Getting your company’s EIN from abroad
Without a Social Security number or an ITIN the online form is closed to you. How the EIN is requested by fax or mail instead, and what to have ready.
How is a company’s EIN requested from abroad?
Without a Social Security number or an ITIN the online form is closed to you, so the EIN is requested by fax or mail. The EIN belongs to the company. It says nothing about your own credit and doesn’t start a personal credit file.
The EIN is the company’s tax number.
An Employer Identification Number is the number the IRS uses to identify a business. Despite the name, a company doesn’t need employees to have one. Banks ask for it before they open a business account, payment platforms ask for it before they pay out, and the IRS uses it on every return the company files. It is the first step on a founder’s route to US banking and credit.
The EIN belongs to the company. It says nothing about your own credit and doesn’t start a personal credit file. It does tie the company to a responsible party, a real person the IRS can contact, named on the application.
The online application is closed to you, so it goes by fax or mail.
The IRS’s online EIN application asks the responsible party for a Social Security number or an ITIN. Without either, the form can’t be completed, and there is no field for a passport number.
Applicants abroad use the paper version of the same application, Form SS‑4, and send it to the IRS by fax or by mail. By fax, the number usually comes back within days to a couple of weeks. By mail, it can take several weeks. Most longer waits come from a form returned for a mistake, which starts the wait again.
You don’t need an ITIN to get an EIN.
Many owners assume they must apply for an ITIN first. For the company’s EIN, you don’t. An ITIN is a separate number for you, needed only for a US tax reason of your own.
What to have ready.
The request goes through fastest when every detail on the form matches the company’s formation papers exactly. Before anything is sent, gather these.
- The company’s exact legal name and formation date
- The state where it was formed
- Its US mailing address, as filed with the state
- Your full name as it appears in your passport
- A fax number where the IRS can reply
How the request runs.
From a completed form to the IRS’s reply, the request runs in four steps. Only the first needs anything from you.
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Check and sign the form
We prepare Form SS‑4 from the company’s papers and send it to you to check and sign. The signature has to be the responsible party’s own.
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Send it by fax or mail
The signed form goes to the IRS fax line for applicants abroad, or by post if a fax isn’t possible. Keep the fax confirmation or the postal receipt.
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Wait for the IRS to reply
The IRS assigns the number and sends it back by fax or by mail. If it finds a mistake, it returns the form, and the wait starts again.
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Check the details on the reply
Compare the name and address on the reply with the formation papers. A mismatch is far easier to correct now than after a bank has noticed it.
The responsible party should be you.
The SS‑4 asks for the responsible party: the person who ultimately owns or controls the company and directs its money. For a company you own, that person is you, not the formation agent, an accountant or anyone else who helped set it up.
Naming someone else can seem convenient, especially if they have a US tax number. It causes trouble later. Banks compare the responsible party with the owner they verify, and a mismatch raises questions that are hard to answer well. If the responsible party ever changes, the IRS asks to be told.
Keep the IRS letter safe.
When the EIN is assigned, the IRS sends a confirmation letter with the number and the company’s name as it has recorded it. Banks ask for this letter when you open the company’s US bank account, and most want to see the letter itself, not just the number.
If it is lost, the IRS issues a different verification letter on request, which takes time you may not have while a bank waits. Keep the original as a PDF and on paper, with the formation papers.
We can help you be more efficient.
It reads like a lot from the outside. We take care of the steps, line them up in the right order and tell you what comes next, so you only do the parts that need you.
