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I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

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Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#81

Post by nborwankar »

anigbrowl wrote: post #71
packetslave wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IANAL (which is why the OP should definitely talk to one). If the work that generated the income was done while he was physically in the US, then the immigration folks will definitely have an opinion on if it was legal under his visa terms. This may or may not have an impact on any potential legal remedies that are available wrt Paypal.

IANAL either, but there's no law against making income, there's a alw against accepting employment. If OP can show he created and sold his own product then that should not violate his visa constraints in any way. In any case, I've never heard of anyone having their income confiscated even if they were a candidate for deportation (though not a lawyer I follow immigration law very closely, it's a pet issue of mine).

There is a law against participating in a business. The only way you are allowed to earn an income is if it is an approved on-campus job.

Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#82

Post by stickydink »

You should talk to a lawyer immediately. You should also read up on just what exactly your visa allows you to do. Assuming you have an F-1 visa, you are pretty much (with some small exceptions), not allowed to work. This includes self-employment, freelancing, anything.

What you should have done (and this is still a legal uncertainty) is have the funds tied to a Venezuelan bank account, your Venezuelan personal and tax identification. It's a little late for that, however.

Best of luck retrieving your funds. I wouldn't be surprised if you got PayPal to release them (they are not themselves a government, so just require enough information to cover their own ass). But expect to be asked some very serious questions by USCIS. For that reason you don't want a regular lawyer, you main issue here will be trying to convince the US you weren't breaking your visa terms.

You need an immigration lawyer.

Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#83

Post by mamcx »

sisk wrote: post #47
nlh wrote: post #23

Sorry to hear about the troubles :( If this wasn't the umpteenth time I've heard this story, I wouldn't say this so pesteringly: To everyone: Stop stop stop stop stop using PayPal. This happens over and over again. For once, thankfully, there are viable alternatives out there -- Stripe & WePay to name two (both of which I've had excellent experiences with). Not saying they're panaceas or that there won't be security/…

This may be a non-starter for this gentleman. Both Stripe and WePay have SSN requirement of sorts: https://stripe.com/us/help/faq#do-i-need-an-SSN https://support.wepay.com/entries/313535-why-are-you-asking-...

I actually looking for a way to solve this future problem (located in Colombia). I wish I could use stripe or baintree. Opening a account in USA from my local bank requiere US 30.000 in the first deposit (!) and creating a US company (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5148581) I worry for the legal/financial repercussions of that. The local payment processors suck worse than paypal. I use fastspring, they support my country, but can't use it for mobile payments (my requeriments). How badly this sucks...

Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#85

Post by tedunangst »

punkbit wrote: post #78
hippich wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do not have to have a visa to start a company in US. Actually, you can start one without even being in US. Opening bank account for such company - is what tricky without being physically in US.

He didn't started a company anyway. Selling old clothes and old toys in ebay doesn't make us a company, does it ?! What if we sold $200k worth in old toys ?! Paypal would take our money anyway...

No, PayPal would ask for your ssn to make sure you're paying the taxes on the 200k you just made. Yes, if you sell 200k in old toys on eBay, you owe the IRS a pile of money.

Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#86

Post by jholman »

packetslave wrote: post #43
javajosh wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, that's just...mind-numbingly awful. If that's true, the Emmanuel just forfeits all that money? I suspect that a good lawyer will be able to recover most of it for him, especially since his presence in the US was not material to the earning of that income .

IANAL (which is why the OP should definitely talk to one). If the work that generated the income was done while he was physically in the US, then the immigration folks will definitely have an opinion on if it was legal under his visa terms. This may or may not have an impact on any potential legal remedies that are available wrt Paypal.

IANAL, and the OP should talk to one.

I'm working legally in the US (TN-1), but my wife is here without permission to work (TD-1) (and is not working). When I discussed her options with my immigration lawyer, like maybe should could remote-work for a company back home, my lawyer said (informally) that any work or any income, while in the US, was subject to immigration law. In fact, I was told US immigration's opinion is that when non-US citizens answer work email while on vacation in Hawai'i, it's technically illegal (although obviously everyone happily ignores that in practice).

What a surprise, countries are really no-fooling serious about protecting jobs for their own citizens.

So it's quite possible that in this case, Paypal had no legal alternative.

Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#87

Post by greenyoda »

dangrossman wrote: post #55

From your comments, you had multiple PayPal accounts (disallowed), were in Venezuela, using a US PayPal account, then transferring the funds to a PayPal account in Venezuela, and can't provide a tax ID for the US account. At the same time, you went from zero to hundreds of thousands in payments in just a few months. To PayPal, you likely appear to be a criminal involved in some type of money laundering or tax evasion…

Thanks, I had never heard of a 1099-K before.

In case others are curious, here's a description of what it is:

"Due to the rise of of people making money with the help of the Internet, the 1099-K has been introduced. For the most part, the 1099-K is meant to ensure that income made from power sellers on sites like eBay is properly reported. The 1099-K is issued by third party payment processors, including banks and non-bank services like PayPal. So, if you use eBay to earn money selling, your transactions, processed through PayPal, will be reflected on the 1099-K issued by PayPal."[1]

[1] http://cashmoneylife.com/1099-k-form-reporting-requirements

Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#88

Post by bravura »

gojomo wrote: post #46

Concur with javajosh's recommendation to find a California/USA-based lawyer for help. Advice from semi-anonymous strangers in internet forums is worth what you pay for it. Generally, in the search for a lawyer, you get to talk to many (without charge) for 15-45 minutes each. You may be surprised how widely their estimations of the issues vary -- the law is the law, right? -- but you'll learn something from each conve…

legal confidentiality means...

IANAL, but I don't believe you have attorney-client privilege until you formally hire the lawyer. So if you are calling ten lawyers and getting advice, there is no guarantee of privilege.

Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#89

Post by dangrossman »

punkbit wrote: post #78
hippich wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do not have to have a visa to start a company in US. Actually, you can start one without even being in US. Opening bank account for such company - is what tricky without being physically in US.

He didn't started a company anyway. Selling old clothes and old toys in ebay doesn't make us a company, does it ?! What if we sold $200k worth in old toys ?! Paypal would take our money anyway...

Yes, selling old clothes and toys on eBay makes you a business. If you do it under your own name, you are a sole proprietorship. In the US, your business (the sole proprietorship) will attach a Schedule C reporting its business income (the proceeds of those eBay sales) with your federal tax return. If you sold $200k worth of old toys, PayPal would ensure the IRS knows you owe taxes as it'd report the income on a Form 1099-K, as they're required to do for any account holder with over $20k in annual sales.

Re: I made $200K and PayPal locked my account

#90

Post by packetslave »

anigbrowl wrote: post #71
packetslave wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IANAL (which is why the OP should definitely talk to one). If the work that generated the income was done while he was physically in the US, then the immigration folks will definitely have an opinion on if it was legal under his visa terms. This may or may not have an impact on any potential legal remedies that are available wrt Paypal.

IANAL either, but there's no law against making income, there's a alw against accepting employment. If OP can show he created and sold his own product then that should not violate his visa constraints in any way. In any case, I've never heard of anyone having their income confiscated even if they were a candidate for deportation (though not a lawyer I follow immigration law very closely, it's a pet issue of mine).

The (possible) immigration issue and the Paypal-locked-my-account issue are somewhat tangential. The money's (probably) not being held because of a visa issue. It's being held because it looks suspicious.

BUT, let's say OP gets a lawyer and starts exchanging nasty letters with Paypal. Any Paypal lawyer worth his salt is going to quickly say "Hmm, you're a student? Does your visa situation allow you to earn money in the US, or was this income generated illegally? Let's ask USCIS for their expert opinions. By the way, you do realize they can deport you, right? Are you SURE you want to continue down this road?"

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