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Applicable to the United States, an Employer Identification Number or EIN (also known as Federal Employer Identification Number or (FEIN)) is the corporate equivalent to a Social Security Number, although it is issued to anyone, including individuals, who has to pay withholding taxes on employees.

[edit] Other Names

Also known as the Tax Identification Number (TIN), Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN) or the Federal Tax Identification Number, the EIN is a unique nine-digit number assigned by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to business entities operating in the United States for the purposes of identification. When the number is used for identification rather than employment tax reporting, it is usually referred to as a TIN, and when used for the purposes of reporting employment taxes, it is usually referred to as an EIN. This article will use the latter term.

[edit] Comparison to Social Security Numbers

Similar in purpose to the Social Security Number assigned to individuals, EINs are used by employers, sole proprietors, corporations, partnerships, non-profit organizations, trusts and estates, government agencies, certain individuals and other business entities. The IRS uses this number to identify taxpayers that are required to file various business tax returns. Individuals who are employers may choose to either obtain an EIN or use their Social Security Number for the purpose of reporting taxes withheld on behalf of their employees. Contrary to some misconceptions, credit bureaus and credit issuers can tell the difference between SSN and EIN Numbers. SSN Numbers can be validated as to origin and state / year of issuance. The credit bureaus and issuers are highly trained in fraud detection, and increasingly sophisticated algorithms and protections are used. This is why the EIN is not considered sensitive information, and is freely distributed by many businesses by way of publications and the internet.

[edit] EIN Format

An EIN is usually written in the form 00-0000000 whereas a Social Security Number is usually written in the form 000-00-0000 in order to differentiate between the two. There are EIN Decoders on the web that can identify which state the company had registered the EIN Number in.^{[citation needed]} A business needs an EIN in order to pay employees and to file business tax returns. To be considered a Partnership, LLC, Corporation, S Corporation, Non-profit, etc a business must obtain an EIN. Those business that do not are considered proprietorships and the Owner / Operator SSN is used on any tax documents.

Prior to 2001, the first two digits of an EIN (the EIN Prefix) indicated the business was located in a particular geographic area. In 2001, EIN assignment was centralized at three of the IRS campuses, although all 10 campuses can assign an EIN, if necessary.

[edit] Tax Exempt, Charity, Non-profit organizations, and EINs

The issuance of an EIN to a non-profit organization is separate and distinct from the organization's actually obtaining tax-exempt status from the IRS. Each chapter of a national non-profit organization must have its own EIN, but the central organization may file for a group tax exemption. Before donating monies to a charity, it is always advisable to verify its proper registration and IRS Form 990 tax-exempt status. The entire database is searchable, and one can verify an entity's registration, status, and assets and liabilities registered in private databases.

All IRS Form 990-registered charities must obtain proper registration via the Internal Revenue Service; while giving to charities is noble, one should verify the authenticity of such charities, first, with some investigation. Another source for verifying an entity's tax-exempt status is the IRS, itself, *IRS, but navigating the site and finding non-profit organisation databases is difficult.

[edit] EIN Expiration

EINs do not expire. Once an EIN has been issued to an entity, it will not be reissued.

[edit] See also

• CAGE Code issued by the Defense Logistics Information Service (DLIS) to identify suppliers to the Department of Defense.
• D.U.N.S. number issued by Dun & Bradstreet and required for certain U.S. government contractors and federal grant recipients
• Confidential T.P.I.N. number issued by the Central Contractor Registry of the U.S. Government

[edit] External links

• IRS Publication 1635: Understanding Your EIN
• How to Apply for an EIN
• Getting a new EIN

[edit] Verifying EINs

The USA PATRIOT Act and the Know your customer rules of financial institutions require that they verify and authenticate an account holders Tax ID Number or Employer identification number (EIN) prior to opening a financial account. The accounts are linked to the EIN for Tax reporting purposes. Accountants, Tax preparers and anyone in business should also verify a vendors EIN Tax ID Number when opening a subcontractor account or issuing payments. The EIN should also be verified on IRS W-9 Forms. A useful and comprehensive searchable databases are maintained by several private firms linked below, the largest of which is FEINSearch.com. Larger financial institutions may run periodic KYV or AML (Anti Money Laundering) audits during the year and run batch scans or batch verifications of officer SSN and entity EIN reported numbers. All of these measures are healthy and industry accepted AML and KYC procedures.

• EINfinder.com lists 7 million EINs. The first three searches are free. Additional searches are available on a subscription basis.
• FEINSearch.com lists 12.5 million EINs. The first few searches are free. Additional searches are available on a subscription basis.
• Melissadata provides free searches, by organization name or ZIP code, of a database of over 1.3 million nonprofits' EIN numbers.