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I'm a freelance web developer and file taxes on income I receive from my freelance projects on my personal tax returns. I requested and received an EIN number from the IRS so that if I needed to give out my W9 to any clients, I don't have to share my SSN for security reasons.

One client's CPA that I sent my W9 to is saying that since I provided an EIN on my W9, I need to provide the associated company name to them to properly file on their end. However, I never set up a company name associated with my EIN since these are just freelance projects on the side.

I reviewed the letter from the IRS when they provided the EIN number and there is no mention of a company name. The letter does mention that "your name control associated with this EIN is <first 4 letters of my last name>".

From all my research so far, all I can find is why and who can get an EIN, but it's unclear to me if I do in fact need a company name (such as an LLC) associated with it. I thought my name and EIN would suffice since I don't have an LLC and no employees.

Any thoughts?

Chris W. Rea
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scferg5
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1 Answers1

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With a sole proprietorship, you and the business are the same entity, so unless you want to work under a different name using a fictitious business name or DBA (doing business as - a lot of states require some sort of application or registration of a DBA), your full legal name is your company's name.

Stan H
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