Content question: SSNs on model releases

[Cleo]

I still see a place where the model would need to put their tax ID on that form.
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fss8.pdf

I have a lot of friends who are here illegal (just about all of them got here legal but have overstayed their visa) and you can't hire them because they don't have a social security number.

I'm not a lawyer, CPA, accountant, or any kind of legal advice person but I do know that my CPA says that I need a tax ID number for all payments I make to a private person.

This has nothing to do with model releases, 2257, or anything at all to do with IDs other then my CPA says I need a tax ID of I pay someone for any kind of work or service.

I guess since I'm not actually required to report anything under $600 per year the IRS wouldn't know if I had obtained the tax ID number but then if I was audited or checked to see if I was hiring illegal immigrants then I would be required to show that I had them fill out the proper IRS form.

[Chop Smith]

Originally Posted by Cleo

I guess since I'm not actually required to report anything under $600 per year the IRS wouldn't know if I had obtained the tax ID number but then if I was audited or checked to see if I was hiring illegal immigrants then I would be required to show that I had them fill out the proper IRS form.

Of course you should follow the advice of your professionals.

At the point of audit, you would have to prove that the model was an independent contractor and that an employer/employee relationship did not exist between you and the model. When checking the independence of sub-contractors, lazy auditors will normally accept an EIN, 64-xxxxxxxx not SSN, as proof.