Just a friendly recommendation here.
I have an EIN, but I don't really use it for business purposes
Why not? There's no reason to not use an EIN with your sole proprietorship. Under no circumstances will I give my business clients by SSN. There are no exceptions. They get my EIN or can take their business elsewhere.
When it comes to EINs and SSNs, since only the IRS issues the EIN, then only you and the IRS know what SSN that EIN is tied to.
If your SSN is "abused" either by a client or someone who stole your information from that client, they can destroy your entire life. Whereas if the EIN is misused, it only affects the business, and that's it. Much easher to deal with a stolen/misused EIN than it is with a stolen SSN.
With your SSN, your entire identity can be hijacked. But with an EIN, if you get indications it's being mis-used you can cancel that EIN with the IRS and the state, and get a new EIN from the IRS and register it with the state, all in the same day. Things aren't that simple or easy when your SSN is abused.
