Why can't Shopify verify my business tax ID and company name?

[Damir_Galic]

Hi, 

I am the owner of 5 Shopify shops with over 5 million in revenue. Currently opening a new shop with Shopify under the same USA company I working with other Shopify shop. All stuck at documentation where the Shopify system could not verify my business telling me that my EIN does not match the company name. Error is as follows:

• Business tax id does not match the company name. Please ensure that your legal business name is exactly as registered with the IRS. DBAs ("doing business as" names) can not be used in this registration. 

I am entering my company name exactly from my document received by IRS about my EIN. 

Exactly the same IEN number is in use with my other shop where we already working with Shopify and generating revenue. 

I had the same issue when opening my first shop where Shopify asked me as an EU citizen to enter my SSN. As a European citizen owning a business in the USA I don't have one and can't provide it.  

All of these issues pushed me back with the launch of my project on the Shopify platform I already working with* for years. I was sending my data and documents to the team already but nothing happening and I am afraid it can take months before I got a response and solve the problem. 

My shop is ready, and my products and capital invested just waiting here for Shopify to verify the business data so I am able to launch the new project. 

Is there anybody who can help me move from this point? All that is needed is somebody to check the papers and approve them so we can move on. 

I really hope someone here can take me out of this darkness and uncertainty since all the tickets resolve nothing.

I want to thank the team in advance. 

Regards,

Danny G

[Victoria · Accepted solution]

Hi, @Damir_Galic.

Welcome to the Shopify Community and thanks for sharing your question here.

Congratulations on the success of your online businesses! It definitely takes a great amount of time and work to maintain and navigate an online business.

It looks as though the following error you've shared is directly related to the information you've provided for your business tax I.D. 

You mentioned you've sent over your documents and information to our team to review. It is likely that our team has transferred your information to the appropriate team that handles tax, SSN and EIN information. Our team must review the provided information to ensure it matches your company name.

Since we are unable to authenticate or provide account-specific support through the community forums, it is best that you reply directly to your existing ticket. This will ensure you're communicating with the appropriate team who can take a closer look at your account information.

Could you also let us know a bit more about your business? How did you get started and what are you currently working on?

Looking forward to hearing back!

[Damir_Galic]

Thanks for reaching me back. In the meantime, Shopify support contacted me and told me no matter if the business is not verified yet, payments are active and I am able to accept payments while they taking time to evaluate this issue. 

Yes, it takes a lot of effort, time, dedication, and knowledge in the way of success in online business. I am always an advocate of having my own product, well protected which nobody else has. So all my projects are based on my own products with patented design. As a former music producer with an incredible love for music, my first product was www.studiodesk.net. My advice to new businesses would be, do not go into a niche you are not some kind of expert. You need to be passionate about something and your knowledge should be way above average about this niche. Only this way you will be able to offer something to the market understand your market and talk their language. If you have something special and different and know how to present your ideas, the market will recognize your difference and will grab your product. If you are a copycat or just do something because someone else is successful in this niche, you are predefined to fail. There is only one Coca-Cola, remember? I started with a capital of 20.000$ doing 80% of the business alone from my home office. No extra costs and very controlled expenses in the first year. I remember the first container of products arrived with a big flaw (at that time I was producing in China. Not doing it anymore, learned my lesson big time) so I had to open every product and engage a carpenter to fix the flaw. Fixing a flaw cost me as much as the cost of the entire container. Not to mention that they did a flaw and start to produce my product and offered it on Alibaba with a 10% margin.  They didn't know about the flaw so people who both it from them could not use the product. Carma is a bi***, very fast bi***!  There was a time when I had a complete nervous breakdown because of the obstacles and problems on the way. Imagine finally succeeding to sell some of your stock and PayPal putting 60% reserves on your money for 6 months without reason and without any prior notification. All of the sudden the capital you created is just gone! Something like that basically can destroy you. I was ready to sit on the plane and fly to America headquarters to ask them what is their problem. Had to take a loan to pay my suppliers. Take this story as a free valuable tip on this payment provider.  Shopify does not play such a dirty game. However,  if you believe enough in your product, if the product is good and gives great value for money, and you person who is able to focus on it 100%, you have a chance to succeed. My new project now is in the Home Fitness niche. I wouldn't talk about that publicly yet. 

Want to stress here that I've tried many different e-commerce platforms and faced only problems. 

Special thanks to Shopify which developed the best online shop platform in the world. 

Wishing all the luck to the community in these turbulent times we are all living. 

Danny