The US tax authorities have got a court's blessing to force PayPal to hand over information about people who might be evading taxes by hiding income in other countries. Under the court ruling, the IRS will be allowed to ask PayPal for account information for American taxpayers who have bank accounts, credit cards or debit cards issued by financial institutions in various tax havens.

PayPal enables individuals and businesses around the globe to send and receive money online. In 2005, users moved $27.5 billion through the money transmitter. The company, owned by eBay Inc., has 100 million account holders globally.

The request for information is an outgrowth of an IRS effort, begun several years ago, to trace money that American taxpayers hold offshore to avoid paying taxes. The IRS said many of those taxpayers access their money through credit and debit cards. The tax collectors have already obtained information from some credit card companies, merchants and payment processors.