Hi I'm new to mystery shopping and everything sounds great & rewarding so far but the only thing I'm having trouble with is giving my SSN out and worrying about the w9 tax forms. I was wondering if any of you all got an EIN for mystery shopping? I'm not trying to make this a full time job or start my own business/sole proprietorship like it says you are doing when you get an EIN. However, it sure as hell beats giving your SSN out to 50+ online companies.
Was trying to get some thoughts on the matter before I go and get a EIN! Does an EIN make it harder on someone even if it makes it safer?

pens can of worms:

Where I live it doesn't make it harder, but some on the forum have said it complicates matters where they are. I think it depends on local regulations. You probably need to check with city, county, and state tax offices where you live to find out what you need to know.

I see nothing wrong with supplying your SSN to legitimate companies for tax purposes. IMHO, most people are *too* cautious about their SSNs*. Note that I'm not saying that you shouldn't be careful at all.

*I work for a large company in the USA. Tons of new hires' W4s come across my desk every day. You wouldn't believe how many employees won't put their SSNs on their forms. The W4 can't be processed without it, so it's always returned to the employee for completion. Come on, people!

The people who are "too" cautious about giving out SSN's sometime are the people who have already been victims of identity theft because they weren't cautious enough.

Employees don't have any choice about giving an SSN to an employer. We are not employees and often *do* have a choice. I use my EIN everywhere I can. Some mystery shop companies don't accept EIN's; for those I give my SSN. But I don't like it because I have no way of knowing how they are protecting it, who has access to the data, and whether the MSC is operated by honest people or not.

Even banks and our own government have data breaches; how could a mystery shop company prevent them?

I recommend using an EIN, and if your locality taxes small businesses, pay the taxes. Anyone going into business should always find out what the local laws are regarding what you plan to do and plan to comply with them. If it makes the business unprofitable -- then find a business where you can be legal *and* make money even after paying your taxes. The penalties for non-compliance once they catch you are generally a lot harsher than complying up front.

I've had a business license since 1997 when I first became self-employed doing accounting work. It costs me $50 a year (I think in one town I lived in it was $60, and I've lived near towns where the fee was $250, and another where the fee was a percentage (like one-tenth of a percent) of your gross revenues). But if you're planning to make hundreds or thousands of dollars a year in your business, it's worth it to not have to worry about someone ratting you out and being fined more than your gross income for not getting the license.

So get the EIN, get legal with your locality, and hope you make enough money to pay taxes, because the tax rate is never 100% and you get to keep the rest.

@dspeakes wrote:

The people who are "too" cautious about giving out SSN's sometime are the people who have already been victims of identity theft because they weren't cautious enough.

Employees don't have any choice about giving an SSN to an employer. We are not employees and often *do* have a choice. I use my EIN everywhere I can. Some mystery shop companies don't accept EIN's; for those I give my SSN. But I don't like it because I have no way of knowing how they are protecting it, who has access to the data, and whether the MSC is operated by honest people or not.

I understand that we are not employees, but as I stated, I think it's weird to be afraid to give your SSN to a legitimate MSC. I also use an EIN, but I only use it in cases where my SSN can't be encrypted, like if I have to fax them my W9. This makes sense to me because you never know who has access to those incoming faxes.

My example of employees at my company was my example of those people who are too cautious, and it was in no way meant to say that they are in the same situation as us ICs, because we're not.

Most people have one employer, one bank, a couple of credit cards or loans -- not all that many places to have their SSN out there.

We could have three hundred "clients" that require our SSN or EIN.

It's really just math; the more databases that have your information, the more likely it is that at some point a database with your information will be breached.

By using my EIN as much as possible, I reduce the odds quite a bit.

And I have been the victim of identity theft, when I got my first cell phone. The form I filled out with AT&T had my SSN, name, address, land line number -- and the Circuit City where I bought the phone had an employee who probably photocopied that application. I figured out how it happened because the phone number I put down (I had two at the time) was my fax number, and the crook took out a phone calling card on that number and ran up a bunch of person to person long distance phone calls from phone booths (the most expensive call you can possibly make) -- obviously not something most people would do if they were going to have to pay the bill. The fraud department called me to see if I was in Colorado making calls from pay phones. Before I figured out how my information had been obtained I had to call all my banks and credit cards, change account number, put passwords on them. But all the guy had done was mess with that one phone number; he didn't have any of my account information so nothing else happened.

So we are only as safe as the least honest person working for the company to whom we're giving our information.

I applied for an EIN and it was so easy. I gave it to a few companies. I also give my SSN if they don't accept the EIN.

I'm not paranoid but many huge companies have been breached. I'm cautious, that's all.

My opinion is that it's weird to not want to supply MSCs with your SSN out of paranoia. Plain and simple. You're entitled to your own.

First, I am not worried to give my SSN out to the company. I am worried to be posting my SSN out online to almost 50+ different sites (that are obviously protected & safe). However, that does not mean that they are impenetrable. Any website/company with thousands of people entering their SSN freely is at risk/has the potential to get hacked. I do not think it is a dumb assumption to think such thoughts and want to protect myself especially if I am not an employee of the company and especially not if I don't even know if I will like the jobs they offer. I do not like giving my ssn on an application. I would rather be accepted then asked.

sorry if that came off rude but I am cautious when it comes to online information.