"Hey, I Really Paid $6 million for that Ramones T-Shirt"
Posted by Merrill Baumann
Apparently eBay subsidiary PayPal is used for a lot more than facilitating the purchase of commercial oddities online. At least that's what the IRS thinks. Earlier this week a U.S. District Court in California issued a summons requested by the IRS for account information relating to PayPal money transfers involving financial institutions in more than 30 countries used as tax havens.
The IRS explains that PayPal is simply another mechanism used by creative Americans to stash money overseas and avoid tax liability. PayPal is currently "evaluating [its] options" in light of its privacy obligations. While perhaps not quite as sexy as a request for sensitive information under the Patriot Act, it nevertheless will be interesting to see whether PayPal will try to challenge the IRS' well-known broad subpoena powers.