There's no particular amount of accounts that will determine whether you're a farmer or not, but in my opinion, the moment you send merits towards yourself from an alt account, even if it's just a single merit, you're already considered a farmer and if reported, could face getting banned from the forum.
You overstate. For one given merit, there will be no punishment, except that you will seem pathetic in front of the community. This is what people look like who cannot receive merit on their own on all their accounts, but are engaged in transferring merits purchased or obtained with such difficulty. Otherwise, why would you throw away something that you can get for nothing?
Owning multiple accounts, if we remove the normal reason of convenience for different devices, will also be an indicator of the greed of people who cannot be satisfied with bonuses from one account. But often we see that greed makes a person even poorer; it destroys the personality, making him angry and hostile.