News: PayPal Names Names as IRS Chases Tax Evaders
November 14th, 2005 by Laurie BarakSource: HackintheBox
Some customers may be using offshore credit cards to evade paying income taxes and illegally transferring money out of the country. PayPal will likely cooperate with authorities should a federal judge in San Jose, California allow the Internal Revenue Service to request those customer records.
A spokesperson for PayPal said she could not comment specifically on this case as PayPal hasn’t seen the request. The IRS believes more than $40 billion in tax revenue goes uncollected due to abuses of credit cards linked to countries with less than stringent money transfer policies, and bank secrecy laws that prevent them from cooperating with American authorities. These tax havens provide a shelter for income that is illegal under US law.
Federal investigators told the court they have already requested information from credit card giants MasterCard and Visa as part of the investigation. The PayPal information would be needed to further identify violators.
The ongoing investigation spans a five year period, from the beginning of 1999 through the end of 2004.
