How to get an EIN yourself, free, in about ten minutes

An EIN, or Employer Identification Number, is your company's federal tax ID. You need one to open a business bank account, run payroll, and file most business tax returns. It is nine digits, it never expires, and it is the first thing a bank will ask you for after your formation certificate.

It is also free, and the IRS gives it to you immediately. There is a small industry built on obscuring that. The IRS says so itself, on its own page, in a line worth reading twice:

"Beware of websites that charge for an EIN. You never have to pay a fee for an EIN."

Here is the whole process, and the handful of rules that catch people out.

Before you start

The online application runs in one sitting and cannot be saved, so have these ready:

• Your formed entity. Apply after your LLC or corporation is registered with the state, so the legal name and formation date on the application match what the state has on file.
• The responsible party's SSN or ITIN. That is the person who controls the company and its funds. The IRS verifies this number against its records while you are in the form.
• A US principal place of business. The online tool requires your principal place of business to be in the US or a US territory. If it is not, there is a separate path below.
• Fifteen uninterrupted minutes. More on that in a moment.

The steps

1. 1

   Open the IRS application directly.

   It lives at irs.gov. Search results for "EIN" are thick with paid lookalikes, so go to the IRS domain rather than clicking an ad.
2. 2

   Check the hours before you begin.

   The tool is not open around the clock. It runs Monday to Friday from 6:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. Eastern the following day, Saturday from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., and Sunday from 6:00 p.m. to midnight.
3. 3

   Pick your entity type.

   LLC, corporation, sole proprietorship, and so on. An LLC is then asked how many members it has, which determines how it is taxed by default.
4. 4

   Name the responsible party.

   Their legal name and SSN or ITIN. This must be a real person who owns or controls the business, not your company, not your lawyer, and not a formation service.
5. 5

   Enter the business details.

   Legal name exactly as filed with the state, mailing address, county and state where it is located, formation date, and what the business does.
6. 6

   Receive the EIN on the last screen.

   If the application is approved the IRS issues the number immediately, on screen. There is no waiting period and nothing to check back for.
7. 7

   Download the confirmation letter before you close the tab.

   The CP 575 notice is your proof of the EIN, and this is the one moment it is offered to you. Save the PDF somewhere permanent. If you lose it later the IRS will not reissue a CP 575, and you have to call and ask for a 147C letter instead.

Three rules that catch people out

Almost every failed EIN application runs into one of these.

• The session expires after 15 minutes of inactivity, and you start over from the beginning. Nothing is saved. Do not begin until you have every answer in front of you.
• One EIN per responsible party per day. If you are standing up two companies, that is two days. The limit applies whichever way you apply, so switching to fax does not get around it.
• The responsible party has to be a person. In the IRS's words, it "must be a person, not an entity," with an exception only for government entities. Nominees do not qualify either: the IRS says plainly that they "can't apply for an EIN and shouldn't be listed on Form SS-4." A holding company cannot be the responsible party for its own subsidiary.

If you do not have an SSN or ITIN

This is the real gap, and it is the one the paid services tend not to mention. The online tool verifies the responsible party against IRS records, so a founder without an SSN or ITIN is blocked by it entirely. You are not stuck, but you are off the ten minute path.

If you are a foreign founder, the phone route is worth the call charge. Four weeks of waiting on a mailed SS-4 is four weeks you cannot open a bank account.

So what are the paid services selling?

LegalZoom charges $79 for this. Their page says they will "complete the application and file it directly online with the IRS," falling back to preparing an SS-4 and sending it to you "in rare cases where the online system isn't available." In other words, they use the same free government form on the same website, and they type your answers into it.

Their requirements list is the same one above, including each owner's Social Security number. Their page does not address founders who have no SSN or ITIN at all, which is the only group for whom this is genuinely hard.

The fee is not buying you access. There is no professional channel here. It is buying you not having to fill in a form.

That can be a fair trade. If you are forming several entities, if you find government forms genuinely stressful, or if you want one company holding the whole formation file, paying someone to type it is a defensible use of $79. What is not defensible is paying it because you were left with the impression that the EIN itself costs money, or that a service can get one faster. It does not, and they cannot. The IRS issues it on the last screen either way.

After you have it

Put the CP 575 letter somewhere you will find it in two years, because your bank, your accountant and your payroll provider will each ask for it. It belongs in the same place as your formation certificate and your operating agreement rather than in an email thread.

If Arabella is forming your company, you do not have to do any of this. Ask us and we will get the EIN for you, free, once the state approves your formation, and send you the letter when it arrives. We do not charge for it, for the reason this whole piece is about: the IRS does not charge us either. Most formation questionnaires put the question in front of you. If you are forming a Delaware C corporation you will not see it yet, so reply to your confirmation email and we will pick it up from there.