Why do I need to confirm my U.S. taxpayer status?

PayPal is required by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to report information about account holders who receive certain types of payments in excess of payment volume thresholds. This information must be provided for U.S. PayPal accounts and may also be required for account holders outside of the United States (if the holder of a non-U.S. account is a U.S. person or presumed to be a U.S. person based on evidence of U.S. tax status on the account).

In order to satisfy these obligations, PayPal must collect information from our customers (like their Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) and name).

U.S. citizen or other U.S. person/entity

Customers will be required to provide tax information like their TIN which could be an Employer Identification Number (EIN), Social Security Number (SSN), or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) if they haven’t already provided it when they approach certain thresholds.

• When you need to confirm your U.S. taxpayer status, we’ll let you know by email and by account alert notifications that you’ll see when you log in to your PayPal account. Click the link provided in the email or in the notification and enter the requested information.
• The information you provide will be compared to the information on file with the IRS. If it doesn’t match, you’ll be able to review and edit the information up to three times. If the information cannot be verified, you’ll be asked to also provide your address and certify your information. (This is the same information collected on the IRS Form W-9.) If you have multiple PayPal accounts, you’ll need to confirm your taxpayer status for each account.

Customers who approach the reporting threshold set by the IRS will be asked to confirm their U.S. taxpayer status.

If you are not a U.S. person (including a U.S. entity) for tax purposes

If the account owner becomes a U.S. person or entity or becomes subject to U.S. income tax, the account owner will notify PayPal within 30 days.