To be clear - there is no such thing as "freelance". You either are an independent contractor with a tax ID number, or your are an employee. The US government wants your tax money - no matter what, and will torture either you, or your employer to get it. When you are an employee, you thinkyour first job as a freelancer is to get a tax ID number. You then need to submit a W9, which you should fill out, scan onto the desktop of your computer, and prepare to email it to everything that you work for, for the rest of your life (until you go staff, in which case, they will need your social security number again).
