I have a friend who is not a US citizen and is not subject to US taxes. He typically pays expenses through a solely owned trust, which the IRS considers to be equivalent to a sole proprietorship. He typically comes to the United States to make investments and under US law this investing is not considered to be "operating" in the US, so he is exempt from any reporting requirements.
However, there is the problem of sundry payments to minor employees. For example, if he hires someone as a maid or to do some landscaping, how is this reported? A 1099 cannot be used because that requires an EID, which he does not have.
One possibility is to have the maid/landscaper report the income as foreign sourced. In this case my friend would not report the income, only the employee would. How is this done?