How to get an EIN without a Social Security Number

An Employer Identification Number, or EIN, is the nine-digit number the IRS gives a company. Despite the name, it has nothing to do with having employees. Every US bank, payment processor and marketplace asks for it first, and it's where founders abroad most often get stuck.

The IRS's online application needs the responsible party's Social Security Number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, and it won't go further without one. The responsible party is the person who controls the company, which is you. Someone living outside the US usually can't get an SSN and, in most cases, has no reason to get an ITIN, so the online form isn't an option.

A company with a foreign owner is still entitled to an EIN. The IRS just issues it by a slower route.

Form SS-4 by fax

Form SS-4 is the paper application. If you have no SSN or ITIN, the IRS's instructions say to write "foreign" or N/A where the responsible party's number goes, and a single-member LLC owned from abroad checks Other on line 9a and writes "Foreign-owned U.S. disregarded entity-Form 5472". The form is then faxed to the IRS's number for international applicants, with a return fax number so the EIN can be faxed back, often before the confirmation letter arrives.

By phone, for international applicants

The IRS runs a phone line, 267-941-1099, for applicants with no legal residence, principal place of business or principal office in the US. It isn't toll-free and it's open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. US Eastern time, Monday to Friday. The caller has to be someone authorised to sign the form, or a third-party designee named on a signed SS-4, with the completed form to hand. The EIN is given during the call. It's the fastest route when you get through, but the waits on hold can be very long.

On the fax route, the IRS faxes the number back. The formal confirmation is a notice called the CP 575, posted once to the mailing address on the form, and it's the document banks and processors usually ask for. If it's lost, the IRS issues a replacement confirmation, the 147C letter, on request.

Once you have the number, you can open the bank account, register with Stripe or PayPal, complete a marketplace's tax interview, and file the company's first return the following spring. None of that can start without it, which is why it pays to form the company well before you need the account.

• Applying before the state approves the company. The SS-4 asks for the legal name and start date. An application for a name the state hasn't approved can be rejected, or issued to a company that doesn't exist yet.
• Applying twice. A second application while the first is pending can produce two numbers, and sorting that out takes months. Chase the one you filed instead.
• Using someone else's SSN, including an agent's. A friend in the US, or a provider offering its own number, isn't the responsible party. Putting their number on the form misstates who controls the company and makes them the person the IRS writes to. A designee can fax or call for you; the number on the form stays yours, or "foreign".
• Paying extra for a "guaranteed" 24-hour EIN. Nobody controls the IRS queue. The phone line can give a number on the day, if someone gets through, and that's all a guarantee can rest on.
• Ticking the wrong entity type. A single-member LLC that ticks Corporation, or a partnership that ticks disregarded entity, has told the IRS to expect the wrong return. It can be fixed, but it takes letters and time.
• A mailing address nobody checks. The CP 575 goes to the mailing address on the form and nowhere else. If nobody is there to receive it, it's gone.

No. An ITIN is a personal tax number for people who have to file a US tax return and can't get an SSN. You don't need one to form a company or to get its EIN. Some founders need one later, to report US income personally or because a particular bank insists. There's a separate guide on when you actually need an ITIN.