How to Get a US Employer Identification Number in 2026

The thing almost everyone gets wrong about the Employer Identification Number is in the name. People read "employer" and conclude they do not need one because they have no staff. Then the bank asks for it, the payment processor asks for it, and a return comes due that cannot be filed without it. An EIN is not a payroll registration. It is the Internal Revenue Service's account number for a business entity, the way a Social Security number is one for a person. Most entities need one on day one, with nobody on the books.

The second thing people get wrong is why the online application turns them away. You will be told, over and over, that the online tool is closed to foreign founders because they lack a Social Security number. That is half the picture, and the less restrictive half. The online application has two separate requirements: the responsible party must supply an SSN or ITIN, and the entity's principal business or office must be in the United States or a US territory — or, for an individual applicant, their legal residence must be. The geographic test is the harder one. A founder with a perfectly valid SSN living in Lagos or Lisbon, running a Delaware LLC from there, is still locked out, and no tax number fixes it.

This guide covers what an EIN is for, all four application routes with their real processing times, the Form SS-4 fields that get applications queried, how a founder with no US tax number gets one anyway, and the US$25,000 filing obligation that surprises foreign owners of single-member LLCs.

Who this guide is for

• Founders forming a US LLC or corporation who need a number before the bank will talk to them
• Non-US residents setting up a US entity to reach US customers or payment processors
• Single-member LLC owners who assumed no employees meant no EIN
• Sole proprietors using their Social Security number who want to stop
• Anyone rejected by the online application who does not know which test they failed
• Foreign owners of US disregarded entities who have never heard of Form 5472
• People weighing a paid formation service against applying themselves

Quick answer

An EIN is free from the Internal Revenue Service by every method, and there are four. Online is immediate but requires both an SSN or ITIN for the responsible party and a principal place of business in the US or a US territory. International phone on 267-941-1099, 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Eastern, Monday to Friday, issues the number during the call and is the route built for foreign applicants. Fax takes four business days if you give a return fax number. Mail takes four weeks. On Form SS-4, line 7a must name a natural person — never a company — and line 7b takes that person's SSN or ITIN, or "foreign" or "N/A" if they have neither and are ineligible. Form the entity first; the EIN attaches to something that legally exists. If your US single-member LLC is foreign-owned it owes a pro forma Form 1120 with Form 5472 attached, and the penalty for skipping it is US$25,000 plus a continuation penalty.

What an EIN actually is

An EIN is a nine-digit federal taxpayer identification number for an entity. It identifies the business to the Internal Revenue Service on returns and information filings, and to everyone else as proof the business exists as a tax entity. Banks and payment processors use it. Clients issuing you a Form 1099-NEC use it instead of your Social Security number, which is a privacy improvement on its own.

The word "employer" is a historical artefact. Corporations, partnerships and multi-member LLCs need a number structurally, regardless of staffing. A single-member LLC is a disregarded entity for federal income tax by default, so its income lands on the owner's return — and people conclude it needs no number of its own. In practice it does: the bank will insist, and if the owner is foreign there is a separate return the entity itself must file.

The four routes, and how long each takes

These are the processing times the Internal Revenue Service publishes, as at 12 October 2026. Note that mail is four weeks — not the "four to six weeks" that circulates widely.

All four are free. There is no expedite fee and no paid queue.

The online application and its real constraint

The online tool issues the number at the end of the session, which makes it the obvious choice when you qualify. Two tests decide that. First, you must supply the responsible party's SSN or ITIN. Second — the one that catches people — the entity's principal business or office, or the legal residence of an individual applicant, must be in the United States or a US territory. Foreign applicants must use phone, fax or mail.

Here is the correction worth bookmarking. The common framing is that the online route is blocked by the lack of a Social Security number, and that an ITIN therefore unlocks it. It does not, if your business is run from abroad. The residence and principal-place-of-business test is independent of the tax number test and is the stricter of the two. A seven-week ITIN application undertaken to reach the online tool solves the wrong problem. Call the international line instead and have the number the same day.

Two operational details trip people up. The published online hours, in Eastern time, are Monday to Friday 6:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. the following day, Saturday 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., and Sunday 6:00 p.m. to midnight. The frequently repeated "7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m." window is wrong, and planning around it means avoiding hours that are open. The session expires after 15 minutes with nothing saved, so assemble every answer first. Only one EIN is issued per responsible party per day, which matters if you are forming several entities at once.

Fax

Fax is the practical route for a foreign applicant who cannot be on a call during US business hours. You complete Form SS-4 and fax it to the number for applicants with no legal residence or principal place of business in the US. Processing is four business days — and that depends entirely on supplying a return fax number. Leave it off and the Internal Revenue Service has no channel to send the number back, which turns a four-day application into silence you will misread as a delay. Online fax services are fine; you do not need a machine.

Mail

Mail is four weeks and it is the route of last resort. Its only advantage over fax is not needing a fax number, and four weeks is a long wait when the bank account and the first invoice sit behind it.

The international phone line

This is the route built for applicants outside the United States, and the one most underused.

Call 267-941-1099, open 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Eastern, Monday to Friday. It is not toll free, so budget for the call. An assistor takes you through Form SS-4 over the phone and issues the EIN during the call — the same effective speed as the online application, available to people the online application refuses.

Two pieces of preparation make the difference. Fill in Form SS-4 before you dial, so you are reading answers rather than composing them. And be the responsible party yourself, or hold written authorisation to act for them, because the assistor will establish who they are speaking to.

Form SS-4: the fields that cause delays

Form SS-4 is short. A handful of lines account for most of the trouble.

Line 7a — responsible party name. This must be a natural person. Not the parent company, not a holding entity, not a trust. The responsible party is the individual who controls or directs the entity and the disposition of its funds. Naming a company here is the most common reason an application comes back, and on the mail route it costs another four weeks.

Line 7b — responsible party SSN, ITIN or EIN. If the person on 7a has a Social Security number or ITIN, it goes here. If they have neither and are not eligible for either, you enter "foreign" or "N/A". This is permitted and expected. People leave the field blank, invent a placeholder, or abandon the application believing a US tax number is mandatory. It is not, for the phone, fax or mail routes. Only the online application requires it.

Line 1 — legal name. Must match the formation documents filed with the state exactly. A mismatch between the EIN record and the state record creates problems at the bank later.

Reason for applying, entity type and start date. Pick the reason that is true — "started new business" and "banking purpose" are different answers with different consequences. Entity type drives which returns the Internal Revenue Service expects from you, and the start date drives when it expects the first one.

Getting an EIN with no Social Security number

For a foreign founder the position is simpler than the internet suggests. You do not need an SSN. You do not need an ITIN. You need a route other than the online tool.

1. Form the entity first. The EIN attaches to a legal person. File with the state, get the formation documents back, and have the exact legal name and formation date in hand before you apply.
2. Identify the responsible party. One natural person who controls the entity and its funds. Full legal name and address ready.
3. Complete Form SS-4 on paper. Line 7a the person's name, line 7b "foreign" or "N/A" if they hold no SSN or ITIN and cannot get one.
4. Choose your route. Phone on 267-941-1099 if you can be available 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Eastern on a weekday — the number is issued during the call. Fax if you cannot, for four business days, with a return fax number on the form. Mail only if neither works, for four weeks.
5. Keep the confirmation. Store the number and the confirmation somewhere you will find it again. Re-establishing a lost EIN is slower than getting one.

An ITIN is a different thing for a different purpose. If you personally need to be on a US tax return, you apply on Form W-7 — by mail to the Internal Revenue Service Austin Service Center, free in person at a Taxpayer Assistance Center offering ITIN services or a VITA site, or for a fee through a Certifying Acceptance Agent. Allow 7 weeks, or 9 to 11 weeks if you file between 15 January and 30 April or from overseas. An ITIN expires on 31 December after three consecutive tax years of non-use on a federal return. Get one because you need one, not as a detour to an EIN you can obtain by phone this week.

What happens after the EIN

The number is the start of the sequence, not the end.

Bank account. The EIN plus formation documents plus identification for the beneficial owners. A non-resident application will be slower. The EIN is a prerequisite, not a guarantee.

State registration. Federal and state are separate systems. Depending on the state you may need a state tax registration, a sales tax permit or a state employer account, and the federal EIN creates none of them.

Federal return. The entity type you declared on Form SS-4 determines what the Internal Revenue Service expects. Individual returns for tax year 2025 are due 15 April 2026; entity returns run on their own schedule.

Form 5472: the US$25,000 trap

If your US single-member LLC is foreign-owned, there is a return nobody tells you about until it is late.

A foreign-owned US disregarded entity must file a pro forma Form 1120 with Form 5472 attached, by the Form 1120 due date including extensions. "Pro forma" means you do not complete the whole corporate return: only the name and address and items B and E on page 1, with "Foreign-owned U.S. DE" marked across the top. Form 5472 reports the entity's reportable transactions with related parties.

It cannot be e-filed. It goes by fax or mail to a dedicated address. There is no version of this that happens inside your tax software.

The penalty is US$25,000, plus a continuation penalty of a further US$25,000 per related party for each 30-day period beginning 90 days after the Internal Revenue Service issues a notice of failure. The exposure is not capped at the first US$25,000, which is the part people discover last.

The reason this catches so many people is the logic of being disregarded: the entity is disregarded for income tax, the owner reasons, and it made no profit, so there is nothing to file. Form 5472 is an information return. It is not about profit. A dormant foreign-owned LLC that moved money between itself and its owner has reportable transactions and an obligation.

Mistakes that cost money

Assuming no employees means no EIN. Corporations, partnerships and multi-member LLCs need one structurally, and in practice a single-member LLC does too, because banks require it and foreign-owned ones have their own return to file.

Naming a company on line 7a. The responsible party must be a natural person. A parent entity there is the most common reason an application is queried, and on the mail route it costs four more weeks.

Chasing an ITIN to unlock the online application. The online tool also requires your principal place of business, or your legal residence as an individual, to be in the US or a US territory. If it is not, the ITIN changes nothing — and it takes 7 weeks, or 9 to 11 if filed between 15 January and 30 April or from overseas.

Faxing without a return fax number. Four business days becomes indefinite silence, because there is no channel to send the number back.

Applying before the entity exists. The EIN attaches to a legal entity. Form with the state first, or you will be correcting a name mismatch at the bank later.

Paying for the number itself. It is free by every route. Pay for a service's time or a registered agent if you want those, not for the EIN.

Ignoring Form 5472 because the entity made no money. It is an information return about related-party transactions. The penalty is US$25,000, plus US$25,000 per related party per 30-day period after 90 days from notice.

Starting the online application unprepared. The session expires after 15 minutes with nothing saved, and you get one EIN per responsible party per day.

When a filing service is worth paying for

Sometimes it is, and the honest answer separates the number from the labour.

A service earns its fee when you have no practical fax access and cannot be on a call between 6:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. Eastern on a weekday. It earns it when you are already buying state formation and a registered agent anyway. And it earns it when you want someone to absorb the follow-up — a queried SS-4, a mismatch between federal and state records, the Form 5472 filing that cannot be e-filed.

It is not worth paying for when you are eligible for the online application, which is immediate, free and same-session. And it is not worth a premium framed as expedited processing, because there is no expedited tier: immediate online, immediate on the phone, four business days by fax, four weeks by mail. If you are charged for speed, ask which of those four you are buying.

Disclaimer

This guide describes the Employer Identification Number application process and related filings as published by the Internal Revenue Service, checked on 12 October 2026. It is information, not tax or legal advice, and it does not cover state registration, entity selection, treaty positions or anything specific to your circumstances. Processing times are the published figures and real-world experience varies. If you own a US entity from abroad, the Form 5472 obligation and its US$25,000 penalty are worth a paid consultation with a licensed preparer or enrolled agent before your first deadline rather than after it.

The short version

An EIN is free, it is the Internal Revenue Service's account number for your entity rather than a payroll registration, and most entities need one with nobody on the payroll. There are four routes: online and immediate if you qualify, the international phone line on 267-941-1099 which issues it during the call, fax in four business days, or mail in four weeks.

If the online application refuses you, work out which test you failed before spending money on a fix. The SSN or ITIN requirement is only one of two, and the other — principal place of business or legal residence in the US or a US territory — locks out most foreign founders regardless of what tax numbers they hold. Call the international line, write "foreign" or "N/A" on line 7b, and make sure line 7a names a human being rather than a company.

Then look past the number. The entity has to exist before the EIN attaches to it, and if your single-member LLC is foreign-owned there is a pro forma Form 1120 with Form 5472 attached that cannot be e-filed and carries a US$25,000 penalty with a continuation penalty behind it. Getting the EIN is the easy part. The people who get hurt treated it as the finish line.