Enough trust to give your social security number?

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Enough trust to give your social security number?

Any way to avoid it?

Perfection

12:32 am on Apr 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

Is there any way around giving your social security number when joining an affiliate program?

I mean, I've done it before, but that was with the bigger boys (Adsense, CJ, etc.). Now I'm interested in joining a smaller in-house program offered by a very niche company. It would be perfect for my email list... but there's just something that never feels good to me when I give out my SSN to anyone, and it feels extra "not good" giving it to "Mike's World of Widgets." I'm sure I not the only one, right?

Is there any way I can avoid giving my SSN to these guys?

treeline

12:39 am on Apr 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

1. Don't do business with people you don't trust.

2. Register as a business, and get an EIN (Employer ID #) from the IRS which gets used like a SSN, but doesn't facilitate identity theft against you personally.

3. Explain that you live in Nigeria where they don't use them.

swirl

1:07 am on Apr 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

An EIN would be the ideal way to go.
Short of this, use a quasi-fictitious SSN and see if you make any money with the smaller programs.

Perfection

1:51 am on Apr 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

The EIN sounds like the way to go here. Any other pros and cons of doing this (registering as a business) that I should know about?

Thanks, by the way.

treeline

4:20 am on Apr 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

You'll need to do some paperwork to set up the business (S corp, LLC, etc) and will need to file an additional income tax return each year. In most cases it can be set up so the income flows through to you so there is no double taxation.

Some cities or states may ask you to get (read pay for) a business license.

jomaxx

4:25 am on Apr 9, 2006 (gmt 0)

You can probably register and test out the program without having to give them a SSN. But you'll have to give it to them, or the equivalent, before they can pay you.

evzayas

1:29 am on May 1, 2006 (gmt 0)

Just enter a bogus ssn, such as 123456789, if the web form for signing up insists upon having one entered, and wait and see if your sales are anywhere near $600, the point at which you should expect to receive a 1099 at the end of that tax year. At that point, you can update your profile with your real ssn.