Etsy Sellers Deal With Taxpayer ID Demands

Small merchants and individuals who sell online will most certainly come across an unpleasant reality sooner or later: the need to provide their taxpayer ID (a social security number or EIN) to any entity that processes payments on their behalf. That's because companies that process credit and debit cards as well as third-party network payments such as Etsy, PayPal and Amazon.com are required to report to merchants and to the IRS the gross amount of the transactions they've processed.