EIN applications checklist: 12 points to review in 2027

Applying for a federal identifier takes a few minutes. Getting it attached to the right taxpayer, with the right person named, at the right point in the sequence, is what takes preparation. The application is not a form to fill in creatively: every answer should already be settled before you open it.

This is the list of things that should be settled. Work down it and the application itself becomes clerical.

What to take away

• Everything that goes on the application should already be true and already be recorded somewhere else.
• The entity has to exist first, in the exact name the state accepted. Applying before that attaches the number to something that may not survive.
• The responsible party is a real person with genuine authority, not an adviser or a service.
• The IRS issues the number at no charge, and nobody else issues one. Any fee you pay is a service fee.

Before you apply

• The entity is formed and confirmed by the state, if you are forming one. The confirmation, not the submission.
• The exact legal name is copied from the state's own record, character for character, including punctuation.
• Any trade name you use is settled separately, because it is a different thing from the legal name. What that filing does is set out in trade names.
• The entity's address of record is decided, and it is somewhere post is actually read.
• The responsible party is identified: a real person with authority over the entity and its funds.
• That person's own identifying details are to hand.
• You have checked whether your situation calls for a number at all rather than assuming, against the IRS's own criteria on its employer identification number pages.
• You know which application channel you are using and any conditions attached to it, from the IRS's application page.

The responsible party

This one item causes more later trouble than the rest of the list combined, so it gets its own check.

• The person named genuinely controls the entity and its funds.
• It is not the accountant, the lawyer, the filing service or a nominee.
• The person named knows they are named.
• There is a note in your records of who it is and when they were named.
• Somebody owns the job of updating it when control changes.

The reason for the care is that this is the record the IRS uses when it needs to reach a person about the entity. A name that was convenient at the time and wrong afterwards is a record that quietly stops working, and the wider category of records that go stale like this is covered in keeping the record current.

While you apply

• Start from the agency's own site, checked in the address bar, rather than from a search result.
• Do not pay anyone a "government fee". There is none for this.
• Answer the questions from your records rather than from memory.
• Stop if a question asks something you have not settled, and settle it first.

After you receive it

• Save the confirmation somewhere durable, not only in an email account.
• Check the entity name on it against the state record, character by character.
• Check the responsible party named on it.
• Give it to whoever prepares your returns, and to your bookkeeper.
• Add it to a single list of every identifier the business holds.

That last item is worth building properly. A business accumulates a federal identifier, a state registration number, state tax accounts, local license numbers and the registry file number for the entity itself. They arrive from different authorities on different days, and the moment you need one is never a moment you have time to look. What the number is actually for, and the long list of things it does not do, is in the identifier explained.

What this does not cover

State tax registrations are a separate system with separate numbers, and holding a federal identifier does not register you anywhere at state level. Licenses and permits are separate again. And whether the entity you formed is the right one remains a judgment made with a lawyer and an accountant, from the comparison in weighing the forms. None of that is settled by this checklist, and holding the number settles none of it either. Where the state filing itself fits in the order is set out in filing with the state.

Common questions

Can I apply before the state has confirmed the formation?

You can, and it is the mistake worth avoiding. The number attaches to a taxpayer named in a particular way, and if the state later refuses the name you have a number pointing at something that does not exist.

What if I get a detail wrong?

Some corrections are straightforward and some are not, and which is which depends on the detail. Ask the IRS rather than filing a second application, because two identifiers for one taxpayer splits your history and causes more work than the original error.

Do I need a new number if something changes?

Sometimes. A change of name, address, ownership or entity type are not treated alike, and the IRS publishes the situations that call for a new one. Look yours up rather than reasoning it out.

Is there anything on this list a service does for me?

A service can submit the application. Every item above is something you still have to have settled, which is why the errand is the small part.

How long should the whole thing take?

The preparation is an hour if the entity is already formed and the details are recorded. The application itself is short. People stretch it because they start it before the preparation is done.