[Infowarrior] - I.R.S. Asks PayPal for Taxpayer Data

[Richard Forno]

I.R.S. Asks PayPal for Taxpayer Data
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/12/technology/12paypal.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&ore
f=slogin&adxnnlx=1144843693-K2KVV41fvI/aYC2fY7Z3Ag&pagewanted=print

WASHINGTON, April 11 (AP) ‹ The Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday that
it had won approval from a federal court to ask the online payment company
PayPal to turn over information about people who may be evading taxes by
hiding income in other countries.

A federal court in San Jose, Calif., gave the I.R.S. permission to ask
PayPal for information on American taxpayers who have bank accounts, credit
cards or debit cards issued by financial institutions in more than 30
countries that are reputed to be tax havens.

Amanda Pires, a PayPal spokeswoman, said Tuesday that the company had 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 world to send and
receive money online. The company, owned by eBay, has 100 million account
holders globally, and it moved $27.5 billion in 2005.

The request for information is an outgrowth of an I.R.S. effort, begun
several years ago, to trace money that American taxpayers hold offshore to
avoid paying taxes. The I.R.S. said many of those taxpayers access their
money through credit and debit cards. The tax collectors have already
obtained information from some credit card companies, merchants and payment
processors.

"PayPal is another one of the mechanisms by which money stashed overseas
might be spent," Eileen J. O'Connor, assistant attorney general for the
Justice Department tax division, said.