How to get an EIN — every route, and which one applies to you

Which route applies to you

Online — instant, and the right answer for most people

If you qualify, use it. You get the number at the end of the session and can file a return or make a payment with it immediately. Nothing else is faster and nothing is cheaper than free.

The IRS lists three conditions:

• You have the responsible party's Social Security number or individual taxpayer ID number.
• Your principal place of business is in the US or US territories.
• You apply for no more than 1 EIN per responsible party per day.

Hours (Eastern time): Monday to Friday 6:00 a.m. – 1:00 a.m. the next day; Saturday 6:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.; Sunday 6:00 p.m. – midnight.

Fax — when the online tool is closed to you

This is the route for a responsible party with no SSN or ITIN, and for entities with no US legal residence or principal place of business. You complete Form SS-4, sign it, and fax it to the IRS. Per the instructions, you receive the EIN by fax generally within four business days — provided you gave a return fax number.

Which number depends on your situation. Our fax number finder resolves it, and the EIN-without-an-SSN guide walks through the form line by line, including what to put on line 7b.

Mail and phone

Mail. The instructions tell you to send Form SS-4 at least four to five weeks before you need the EIN; the number comes back in approximately four weeks. Fine if nothing depends on it, painful if a bank account or a filing deadline does.

Phone. Applying by telephone is available only to applicants outside the United States and its territories: 267-941-1099, 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Eastern, Monday to Friday. Not toll-free. The person calling must be authorised to receive the EIN and answer questions about the form.

EIN by entity type

LLC. An LLC needs its own EIN once it has employees or owes excise tax, and in practice whenever a bank, payment processor or state agency asks for one. A single-member LLC treated as a disregarded entity still gets its own EIN for employment and excise tax reporting.

Sole proprietorship. File only one Form SS-4 — a sole proprietor files once regardless of how many businesses or trade names they operate. Many sole proprietors with no employees can simply use their SSN.

Trusts. The responsible party is the grantor, owner or trustor; on line 3 you enter the trustee's name. The one-EIN-per-day limit is applied to the grantor, owner or trustor.

Estates. Enter the name of the estate, and the SSN or ITIN of the deceased person. The daily limit is applied to the decedent.

Nonprofits and pension plans. An organisation needs an EIN to report and pay employment and excise taxes, and a new EIN when a pension plan is established.

"Free EIN" — what you should and shouldn't pay for

The IRS charges nothing for an EIN, through any of the four routes. Services that advertise "EIN filing" are selling form-filling and hand-holding, not access — the underlying application is free and the IRS says so on its own page.