If you’ve forgotten your EIN, the fastest way to find your EIN number is to check the places it’s already recorded before calling anyone: the original IRS assignment letter, your last business tax return, your business bank, and any state license applications. If none of those turn it up, call the IRS Business and Specialty Tax Line at 800-829-4933 and a representative will read the number back to you once you verify your identity. The call is free.
Where Your EIN Is Already Written Down
Spend a few minutes here before dialing. The IRS itself recommends exhausting these before calling, because the business tax line can have long hold times.
- The CP 575 notice. This is the letter the IRS mailed when your EIN was first assigned. If it’s still in your files, it’s the most direct confirmation you’ll get.
- A past business tax return. Your EIN prints on every return you’ve filed. Sole proprietors, look at line D on Schedule C (Form 1040). Partnerships and corporations will find it near the top of the return.
- Your business bank. The bank captured your EIN when you opened the account. A call to your banker usually settles it.
- State tax registrations, business licenses, and permits. Those applications almost always required your federal EIN.
- Your accountant or payroll provider. Anyone who files taxes or runs payroll for you has the number on file.
Calling the IRS to Get It Read Back to You
When your own records come up empty, the phone call is the reliable fallback. The number is 800-829-4933, staffed Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time. Alaska and Hawaii callers follow Pacific time.
Before releasing the EIN, the representative will verify that you’re authorized to receive it. Expect to confirm the legal name of the business, its address, and the name and identifying information of a principal officer, general partner, or sole proprietor. Have your Social Security number ready, since the IRS ties the responsible party’s SSN to the EIN on file.
Once you clear identity verification, the agent reads the EIN to you on the call.
Getting Written Confirmation with Letter 147C
If a bank, lender, or licensing agency needs written proof of your EIN, ask for Letter 147C (“EIN Previously Assigned”) while you’re on the same call. It’s the IRS’s official replacement for the CP 575 and can only be requested by phone at 800-829-4933.
When the agent asks how to send it, choose fax if you need it quickly. It goes out during the call itself, so you’ll have it within minutes. By mail, expect four to six weeks. Either way, there’s no fee.
Having Someone Else Make the Call for You
If you’d rather have your accountant or attorney handle this, they’ll need Form 2848, Power of Attorney and Declaration of Representative, on file with the IRS first. That form authorizes a CPA, enrolled agent, or attorney to access your confidential tax information, including your EIN.
Once the 2848 is recorded on the IRS Centralized Authorization File, your representative can call the business tax line, verify their identity along with yours, and retrieve the number. This is useful when the owner is unavailable or when the person who originally applied for the EIN has left the organization.
Do Not Apply for a New EIN
This is the mistake to avoid. When the number doesn’t turn up in a few minutes of searching, it’s tempting to just apply again online. Don’t. A business entity should have only one EIN, and a second one creates a duplicate that tangles your tax records going forward.
With two EINs on file, the IRS may not be able to match your future payments and returns to your prior filing history. That can trigger notices, delay refunds, and create problems that take months to untangle. Fixing a duplicate requires the IRS’s internal processing team to manually consolidate the accounts; it isn’t something you can resolve yourself online or through a standard agent call.
If you’ve already applied for a second EIN, call 800-829-4933, explain the situation, and the agent can tell you which number to use going forward and start the consolidation process.
Why It’s Worth Recovering Quickly
A missing EIN can cost you real money. If you can’t furnish a correct Taxpayer Identification Number on a Form W-9 when a client or vendor asks for one, the payer is required to withhold 24% of your payments as backup withholding under IRC section 3406. That money goes to the IRS, and you don’t see it again until you file your return and claim the credit. For a freelancer or small business running on tight cash flow, that’s an avoidable hit.
You’ll also need the EIN to open or maintain business bank accounts, apply for business credit, hire employees, and file most business tax returns. State agencies use your federal EIN to link your state tax accounts, so basic operations stall while it stays lost.
Looking Up a Nonprofit’s EIN Is Different
If the EIN you’re after belongs to a tax-exempt organization rather than your own business, the IRS runs a free public search called Tax Exempt Organization Search. You can search by organization name or EIN, and it draws on Pub 78 data, determination letters, and Form 990 filings. It only covers 501(c)(3) and other registered tax-exempt entities. There is no equivalent public lookup for a for-profit business’s EIN, which is why the phone call above is the route for your own company.