3 ms·

The comments here are good. One point not addressed in the comments is that whether PayPal ever gives you the money back or not, OP has earned $200,000 in inco

The comments here are good. One point not addressed in the comments is that whether PayPal ever gives you the money back or not, OP has earned $200,000 in income while in the United States and he owes the IRS and possibly the state government as well full US income tax on this amount since he was in the US at the time he did this work. It doesn't matter what his visa situation is, that has nothing at all to do with if he owes taxes. He is required to file an income tax return this year, and pay the taxes, end of story. If he doesn't pay the taxes, he might go to jail and probably will get a felony record and be permanently banned from returning to the US after release. So this is a pretty serious problem and requires a legal team, which undoubtedly will cost the full amount on deposit to untangle. He can't just walk away from the situation and let PayPal keep the money, unless he can get the amount he owes in taxes from a relative and pay it, which then puts him into debt.

tluyben2 14y ago
Instead of all the negative comments about Paypal (I still use them, but I make sure I withdraw money at least every month, in busy times more often), I would suggest not going to the US without stuff like this covered and enough money & insurance to defend yourself. It seems the US is overly aggressive in most legal matters and doesn't really consider the circumstances too much (I don't know if this is overall true, but it seems so from everything I have read). This could ruin a person's life while he only wanted to make some money; it should be possible to explain that and get some understanding instead of threats, bills of lawyers, putting his family in debt for paying his legal fees. He simply didn't know the consequences of what he was doing in trusting Paypal. That's not his fault and he shouldn't be punished for that by a crippled, lawyers take all, 'justice' system. I'm wondering; when I travel abroad for longer times I have law assistance insurance; it's not expensive and, in his case, it would pay the lawyers for me (set aside some self risk of around E500 one-off per case); isn't this normal for people to close before going that long (and thus more risky) to the US?

tluyben2 14y ago

Instead of all the negative comments about Paypal (I still use them, but I make sure I withdraw money at least every month, in busy times more often), I would suggest not going to the US without stuff like this covered and enough money & insurance to defend yourself. It seems the US is overly aggressive in most legal matters and doesn't really consider the circumstances too much (I don't know if this is overall true, but it seems so from everything I have read). This could ruin a person's life while he only wanted to make some money; it should be possible to explain that and get some understanding instead of threats, bills of lawyers, putting his family in debt for paying his legal fees. He simply didn't know the consequences of what he was doing in trusting Paypal. That's not his fault and he shouldn't be punished for that by a crippled, lawyers take all, 'justice' system. I'm wondering; when I travel abroad for longer times I have law assistance insurance; it's not expensive and, in his case, it would pay the lawyers for me (set aside some self risk of around E500 one-off per case); isn't this normal for people to close before going that long (and thus more risky) to the US?