The Federal Court of Canada has ordered U.S.-based PayPal to hand over details about its business account customers to Canadian tax authorities.
The court order, obtained by the Canada Revenue Agency, forces the U.S.-based payment processing firm to release information about Canadians with PayPal business accounts who processed transactions between the start of 2014 and last Friday.
PayPal must hand over the names, dates of birth, contact information and — in some cases — social insurance numbers of any business account holders in Canada.
The company has millions of Canadian customers. The majority have personal accounts, which are unaffected by the court order, the company told CBC News in a statement.
In the U.S., PayPal already submits information on any customers who either processed $20,000 over the network, or made more than 200 transactions in a given year, to that country’s tax authorities. But the company hasn’t been obligated to do the same in Canada.
PayPal also notes: “This is a one-time disclosure of information to the CRA for Canadian PayPal Business Account holders that sent or received a payment between 2014 and 2017. This is not an ongoing request for information.”
CRA did not reply to multiple requests for comment on Tuesday, but the agency has been cracking down on tax leakage by ferreting out various forms of undeclared income.
PayPal has 45 days from the day of the court order, which was released on Friday, to comply with it. The company says it has already contacted affected customers.