Can California law force disclosure of Social Security Numbers?

Most businesses obtain a Form W-9, Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification, from their independent contractors.

Since some ICs provide only their FEIN on Form W-9, the EDD was asked if a business could provide an FEIN instead.

Although some of the EDD’s employees have businesses to use either number, the EDD’s official response is: “We do not accept the FEIN in lieu of the SSN.

For child support purposes, we do not have an FEIN/SSN matching program.” The EDD will be educating staff of the proper reporting requirements.

You will need to obtain the SSN as well as the FEIN for some sole proprietors.

According to the EDD, if you do not have an SSN, you may enter “Unable to obtain SSN” or all zeros in the SSN box, or you may leave SSN box empty.

At the present time, the EDD is not assessing the $24 per failure to report penalty.

However, if and when the EDD begins assessing the penalty the department has stated that it may abate the service recipient’s penalties if it is found that there was reasonable cause for not including the SSN.