

You are 100% correct in the instance of any individual who is a US citizen and who transfers funds to any US financial institution and who does not declare that revenue is up shit creek.

There is only (na.. not only, but "almost only" :) ) one way to be legitimately conduct biz offshore is to actually live offshore. An additional requirement, tho only applies to US folks, is they can't remain US citizens (because of the obligations under US law re tax declarations). Other countries are OK with this - it's just a matter of being non-resident and no need to give up citizenship.


PS.. Hate that expression "tax havens" - it's a kinda term used by onshore folks to try and defraud revenue collectors. Smells very amateur :)

I think what they are thinking is that if someone is sending them money from outside the US they are not reporting it to the IRS. The same goes with selling something on Ebay to a private person. If someone sells a ton of stuff on Ebay and makes good money doing so it is all money from private people that are not declaring it on their taxes as a writeoff.

Of course, as you said, it is stupid. Trying to hide from paying some extra taxes is no reason to maybe end up in jail.

While this is true, as an American you can expatriate and keep your citizenship and return. Just takes a little bit of work and money.

I left the United States for 2 years, they had no idea I ever left, They had no way of finding out where I was or what I made, as long as I don't renew my passport they couldn't find me.

You can also do residency programs still, setup a passport from that country (which is legal) and travel in and out of the US freely. Since you didn't renew your American VISA, they have no idea who you are.

You can also expatriate and still pay taxes to keep good ties with the US. You can write off everything to cut those taxes down.. And I mean everything.

Or don't expatriate, move your money offshore and exchange it for gold, move it to a foundation, exchange it back to cash, then have the foundation pay you.

Lots of options, just a bit more homework has to be done these days.

thank god i havent used paypal in awhile,

i stick with good EPASS the football :)