To find your business’s Employer Identification Number, check the original IRS confirmation letter (Notice CP 575), any previously filed federal tax return, or your business bank and payroll records; if none of those turn it up, call the IRS Business and Specialty Tax Line at 800-829-4933 and ask for a replacement Letter 147C. To find another company’s EIN, the path depends on the entity: public companies disclose it in SEC filings, nonprofits disclose it on Form 990, and private companies generally do not disclose it at all, so you’ll need to request it directly using Form W-9.
Look Through Your Own Records
The IRS issues exactly one confirmation notice when it assigns an EIN, called CP 575, and the notice itself states that the IRS will not generate a duplicate.1Internal Revenue Service. Sample EIN Confirmation Letter If you saved it with your formation paperwork or in cloud storage, start there.
If the CP 575 is gone, your previously filed federal returns will have the number printed near the top of the first page. That covers Form 1120 for corporations, Form 1065 for partnerships, Form 1120-S for S corporations, and Schedule C for sole proprietors filing with a personal 1040. Payroll returns show it too: Form 941 requires the EIN at the top of both pages, and the annual Form 940 for unemployment tax carries it as well.2Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 941
Other places the number tends to appear: business license applications filed with your city or county, insurance policies, commercial lease agreements, and any correspondence from the IRS. It does not appear in your articles of incorporation or organization, because those documents are filed with the state before you apply for the EIN.3Internal Revenue Service. Employer Identification Number
Ask Your Bank, Payroll Provider, or a State Agency
Any bank that opened a commercial account for your business has your EIN on file and can confirm it when you call or visit a branch with proper identification.4U.S. Small Business Administration. Open a Business Bank Account One caveat: sole proprietors sometimes open accounts under a Social Security number rather than an EIN, so check which one the bank has before making the trip.
Payroll providers are another reliable source. They can’t file quarterly employment tax reports on your behalf without the correct EIN, so log into your payroll dashboard or call support and ask for the number on your account.
State and local agencies where you registered for a sales tax permit, professional license, or other business filing usually store the number too. Many Secretary of State offices maintain searchable business databases online, and the EIN sometimes appears in the entity’s filing record.
Get It Directly From the IRS
If your own records and third parties come up short, go to the source. The IRS has no online EIN lookup for your own number, so you’ll use the phone or the mail.
Call the Business and Specialty Tax Line
Call 800-829-4933, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in your local time (Alaska and Hawaii follow Pacific time).5Internal Revenue Service. Telephone Assistance Contacts for Business Customers The agent will verify your identity using your Social Security number, the legal name of the business, and the address on file, and will confirm your role, since the IRS releases the number only to someone authorized to act for the entity (owner, partner, corporate officer, or trustee). A tax professional with a valid Power of Attorney on file (Form 2848) can make the call for you.
Ask for Letter 147C
While you’re on that call, ask the agent to send Letter 147C, the IRS’s official replacement EIN confirmation. If you have a fax number, the agent can fax it during the call; otherwise expect it by mail in roughly four to six weeks.3Internal Revenue Service. Employer Identification Number Letter 147C serves the same proof-of-EIN purpose as the original CP 575 and is often what banks and lenders will accept as documentation.
Request a Business Tax Transcript
You can also request a business tax transcript by filing Form 4506-T at no cost.6Internal Revenue Service. Request for Transcript of Tax Return The transcript shows key information from a previously filed return, including the EIN. Useful when you need a paper record and can’t get through by phone.
Finding Another Business’s EIN
How you locate a third party’s EIN depends on the type of entity. Public companies and nonprofits are subject to disclosure rules; private companies are not.
Public Companies
Publicly traded companies file annual and quarterly reports with the SEC, and the EIN appears on the cover page of Form 10-K (annual) and Form 10-Q (quarterly). Search the SEC’s EDGAR system at sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar by company name or ticker symbol to pull up the filings.7Investor.gov. EDGAR
Nonprofit Organizations
Tax-exempt organizations must make their annual Form 990 returns available to the public, with the EIN displayed at the top of the first page.8Internal Revenue Service. Public Disclosure and Availability of Exempt Organization Returns and Applications – Public Disclosure Overview The IRS runs a free Tax Exempt Organization Search at apps.irs.gov/app/eos where you can look up organizations by name, city, or state and view their filed returns.9Internal Revenue Service. Tax Exempt Organization Search Organizations must keep these returns available for three years from the filing date.
Private Companies
Private businesses have no legal obligation to publish their EIN. The number is confidential tax information, and no government database will produce it on request. If you need a private company’s EIN for a legitimate reason (issuing a 1099, completing a contract, running due diligence), ask the company itself, usually with a Form W-9.
Collecting an EIN From a Contractor or Vendor With Form W-9
When you hire an independent contractor or engage a vendor and expect to pay them $600 or more in a year, you need their taxpayer identification number so you can file a 1099 at year-end. The standard way to collect it is to send a Form W-9 and ask them to complete and return it. The W-9 requires the payee to provide their name, entity type, address, and TIN (the EIN for most businesses) under penalty of perjury.10Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for the Requester of Form W-9
If a payee refuses to provide a TIN or never returns the W-9, you’re required to withhold 24% of every reportable payment and remit it to the IRS as backup withholding. That’s a strong incentive to cooperate. If the payee writes “Applied For” in place of a TIN, you generally have 60 calendar days before backup withholding kicks in, though for nonemployee compensation the withholding applies immediately when no TIN is provided.
Federal EIN and State Tax ID Are Not the Same Number
A frequent point of confusion: your federal EIN and your state tax ID are separate numbers issued by different agencies for different purposes. The IRS issues the EIN for federal obligations like income tax, employment tax, and excise tax.11U.S. Small Business Administration. Get Federal and State Tax ID Numbers A state tax ID comes from your state’s revenue or taxation department and covers state obligations like income tax withholding and sales tax collection.
Not every business needs a state tax ID; it depends on whether the state imposes income tax, sales tax, or both. Nearly every business with employees, or that operates as a corporation or partnership, needs a federal EIN. When someone asks for your “tax ID number,” ask which one they mean before you send it. Giving the wrong number delays tax filings, permit applications, and bank account openings.