What to do about old SP/EIN record based on erroneous data?

[winstonbishop]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY

Hi there folks,

Embarrassingly stupid situation here, but here goes. Late last year, I was preparing to start a home business, and as part of the process I had my assistant file for a Sole Proprietor EIN through the online form on the IRS website. The submission was processed and she provided me with the resulting EIN. As it turned out, the business idea went nowhere, and I never actually used the EIN for anything. No returns were ever filed with this EIN, no money ever changed hands, and the EIN was not even given to anyone for anything. I soon forgot about the whole thing, and did not cancel or deactivate the Sole Proprietorship.

Here's the problem: when I was going through my records the other day, I took a look at the documentation from when my assistant filed for the EIN, and realized for the first time that she made a whole bunch of errors, apparently due to reading the wrong lines off of one of my family records spreadsheets. Specifically, instead of my name and SSN, she provided my son's name, and his SSN. He was 14 at the time, but in the DOB field my own birthdate was provided, and somehow the system didn't detect his SSN as belonging to a minor, I guess. To make matters even worse, in the address and phone-number fields, she provided the address and phone number of the office I had been PLANNING on moving to, instead of my then-current address and phone number as I had instructed. Because the business never went anywhere, I never ended up actually closing the deal on that office, and as far as I can tell the address and phone number have been defunct since then.

I have no reason to suspect that the IRS has noticed or cared about any of this, but I'm a bit worried about the theoretical potential that some IRS drone will someday notice the record and suspect foul play of some kind, what with the name/SSN belonging to a minor, mismatched birthdate, and the potentially suspicious address and phone number. I just don't want to trigger an audit, investigation, fine or any other legal consequences. What is the most prudent way of handling this kind of thing? The EIN has never and will never be used for anything, so can I just leave it alone and rest assured that no one will ever notice or care about any of this? Or do I need to make a phone call and set things right somehow--and, if so, is there any danger that I will bring negative attention upon myself in the process? If I need to contact someone about this, what's the protocol--who do I call and what should I say to avoid arousing suspicion?

You all get the idea, I think. Thanks so much for any and all words of sage advice!

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY

Hi there folks,

Embarrassingly stupid situation here, but here goes. Late last year, I was preparing to start a home business, and as part of the process I had my assistant file for a Sole Proprietor EIN through the online form on the IRS website. The submission was processed and she provided me with the resulting EIN. As it turned out, the business idea went nowhere, and I never actually used the EIN for anything. No returns were ever filed with this EIN, no money ever changed hands, and the EIN was not even given to anyone for anything. I soon forgot about the whole thing, and did not cancel or deactivate the Sole Proprietorship.

Here's the problem: when I was going through my records the other day, I took a look at the documentation from when my assistant filed for the EIN, and realized for the first time that she made a whole bunch of errors, apparently due to reading the wrong lines off of one of my family records spreadsheets. Specifically, instead of my name and SSN, she provided my son's name, and his SSN. He was 14 at the time, but in the DOB field my own birthdate was provided, and somehow the system didn't detect his SSN as belonging to a minor, I guess. To make matters even worse, in the address and phone-number fields, she provided the address and phone number of the office I had been PLANNING on moving to, instead of my then-current address and phone number as I had instructed. Because the business never went anywhere, I never ended up actually closing the deal on that office, and as far as I can tell the address and phone number have been defunct since then.

I have no reason to suspect that the IRS has noticed or cared about any of this, but I'm a bit worried about the theoretical potential that some IRS drone will someday notice the record and suspect foul play of some kind, what with the name/SSN belonging to a minor, mismatched birthdate, and the potentially suspicious address and phone number. I just don't want to trigger an audit, investigation, fine or any other legal consequences. What is the most prudent way of handling this kind of thing? The EIN has never and will never be used for anything, so can I just leave it alone and rest assured that no one will ever notice or care about any of this? Or do I need to make a phone call and set things right somehow--and, if so, is there any danger that I will bring negative attention upon myself in the process? If I need to contact someone about this, what's the protocol--who do I call and what should I say to avoid arousing suspicion?

You all get the idea, I think. Thanks so much for any and all words of sage advice!

You would be surprised how many people file for EIN's that never end up being used...particularly the sole proprietor ones. Its really not anything that you really need to worry about but you could send a letter to the IRS asking them to cancel the EIN as the business never got started.

 

[winstonbishop]

Thanks LdiJ. I think I'd rather just leave the whole thing alone, as long as there is no danger or likely negative consequences in doing so. If anyone else on here has any input, I'd love to hear that too!