'Taxpayer Identification Number' [solved]

Reznik

Okay, so, I submit t-shirt designs to those sites that sell them from 1-3 days and then I get delicious money. This one site is requiring that I fill out part of a form that they have to submit to the government for tax purposes. The site's based out of Poland, the form is IFT-1[INFORMATION ON REVENUE (INCOME) DERIVED BY NONRESIDENT NATURAL PERSONS]

In the section I have to fill out ( C. DANE ODBIORCY NALEŻNOŚCI [IDENTIFICATION DATA OF BENEFICIAL OWNER] ) it is asking for a Taxpayer Identification Number. I e-mailed them asking what this means, they said that since I'm in Canada this is probably my Social Insurance Number.

I am understandably wary about this. I e-mailed them again saying I'm really not comfortable giving that out, and they assured me that it's only for internal settlements with the Tax Revenue Service and won't be given to anyone else.

I'm still nervous about this because my SIN is kind of important, and I don't have any kind of alternative number to provide (I don't have a business or anything that would have some kind of number to use)

So, what should I do? Am I just being overly paranoid in this case?

amateurhour

For a home business in the USA a lot of people use their SSN and register their business under it. If you want to avoid that you can just get a federal EIN for tax purposes and start a small home business, and an EIN (employer identification number) acts like your business SSN.

I'm sure Canada has something similar, but also if this place is trustworthy I wouldn't worry about it. They just need it for tax purposes.

Foomy

I would suggest you talk to someone at Revenue Canada, they would be able to tell you if your SIN would work just fine for what your doing, or if your going to need to register a business. They'll also let you know if you should be filing for things like GST/HST, you dont want to get penalties for not filing something.

contact info would be on http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca, or just search the site for a bit and maybe they have what you need in a FAQ

jwideman

That sounds kind of weird. Mind sharing the site link?

Pel

This is pretty standard in the US. Your SSN is pretty much your identity for tax purposes, and everyone you do business with needs it. It does seem like a bit of a flag that an international company needs it, since domestic companies use it for mandatory reporting to the IRS, and I can't imagine that overseas company have any such requirement, but I have no experience with that particular aspect. I seriously doubt it's anything shady: if they can't account for the money they pay out, then it's most likely taxed as income, so it's in their best interest to have a hard paper trail showing where everything goes, and that includes your ID number.