1. Play payouts move through three separate objects, and confusing them causes most payment problems. The developer account answers who publishes apps and carries the identity verification Google runs. The payments profile answers who gets paid: Google's payments center help describes it as the record holding the name, address, and tax ID (when required legally) of whoever is responsible for the profile, plus the payment methods attached to it (https://support.google.com/paymentscenter/answer/9028746). The bank account answers where the money lands. A profile is reusable across Google products - if you already have one, select it rather than creating a duplicate.
2. The profile type follows the developer account type. Play Console Help on verifying developer identity states that during registration you either select an existing payment profile or create a new one, and that the type of payment profile is based on the type of developer account you want to create (https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/10841920). Individual and organization accounts do not carry the same profile - create the one that matches the account you actually registered.
3. Check supported locations before you start. The Create a payments profile article directs developers to review the list of supported locations for developer and merchant registration before building the profile (https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/7161426). Whether you can register, and whether you can act as a merchant, depends on where the responsible party is legally located.
4. Write the legal name exactly as it appears on your tax documents and your bank account - not a trading name, not the brand on your store listing, not an abbreviation. The profile's name, address, and tax identifier must describe the same person or entity the tax form describes, and the tax residency you declare determines which form you are given. Almost every later verification failure traces back to a mismatch on this line. Tax information is living data: update the profile the same week your address, entity, or residency changes.
5. Adding a bank account is not the same as verifying it. Play Console Help keeps a dedicated bank verification article because an unverified account does not receive payouts (https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/7161378). The published pattern: open the payments profile in the payments center, add the bank account as a payment method, and complete the verification Google asks for - either a small deposit Google sends for you to confirm, or an instant verification path the help page describes for supported regions. Follow whichever one your account offers; do not assume your country has the instant path. The account holder name must match the profile's legal name.
6. Payouts get held for boring, fixable reasons: incomplete identity verification on the developer account or bank verification on the profile; stale tax information; name mismatches across profile, tax documents, and bank account; a responsible party whose location stops being a supported registration location; or no payments profile linked at all. If a payment is already stuck, use Google's payments support route for Play and Chrome Web Store developers rather than a generic Console ticket - the help pages route payments issues there deliberately.