Shopper Question of the Week: “Why Do You Need My Social Security Number?”

November 10, 2009

First of all, please be aware that you can register as a mystery shopper with Beyond Hello without providing your Social Security number, but that we need it for U.S. shoppers before we can process a payment to you. If you prefer to register without providing your number, you’ll still have an opportunity to give us a “test drive” by seeing what types of shops are available. Once you decide to accept a shop, however, we need the rest of your information to process a payment for the completed project.

As an independent contractor, U.S. shoppers can decide to give us EITHER a Social Security Number (SSN) OR Employer Identification Number (EIN). We do need one or the other, since the IRS requires that we track payments to every contractor. Furthermore, if a contractor earns more than $600 in any calendar year, we are obligated to report that to the IRS.

Please note: Some contractors prefer to submit an EIN instead of their SSN whenever possible because they feel it can help protect against identity theft. If you’re interested in learning more about obtaining an EIN, you can check with the IRS.

If you’d like to submit a question for our “Shopper Question of the Week,” please click here to contact us.