How to Get an EIN for an LLC (2026 Tax Guide)

An EIN, or Employer Identification Number, is your LLC's federal tax identification number, the business equivalent of a Social Security number. The IRS issues it to identify your entity on every federal tax filing. You need one to open a business bank account, hire employees, and file returns for the LLC.

The tax angle is where the EIN earns its name. A single-member LLC uses its EIN on the returns the IRS expects from a disregarded entity, and a multi-member LLC uses it on Form 1065 partnership returns. Payroll tax deposits, 1099 filings, and any S-corp or C-corp election all reference the same EIN. Without it, your LLC cannot transact with the IRS at all.

Yes. An EIN is free directly from the IRS at IRS.gov, and no government fee applies at any stage. The number itself never costs money, whether you apply online, by fax, or by mail.

What people pay for is handling. Preparing Form SS-4 correctly, listing the right responsible party, and managing the fax queue for non-residents takes time and gets rejected when done wrong. Anonymousllc.co performs EIN acquisition for $99, and that fee is included in the formation price rather than charged on top. You are paying for accurate filing and a completed number, not for the EIN.

US-resident owners with a valid Social Security number apply online at IRS.gov and receive the EIN immediately. The online assistant walks through the same questions that appear on Form SS-4 and issues the number on the final screen, so you can download the confirmation the moment you finish.

• Open the online EIN assistant at IRS.gov during its operating hours (weekday daytime, US Eastern time).
• Enter the LLC's legal name, formation state, and address.
• List yourself as the responsible party using your name and SSN.
• Choose the reason for applying, then submit.
• Save the EIN and the CP 575 confirmation letter right away.

Complete the session in one sitting. The online tool times out after inactivity and does not save a partial application.

Non-resident owners without an SSN or ITIN cannot use the online tool and must submit Form SS-4 by fax or mail instead. The IRS reserves the online assistant for applicants who have an SSN or ITIN, so foreign founders take the paper route to the same number.

• Complete Form SS-4 by hand or on screen. On line 7b, where the form asks for the responsible party's SSN, ITIN, or EIN, foreign individuals who have none of these write Foreign.
• Fax the signed SS-4 to the IRS fax number for international applicants. Faxed applications take about four to six weeks to be processed and returned.
• Mailing the form is also accepted, though it is slower than fax.
• International applicants may instead call the IRS international EIN phone line, where an agent can issue the number during the call.

You do not need to be in the US, and you do not need a US address on the LLC to complete this. The EIN a non-resident receives is identical to the one a US resident gets.

The responsible party is the person who controls or manages the LLC and its funds, and the IRS requires one on every Form SS-4. For a single-member LLC that is almost always you, the owner. For a multi-member LLC it is the managing member or the person the members designate.

The responsible party must be a real individual, not another company, and the IRS uses this line to keep a natural person accountable for the entity. A non-resident with no SSN still qualifies as the responsible party and simply writes Foreign in the identification field. This is why an EIN does not compromise the public-record privacy of an anonymous LLC: the name sits with the IRS, not on any state website.

No. You do not need an ITIN to get an EIN, and the two numbers serve different purposes. An EIN identifies the business; an ITIN is a personal tax number for an individual who cannot get an SSN. A foreign founder can obtain an EIN for the LLC while holding neither an SSN nor an ITIN.

The confusion is common enough that it delays formations. Founders wait months for an ITIN they believe the EIN requires, when the SS-4 fax path issues the EIN without it. An ITIN matters later, for personal tax filing or certain treaty claims, and our ITIN guide explains when that step is worth taking. It is not a prerequisite for the EIN.

The pattern is simple. If you have an SSN, apply online and finish today. If you do not, fax the SS-4 or call the international line, and expect a paper turnaround measured in weeks rather than minutes.

The EIN unlocks the three things a working LLC needs: a business bank account, the ability to hire and issue 1099s, and the tax filings the IRS expects. It is the number you put on the bank application, on Form W-9 when a client asks for your tax ID, and on every federal return the LLC files.

Banking is the first use for most owners. A US bank cannot open a business account without the EIN, because it verifies the entity and its beneficial owners under 31 CFR 1010.230, and the EIN is how it identifies the LLC to the IRS. Once the account is open, the EIN carries through to payroll deposits, contractor filings, and any S-corp or C-corp election you make later. Keep the number and the confirmation letter with your formation documents, since you will reference it for the life of the company.

No. The EIN application names a responsible party to the IRS, but that name never appears on any state public record, so it does not undo the anonymity of a Wyoming, New Mexico, Delaware, or Nevada LLC. Anonymity is a state public-record feature; the EIN is a federal identifier held privately by the IRS.

The two systems sit on separate tracks. Your registered agent keeps your name off the Secretary of State filing, while the IRS knows the responsible party behind the EIN and your bank verifies the real owner under 31 CFR 1010.230. A non-resident writing Foreign on line 7b of Form SS-4 is identified to the IRS by name and country, not by an SSN, and none of that reaches the public record.

The IRS issues a CP 575 confirmation letter when it assigns your EIN, and that letter is the original proof banks and payroll providers ask for. Keep the CP 575 with your formation documents, because the IRS sends the original only once.

If the CP 575 is lost, you request a 147C letter as the replacement. A 147C confirms the same EIN and is accepted anywhere the original would be, so a misplaced CP 575 is an inconvenience rather than a crisis. With the EIN in hand you can move on to non-resident business banking, and if you want the number filed for you, our EIN application service handles the SS-4 end to end for $99.