Can I confirm a sole proprietor's SSN?

A sole proprietor may have an EIN, an SSN, or both. The IRS and the Secretary of State do not share data, so a sole proprietor can hold an EIN without any state registration. That is the most common reason for a TIN Match Only result.

We recommend asking sole props to self-identify themselves early in the process, so that you can apply a tailored underwriting process. Here is our guide for sole proprietorship verification.

Within a POST/searches response:

• If the applicant gives you an EIN, submit it with the business name exactly as they registered it with the IRS. tin_match_type comes back as EIN.

• If they give you an SSN, you can submit it as the TIN on a business search with the owner’s name as the business name. A match returns tin_match_type of SSN.

If you have identified a sole proprietorship during the application, instead of a POST/searches request we would recommend using POST/tin_verifications or POST/person_searches (with the Order.TinMatching option).

These products run the exact same TIN matching check with the IRS against the person’s full name, without the rest of the noise from business search response.

In all cases, the TIN must be the full nine digits. The IRS does not accept partial TINs for business matching.