BellaFenice Wrote:
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> What a shame. They are missing out on shoppers
> with that requirement.
What a shame that shoppers are missing out on work because they refuse to get something that won't hurt them as long as they are conducting themselves in a legal manner.
There was a rumor here once that someone got an EIN and ended up having to get a business license because of it (unrelated to mystery shopping -- it was a different business altogether) and they believed that it was the acquisition of the EIN that tipped off the local entity.
I've never believed it because the IRS has better things to do than go tell every city in this country that someone in their jurisdiction just got an EIN. (The IRS only shares information when required by law -- Federal law, not state laws.) You can have an EIN and never use it for anything; who would want to wade through all that information trying to find the one person who got an EIN, actually started a business, and didn't get a business license for their business?
Just get the EIN. It's free and takes about 10 minutes online at irs.gov.
Or don't get the EIN and I'll take those Trendsource jobs you're passing up.
There are people here who don't want to admit to their town hall that they are running a business (mystery shopping is a business unless you are claiming the income as a hobby) out of their homes and get any required business license to do so, but they want to tell the IRS they are when it comes to deducting the mileage to their first local stop of the day.
Keep yourself legal and you don't have to worry about these things. If you don't like your local laws, lobby to change them.
Time to build a bigger bridge.