No need!!! You can accept payment immediately after sig up. But if you want to withdraw amount from paypal, you need to verify. But you can transfer the amount to any other person irrespective of his/her position.
No its not necessary to verify your paypal account in order to accept funds. But unverified account has sending as well as withdrawal limit. If you have unverified indian paypal account then your sending limit is only $100 for lifetime and withdrawal limit is $500 monthly and total withdrawal limit is $3000 lifetime.