How to find a company's EIN (and when you can't)

Your own company's EIN

It's on the IRS notice that assigned it (CP 575), on any tax return the business has filed, on payroll filings (941, 940), on the bank's account-opening records, and on any W-9 you've given a customer. If none of those is at hand, call the IRS Business & Specialty Tax Line at 1-800-829-4933; after verifying you're authorized, they'll give it to you by phone and can mail or fax a Letter 147C confirming the name and number, which is the document to keep.

Your employer's EIN (W-2, PSLF, benefits)

Box b of your Form W-2. If you don't have a W-2 yet, a pay stub sometimes shows it, and HR or payroll can give it to you. For Public Service Loan Forgiveness the employer certifies the form with its EIN, so ask HR rather than searching; for a public employer (school district, agency, hospital system) the number is often on the organization's own W-9 posted for vendors, which is public.

A vendor's or contractor's EIN, for a 1099

Ask for a Form W-9. That is the process the IRS designed: the payee certifies their name and TIN under penalties of perjury, you keep the form, and it counts as the solicitation that protects you from penalties if the number turns out wrong. If a vendor won't give one, you withhold 24% on reportable payments and file with the TIN blank; your solicitation record is your defense. The one thing not to do is fill in a number you found elsewhere and hope it matches: an EIN you look up may belong to a parent, a predecessor or a different entity with a similar name, and a wrong pair earns you a CP2100 a year later. Looking up a number can be a useful check on a W-9, or a way to find the right entity when a vendor gave you a name and nothing else, but it isn't a substitute for the form. See the solicitation rules.

Public companies and nonprofits

• Public companies: the EIN is on the cover page of every 10-K and 10-Q, searchable free in the SEC's EDGAR system ("IRS Employer Identification No.").
• Nonprofits: Form 990 is public and shows the EIN; the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search and sites like ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer and GuideStar/Candid index them by name.
• Government entities and universities: most post a W-9 on their procurement or vendor pages.
• Healthcare providers: the NPI registry (NPPES) doesn't show EINs, but a provider's W-9 is routinely supplied to payers.

EIN lookup services

Commercial databases compile EINs from filings, state records, court documents and other sources and let you search by company name or reverse-search a number to a name. They're useful for accounts-payable and compliance teams that need to resolve a name to the right entity, confirm which of several similarly named companies a W-9 refers to, or find a number for a vendor who has gone quiet. They are not official IRS data: coverage is partial, small businesses are often missing, and a hit is a reference point to confirm with the payee, not proof. Any result should be run through IRS TIN matching before it goes on a return.

Verifying an EIN you were given

Two different questions. Is it a valid format? Nine digits, first two from the set of prefixes the IRS has actually issued; the format checker tells you in a second. Does it belong to this name? Only the IRS can answer that, through the TIN Matching Program (for enrolled payers) or a service built on it; the result is a code, and code 0 means the pair matches. If it doesn't, ask the vendor for their CP 575 or Letter 147C and compare the legal name character for character. The TIN matching guide explains the codes and the common reasons real pairs fail.

Questions people ask