Hi Erin -- Glad you asked that; a lot of people are confused on this topic. When you apply for an EIN for your group, the IRS asks for an individual's social security number on the application. This began, if I remember correctly, as part of the Patriot Act. It's meant to prevent people from setting up dummy corporations with no real purpose other than to conceal what's really going on (often money laundering). The IRS says the social security number is for identification purposes only. The person who gives his social security number on the application isn't liable or responsible for the group's activities in any way. It's just a way to discourage illegal activity. As far as using the school's tax ID, it's a can of worms. Every dollar you raise belongs to the school. Every dollar you spend is a school expenditure. At some point, control of that money will become an issue. You're much better off taking the simple step of getting an EIN and thus becoming independent.
- Craig
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Thank you very much. That makes sense. I will pass the info to the officers in my PTO. Thanks again!
- ErinTM
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Ok...thanks for the response. Soooo.....is that number only used for the application process. After that, what happens to it? We are unable to get anyone to offer his/her number because this entire process seems a tad ambiguous.
- jodyC*73
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