The Internal Revenue Service has asked PayPay Inc. for account information on customers who might be evading taxes by hiding income in other countries.
The request is part of an IRS investigation that began several years ago to trace money held in offshore accounts. The IRS has asked for similar information from credit card companies and payment processors.
PayPal received the summons earlier this week and is still evaluating its options, a spokeswoman says. “We’re concerned about the privacy of our account holders,” she says.
The IRS is seeking information on account activity between 1999 and 2004 in 35 foreign countries considered tax havens. PayPal offers service in only 11 of these countries, and in several of those countries has a send-only function, she says.
PayPal, a subsidiary of eBay Inc., processed more than $27 billion in payments last year.
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