Employer identification number
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Applicable to the United States, an Employer Identification Number or EIN is the corporate equivalent to a Social Security Number, although it is issued to anyone, including individuals, who have to pay withholding taxes on employees.
Contents |
[edit] Other Names
Also known as the Tax Identification Number (TIN), Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN) or the Federal Tax Identification Number, it 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.
[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.
[edit] Non Profit Organizations and EINs
The issuance of an EIN to a non-profit organization is separate and distinct from the organization actually obtaining tax exempt status with the IRS. Each Chapter of a National Non-profit Organization must have its own EIN but the central organization may file for a Group Exemption.
[edit] EIN Lookup
Individual state governments often provide EIN searches on their web sites, so they may be a better starting point for more specific searches.
FreeERISA.com provides an EIN looked up on roughly 6 million records. The first three searches are free. Additional searches are available on a for-pay basis.
Melissadata provides free searches, by organization name or ZIP code, of a database of over 1.3 million nonprofits' EIN numbers.
GuideStar maintains a free searchable database of more than one million nonprofits. The information returned used to include the EIN number, but a recent attempt to use this service indicates that the EIN is now only available to paid subscribers. Basic information such as the name and type of the non-profit is still available without charge, as well as copies of many filed IRS 990 forms.
KnowX provides for-pay lookup function, displaying company names and locations associated with a given EIN.
[edit] EIN Expiry
EINs do not expire but they are only numbers given to identify businesses. Nonprofit organizations need EINs to apply for an exemption from Federal Income Tax. Exemption is terminated if annual reports are not filed. To maintain a group exemption letter, the central organization must submit an annual report, at least 90 days before the close of its annual accounting period.
[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
