Should I use my SSN or EIN on a W-9?

If you are a sole proprietor with an EIN, the current form allows either number, and footnote 3 of its name chart adds that the IRS encourages the SSN. That is a stated preference, not a requirement, and nothing on the form attaches a consequence to choosing the EIN. If your business is a single-member LLC that is disregarded, use your own number as the owner, either your SSN or an EIN issued to you personally. If the LLC is taxed as a corporation or partnership, use the entity's EIN and skip the choice entirely.

Can I put my LLC's EIN on a W-9?

Not if the LLC is a disregarded single-member LLC. The IRS single member LLC page states that the W-9 should provide the owner's SSN or EIN, not the LLC's EIN, and the June 2026 draft of the form prints the same prohibition in Part I. A number paired with a name the IRS does not associate it with is what turns into a CP2100 notice to your client and, on the timeline in Publication 1281, 24 percent backup withholding. If your LLC elected corporate treatment or is taxed as a partnership, the answer flips: the entity's EIN is the right number.

Do you need an SSN to fill out a W-9?

No. A sole proprietor with an EIN may use it, and an individual who is not eligible for an SSN uses an ITIN, the IRS-issued Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. If you have no US taxpayer identification number because you are a foreign founder, the W-9 is generally not your form at all: a person who is not a US person certifies on a W-8 form instead. Our guides on getting an EIN without an SSN and W-8BEN-E versus W-9 cover that side.

Does a W-9 get sent to the IRS?

The form itself does not. The instruction printed at the top reads: give form to the requester, do not send to the IRS, and Publication 1281 repeats the same instruction. The requester keeps the form and uses what is on it, which means the name, number, and address you wrote do reach the IRS each January, carried on the information returns your client files.

Can I use a business address on a W-9 instead of my home address?

The form and its instructions place no restriction on the type of address, and Line 5's stated purpose is the place where the requester will mail your information returns. Use the address where you want the 1099 to arrive, and write NEW at the top if it differs from what the client has on file. Individual requesters can have their own onboarding policies, so a bank or platform may ask for more than the form itself requires.

Can You Use an EIN Instead of an SSN on a W-9? The Form Answers in Three Sentences

Short answer

Often yes. The current Form W-9, revised March 2024, says a sole proprietor with an EIN may enter either the SSN or the EIN, and the footnote that says the IRS encourages the SSN is a stated preference the form attaches no consequence to. The catch sits with single-member LLCs: the form asks for the owner's number, and the IRS single member LLC page says directly that the W-9 should provide the owner's SSN or EIN, not the LLC's EIN. Which of the form's three sentences applies to you follows from the name on Line 1, and the real risk is a name and number the IRS cannot pair, because that is what starts the 24 percent backup withholding clock.

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Key takeaways

The current Form W-9, revision March 2024, answers the question in three sentences: a sole proprietor with an EIN may enter either the SSN or the EIN, a disregarded single-member LLC enters the owner's number, and an LLC taxed as a corporation or partnership enters the entity's EIN.
Both circulating answers are quotes from the same document. The permission sits in the Part I instructions, and the preference, that the IRS encourages you to use your SSN, is footnote 3 of the form's name chart. Neither sentence attaches a consequence to choosing the EIN.
For a single-member LLC, the trap is whose number rather than which kind. The IRS single member LLC page says the W-9 should provide the owner's SSN or EIN, not the LLC's EIN, and the June 2026 draft of the form prints that prohibition in Part I.
Backup withholding is 24 percent and runs on a published clock: Publication 1281 has the payer start withholding no later than 30 business days after a CP2100 notice and stop within 30 calendar days of receiving a signed W-9. A second notice within three years cannot be cured by a W-9 at all.
The W-9 itself never goes to the IRS, but it never disappears either. Each client keeps a copy in vendor records, and Line 5 is where every 1099 gets mailed, which makes the address line the part of the form your clients actually see year after year.
For payments made after December 31, 2025, the 1099-NEC reporting threshold rises from $600 to $2,000. Fewer forms get filed, but clients still collect W-9s at onboarding, because a client cannot know at onboarding what the year's total will be.

Before you start

This guide is written for US persons, which for the W-9 means citizens, resident aliens, and entities organized in the United States. If you are a foreign founder without an SSN, the W-9 is generally not your form, and the paths that apply to you are in our EIN without an SSN guide and our W-8BEN-E versus W-9 guide.
Have your EIN paperwork in front of you if you plan to use an EIN. The IRS matches the name and number as a pair, so the name on Line 1 needs to be the name the IRS associates with that number, which for a sole proprietor EIN is your own.
Quotes in this guide come from the Form W-9 with a revision date of March 2024, which is the current version as of August 15, 2026, and from a posted draft dated June 2026 that is marked not for filing and can change before adoption.

Who this is for

Freelancers and sole proprietors holding a client's W-9 request and wondering whether the EIN they already have can go on it instead of their SSN.
Single-member LLC owners whose LLC has its own EIN, because the number that feels most official is the one the IRS says not to use.
Anyone who has read both that either number works and that the IRS would rather have your SSN, and wants to see where each claim comes from.

The request usually lands in your inbox with a deadline attached. A client is onboarding you as a vendor, their accounting system wants a Form W-9 before the first invoice gets paid, and the form asks for a taxpayer identification number.

You have two: the Social Security number on your card, and the EIN, the Employer Identification Number you requested when you opened the business bank account. Handing the SSN to a client feels wrong, and the internet seems split on whether the EIN is allowed.

On the search page we captured on August 15, 2026, the top result was a Reddit thread asking this question for a single-member LLC, and the first People Also Ask entry asked whether to use the SSN or the EIN. Two answers dominate the page. One says either number works. The other says the IRS wants your SSN. Both positions are quotes from the same document: they sit a page apart on the current Form W-9, one in the instructions and one in a footnote.

This guide reads the current form, revision March 2024, line by line: the three sentences that answer the question by entity type, the footnote that created the split, the 24 percent consequence when a name and number do not match, and the one line on the form that decides which address your clients keep on file. At the end we cover the June 2026 draft revision, because the draft deletes one of the two circulating answers.

The current form answers in three sentences

Part I of the Form W-9 instructions resolves the debate in one paragraph. We quote the three sentences in full because each one is a different answer for a different reader.

The first sentence is plain permission. A sole proprietor with an EIN may enter either number. No condition is attached, no preference is expressed at this spot in the form, and nothing asks you to explain the choice.

The second sentence changes the subject in a way that is easy to miss. For a single-member LLC that is disregarded, the form does not offer the LLC a choice. It points at the owner. The number it wants is the owner's SSN or the owner's EIN, and as the next section covers, an EIN the LLC obtained in its own name is a different number from an EIN the owner holds as an individual.

The third sentence removes the choice in the other direction. An LLC that elected corporate treatment, or an LLC taxed as a partnership, enters the entity's EIN. There is no SSN option, because the form is no longer looking through to a person.

Which row you fall in follows from Line 1, not from which numbers you happen to hold. The Instructions for the Requester of Form W-9 say the same thing from the other side: information for disregarded entities is reported with the owner's name on Line 1 and the entity's name on Line 2. If the name on Line 1 is your own, the number below it must be one the IRS has paired with you.

The three sentences, quoted in full

'If you are a sole proprietor and you have an EIN, you may enter either your SSN or EIN. If you are a single-member LLC that is disregarded as an entity separate from its owner, enter the owner's SSN (or EIN, if the owner has one). If the LLC is classified as a corporation or partnership, enter the entity's EIN.' Form W-9, revision March 2024, Part I instructions, read on August 15, 2026.

Your situation	Name on Line 1	Number in Part I	Where the form says so
Sole proprietor, no LLC	Your individual name	Your SSN or your EIN, either one	Part I instructions and footnote 3 of the name chart
Single-member LLC, disregarded for tax purposes	Your individual name, with the LLC name on Line 2	The owner's SSN or the owner's EIN	Part I instructions and the name chart row for disregarded entities owned by an individual
LLC that elected C corp or S corp treatment	The LLC's name	The entity's EIN	Part I instructions
Multi-member LLC taxed as a partnership	The LLC's name	The entity's EIN	Part I instructions

The name and number pairings on Form W-9, revision March 2024, read on August 15, 2026. The pairing is the rule: each number must belong to the name on Line 1.

The single-member LLC catch: whose number, not which number

The Reddit thread at the top of the search page we captured asks the question for a single-member LLC, and that version of the question turns on one distinction: whose number, not which kind of number.

A single-member LLC often has its own EIN. The bank asked for one at account opening, or the formation service included the application, and the confirmation letter arrived addressed to the LLC. That number is real, and the LLC has uses for it in its own filings. Filling out a W-9 for a client is not one of them. The IRS single member LLC page says it directly: if a disregarded entity LLC that is owned by an individual is required to provide a Form W-9, the W-9 should provide the owner's SSN or EIN, not the LLC's EIN. We read that page on August 15, 2026, and the wording is the page's, not ours.

The reason an owner's EIN is allowed at all is a piece of IRS bookkeeping worth knowing. An individual gets one EIN as a sole proprietor no matter how many businesses they run: the Internal Revenue Manual states that an individual is permitted to have only one identification number regardless of the number or types of sole proprietorships they operate. And when an owner reuses that number after forming a single-member LLC, a separate part of the manual answers where the LLC name goes: the EIN remains in the owner's name, and the LLC's name rides along on what the IRS calls the sort name line. We cover that mechanism, and what it means when your names do not line up, in our guide to an EIN obtained before the LLC was approved.

If you are one step earlier and wondering whether your LLC needs an EIN at all, that is a separate question with its own triggers, and our guide on whether a single-member LLC needs an EIN walks through them. For the W-9, the short version is enough: the form looks through the LLC to you.

One boundary case rounds this out. The look-through lands differently when the single member is not a person. The form's name chart handles it in its own row: a disregarded entity not owned by an individual gives the owner's name and the owner's EIN. If your LLC is owned by another company, the W-9 speaks in that company's name, and the choice between an SSN and an EIN never comes up.

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The sentence about preferring your SSN is a footnote, and it is real

The other circulating answer, that the IRS would rather have your SSN, is not a myth. It is footnote 3 of the name and number chart on the same form, and it reads: 'You may use either your SSN or EIN (if you have one), but the IRS encourages you to use your SSN.' The footnote is attached to the chart row for a sole proprietorship or a disregarded entity owned by an individual, the same row that tells you to give the owner's name and number.

So both camps are holding a real quote. The instructions grant the choice without comment, and the footnote states a preference without a requirement. Encourages is the strongest word the form uses on this point, and nothing in the six pages of the March 2024 form turns that encouragement into a rule or attaches a consequence to picking the EIN.

The practical difference between the two numbers is exposure. A W-9 with your SSN on it hands your legal name and Social Security number to whoever asked, and as the address section below covers, the form stays in their files. A W-9 with a sole proprietor EIN hands over a number that was issued to you for business use. The IRS pairing still works either way, because the sole proprietor EIN is issued to you as an individual, which is exactly why the form can allow either.

What a mismatch costs: 24 percent, on a published timeline

Part II of the form is a certification signed under penalties of perjury, and the certification opens with the number: you certify that the number shown on the form is your correct taxpayer identification number. The enforcement mechanism behind that certification is backup withholding: under the form's own definition, a payer must under certain conditions withhold 24 percent of your payments and send it to the IRS.

What triggers it is a pairing failure, not a wrong kind of number. When a filed 1099 carries a name and TIN combination that does not match IRS records, the IRS sends the payer, which is your client, a CP2100 or CP2100A notice. Publication 1281, the IRS handbook for exactly this situation, then puts the payer on a clock.

Two details in that publication are worth pulling out. First, the cure for a first notice is simply a signed Form W-9, which is why a client who receives a CP2100 responds by sending you a fresh form with a short deadline. Second, a second notice within three calendar years takes the W-9 off the table: at that point an SSN gets validated with the Social Security Administration, and an EIN needs IRS Letter 147C. If your EIN paperwork is missing, our guide on replacing a lost CP 575 with a 147C letter covers how to request one.

All of which reframes the original question. The risk was never in choosing the EIN over the SSN, since both are correct numbers for a sole proprietor. The risk is in pairing a number with a name the IRS does not associate it with, and the pairing the IRS single member LLC page warns about is the one covered above: the LLC's own EIN next to your personal name.

Step	Deadline in Publication 1281	What cures it
IRS sends the payer a CP2100 or CP2100A notice	Arrives after a filed 1099 carries a name and TIN pair that does not match IRS records	Nothing yet; the notice starts the clock
Payer sends you a First B Notice with a blank W-9	Within 15 business days of the notice date or of receiving it, whichever is later	You return a signed Form W-9
Backup withholding begins at 24 percent	No later than 30 business days after the payer received the notice	A signed W-9 reaching the payer before that date
Backup withholding stops	Within 30 calendar days after the payer receives your certification	The signed W-9, for a first notice
Second notice within three calendar years	Same clock	A W-9 is no longer enough: SSA validation for an SSN, IRS Letter 147C for an EIN

The backup withholding timeline in Publication 1281, revision December 2023, read on August 15, 2026. The 24 percent rate is the one stated on the current Form W-9.

Line 5 decides which address every client has on file

While Part I gets the debate, the line with the most practical consequence for anyone working from home sits just below it. Line 5 asks for your address, and the instructions state its job in one sentence: this is where the requester of this Form W-9 will mail your information returns. The 1099-NEC your client sends in January goes to whatever you write there, and the instructions add one rule: if the address differs from the one the requester already has on file, write NEW at the top.

Now put that next to the sentence printed at the top of the form: give form to the requester, do not send to the IRS. The W-9 is not a filing. It is a document your client keeps, and every client who onboards you keeps their own copy in their vendor records. The Privacy Act notice on the form completes the loop: the person collecting the form uses the information on it to file information returns with the IRS. So the form itself stays in client files, and the name, number, and address on it travel onward each January on the 1099.

If Line 5 is your home address, that address now lives in the vendor file of every client you have invoiced, and on every information return they file about you. Within the six pages of the form and its instructions, we found no restriction on what kind of address goes there. The words residential and P.O. box appear nowhere in the document, home appears exactly once, in the name of the mortgage interest form 1098, and the only stated requirement is that the line hold the address where you want those returns mailed. A requester can still layer its own vendor-onboarding rules on top of the form, so if a client's system flags your address, that is the client's policy speaking, not the W-9.

The workflow answer is consistency: pick one business mailing address, use it on the W-9, the invoice header, and the 1099s that follow, and keep the home address out of the loop entirely. We walk through that setup, including what January looks like across multiple clients, in our freelancer guide to the W-9 and 1099-NEC, and the unincorporated version in our sole proprietor business address guide.

What changes in 2026: fewer 1099s, and a draft W-9 with sharper edges

Two changes are worth knowing about this year. One is enacted, and one is still a draft.

The enacted one shrinks the paper trail. For payments made after December 31, 2025, the reporting threshold for Form 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC rises from $600 to $2,000, with inflation adjustments beginning in calendar year 2027. The 2025 tax law made the change by substituting $2,000 for $600 in section 6041(a) of the tax code, and the IRS instructions for the two forms now carry the new floor on the reporting side and the backup withholding side alike. What the change does not shrink is the W-9 itself. A client cannot know in March whether your invoices will cross $2,000 by December, so vendor onboarding keeps collecting the form.

The draft one tightens the LLC rule. The IRS has posted a draft Form W-9 with a June 2026 revision date, marked draft, not for filing, and a draft can change before the final version is adopted. Three things stand out in the posted text. The sole proprietor choice survives: either the SSN or the EIN, unchanged. The single-member LLC rule gains the explicit sentence the current form lacks: do not enter the EIN of a disregarded entity, printed in Part I, with a matching footnote that says you may not enter the disregarded entity's EIN. And the sentence encouraging you to use your SSN is gone: it appears nowhere in the draft.

Read together, the direction is consistent. Nothing the IRS has posted takes the EIN option away from a sole proprietor. What the draft does is close the door this guide has been describing, the LLC's own EIN standing in for the owner's number, by printing the prohibition on the form instead of leaving it on a webpage.

Draft means draft

The June 2026 Form W-9 is posted at irs.gov as a draft and carries the banner 'DRAFT--NOT FOR FILING'. The current form to use remains the March 2024 revision. We describe the draft because it shows where the rules are heading, and we will update this guide if the final version differs.

Where save office fits

save office provides a real commercial business address, which is the consistent address this guide keeps coming back to: the one on your W-9 Line 5, your invoice header, and the 1099s your clients file, so that the address sitting in every vendor file is a business address rather than your home.

An address changes nothing about Part I. Which number you enter follows from the form's own rules, and no address service moves you between the rows of that table. What the address changes is where the January envelopes go, and what every client's records carry about you in the meantime.