What Name Goes on a W-9 for a Disregarded Entity?

On a W-9 for a disregarded entity owned by an individual, your own legal name goes on Line 1, and the LLC’s name goes on Line 2. The taxpayer identification number belongs to you, the owner, not the LLC. Reversing those two lines is the single most common W-9 error, and it triggers backup withholding at 24% along with penalties that can hit both you and the payer.

Why the Owner’s Name Controls the Form

A disregarded entity is a business the IRS ignores for income tax purposes. The classic example is a single-member LLC that hasn’t elected corporate taxation. Your state treats the LLC as a separate legal entity and gives you liability protection, but the federal income tax system looks straight through it to you. All the income and expenses flow to your personal return.¹

Since the LLC doesn’t file its own income tax return, it can’t be the taxpayer on a Form 1099. When a client asks for a W-9, they need the name and TIN of whoever will actually report the income. For an individually owned disregarded entity, that person is you.

Line 1 and Line 2: Where Each Name Goes

Line 1 must contain the legal name of the individual owner, exactly as the IRS has it on file for your TIN. If John A. Smith owns Apex Consulting LLC, “John A. Smith” goes on Line 1.²

Putting the LLC on Line 1 is where things go wrong. When the payer files a 1099 pairing “Apex Consulting LLC” with John Smith’s SSN, the IRS sees a name that doesn’t match the number, and the mismatch process starts automatically.

Line 2 is labeled “Business name/disregarded entity name, if different from above.” That’s where the LLC’s legal name belongs. It lets the payer connect the W-9 to the business relationship in their own records, but the IRS uses Line 1 for its matching.³

On Line 3, check the box for “Individual/sole proprietor or single-member LLC.” That tells the payer the entity is disregarded and that the owner’s information governs the form.²

One boundary worth naming: if your single-member LLC has filed Form 8832 or Form 2553 to be taxed as a C-corporation or S-corporation, it is no longer disregarded. The LLC’s own name and EIN then go throughout the form, and you check the corporation box instead.

Which TIN to Enter: SSN or EIN

The W-9 instructions give individual owners a choice. For a sole proprietorship or disregarded entity owned by an individual, the form’s chart directs you to give the “name and SSN of the owner,” and adds that “you may use either your SSN or EIN (if you have one).”²

Plenty of sole proprietors get an EIN specifically so they don’t have to hand a Social Security number to every client that issues a 1099. That’s allowed. The catch is that whichever TIN you enter has to be associated with the name on Line 1 in IRS records. An EIN issued to you personally as a sole proprietor will match. An EIN issued in the LLC’s name as a separate entity will not.

When you’re unsure, use your SSN. It will always match your legal name in IRS records, and it’s the identifier the IRS prefers here.

When the LLC Still Uses Its Own EIN

Even though the LLC is invisible for income tax, the IRS treats it as a separate entity for employment taxes and certain excise taxes. If your LLC has employees, the LLC itself uses its own name and EIN on employment tax filings like Form 941. The same is true for excise tax returns on Forms 720, 730, 2290, and 11-C.¹

Don’t let that confuse the W-9 situation. Payroll and excise filings are separate forms with separate purposes. The W-9 you give a client for 1099 reporting still carries your personal name on Line 1 and your personal TIN.

When the Owner Isn’t an Individual

Not every single-member LLC is owned by a person. When the owner is an entity, the same look-through principle applies, but the name and TIN change to match the owner.

Corporation as owner: the corporation’s name goes on Line 1, the LLC’s name on Line 2, and the corporation’s EIN is the TIN. The LLC is treated as a division of the corporation for federal tax purposes.¹
Partnership as owner: the partnership’s name goes on Line 1 and the partnership’s EIN is the TIN. Individual partners’ names don’t appear on the form.²
Revocable (grantor) trust as owner: the grantor’s name goes on Line 1, because the revocable trust is itself disregarded. The grantor’s SSN is the TIN.²

The rule underneath all of this is the same one that governs the individual case: find the person or entity that actually reports the income on a tax return, and put that name and TIN on the W-9. The disregarded entity’s name never goes on Line 1.

Foreign Owners: Use a W-8, Not a W-9

If the single member is a foreign person or foreign entity, the W-9 doesn’t apply at all. The foreign owner provides Form W-8BEN (for an individual) or Form W-8BEN-E (for an entity). The IRS instructions for Form W-8BEN-E state that a disregarded entity does not submit the W-8BEN-E itself; the foreign single owner does.⁴

The reverse case is simpler. A U.S. person who owns a foreign LLC treated as disregarded provides a W-9 with their own name and TIN, the same as any domestic disregarded entity. The LLC being formed abroad doesn’t change the income tax treatment as long as the owner is a U.S. person.

What Happens If the Name and TIN Don’t Match

A mismatched W-9 sets off a chain of consequences that reach both the payer and the payee.

Backup Withholding at 24%

When the IRS detects that a name and TIN on an information return don’t match its records, it notifies the payer. The payer then has 30 days to begin backup withholding at a flat 24% on all future payments to that payee.⁵ That 24% comes off the top of each payment and goes straight to the IRS.⁶ You can claim the withheld amount as a credit on your return, but you won’t see the money again until you file.

The B-Notice Process

The IRS sends the payer a CP2100 or CP2100A notice listing payees whose name and TIN didn’t match. The payer then sends you a First B-Notice with a blank W-9 to complete correctly.⁷

If a mismatch happens a second time within three years, you’ll get a Second B-Notice, and a corrected W-9 alone won’t be enough. You’ll need to provide a copy of your Social Security card, or if you’re using an EIN, an IRS Letter 147C verifying that the name and number match.⁷

Many payers simply pause payments until they receive a corrected W-9. Continuing to pay without withholding after an IRS notice puts them at financial risk, so freezing payment is the safer choice for them.

Penalties on Both Sides

Payers who file information returns with incorrect TINs face penalties that scale with how long it takes to fix them, reaching hundreds of dollars per return for uncorrected filings and higher amounts for intentional disregard.⁸ That exposure is why companies that issue a lot of 1099s often refuse to process your first payment until the W-9 is right.

On your side, failing to provide a correct TIN when requested carries a penalty of $50 per failure, with a maximum of $100,000 per calendar year. This amount is fixed by statute and doesn’t adjust for inflation.⁹

Get Line 1 right and the rest of the form falls into place. Your legal name, your TIN, the LLC’s name on Line 2 if you have one, and the individual/sole proprietor or single-member LLC box checked on Line 3. That’s the form the IRS is expecting to see.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Single Member Limited Liability Companies
2
Internal Revenue Service. Form W-9 (Rev. March 2024)
3
Internal Revenue Service. About Form W-9, Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification
4
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form W-8BEN-E (10/2021)
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 3406 – Backup Withholding
6
Internal Revenue Service. Backup Withholding
7
Internal Revenue Service. Backup Withholding “B” Program
8
Internal Revenue Service. Information Return Penalties
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 6723 – Failure To Comply With Other Information Reporting Requirements