As rampant as identity theft is today, it’s important that we do our best to protect our sensitive information.
If you operate as an independent contractor and receive payments from another business, today‘s tip is one of the easiest things you can do to protect your information, and it’s free! Get an EIN. This protects your Social Security Number because it will allow you to use your EIN instead of your SSN when filling out a W-9.
You don’t need to have a formal business set up, such as an LLC. You can be a sole proprietor. And even though it’s called an EMPLOYER identification number, you don’t actually need to have employees to get one. It takes just a few minutes to go through the application and did I mention it’s free?! Lol.
Here is the link to the application on the official IRS website: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/apply-for-an-employer-identification-number-ein-online
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