The following information is provided for educational purposes only and in no way constitutes
legal, tax, or financial advice.
For legal, tax, or financial advice specific to your business needs, we encourage you to
consult with a licensed attorney and/or CPA in your state.
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An EIN or Employer Identification Number is issued by the IRS to business entities.
It is also known as a Federal Tax ID Number or TIN (Tax ID Number), but for this video
we will refer to it as the EIN.
An EIN is to a business what a Social Security Number is to an individual.
It basically identifies your business, or company to the IRS.
Even though it is called an Employer Identification Number, it does not mean that you have to
have employees.
EINs are used for: opening business checking, savings or investment accounts; filing taxes;
handling employee payroll (if applicable); obtaining business lines of credit for business
loans; obtaining credit cards in the name of the LLC; and applying for business licenses.
Please wait until your LLC is approved by the State before obtaining your EIN.
You do not want to have any issues with an EIN assigned to the wrong LLC.
An EIN is similar to a Social Security Number in that it has 9 digits.
To differentiate an EIN from an SSN, there are 2 digits followed by a hyphen and then
7 more digits.
Applying for an EIN is a free service provided by the IRS.
This is what other websites charge between $75-150 for.
We will show you how to obtain your EIN for free and in under 15 minutes.
The EIN can be obtained in 3 ways: by mail, by fax, or via the IRS's online application.
Since obtaining an EIN by fax takes 4 days and by mail can take up to 4 weeks, we will
focus on the online application.
Again, the online application is the quickest route.
Your EIN will be issued immediately after you answer all the questions in the online
application.
You will then be able to download, save, and print your new Employer Identification Number,
as well as your confirmation letter.
You will need to have the member(s)' SSNs or ITINs ready before you begin the online
application.
If you are a US citizen, you will use your SSN or Social Security Number.
If you are a foreign national, you will use your ITIN or Individual Taxpayer Identification
Number.
If you are a foreign national and you do not yet have your ITIN, you'll first need to apply
for the ITIN before applying for and obtaining your EIN.
If you are a foreign national and you need to apply for your ITIN, please contact the
IRS at the link below this video.
You are about to watch an application for an EIN for a Single-Member LLC in the State
of Florida.
Do not worry if this is not the state in which you formed your LLC, and also do not worry
if you are a Multi-Member LLC (with 2 or more members).
The online application is pretty much the same regardless if you are a Single-Member
LLC or if you are a Multi-Member LLC, or regardless of the state in which you formed your LLC.
The EIN application is a federal tax procedure and is not state-specific.
If you have any questions, or if there are any error messages that appear during your
EIN online application, please contact the IRS.
There's a link below this video where you will find their phone number.
You are now ready to apply for your EIN.
Let's head over to the IRS's website.
The link below this video will take you to the online application.
Let's get started.
Here we are at the irs.gov.
Online EIN Application.
You're going to scroll down towards the bottom of the page and click "APPLY ONLINE NOW".
Next, click "Begin Application".
On this page, select "Limited Liability Company" and then click "Continue".
Click "Continue" again, and on this page enter the number of members of the LLC.
For this example, there is 1.
You're next going to select the state where your LLC is located.
In this example, this is a Florida Limited Liability Company.
Next, click "Continue".
Hit "Continue" again.
Select the 1st option ("Started a new business"), hit "Continue".
On the next page, select "Individual" and hit "Continue".
You will next enter your name, and Social Security Number, and then select "I am one
of the owners, members, or the managing member of this LLC" and then hit "Continue".
On the next page, you will enter your Principal LLC Address.
This is also where the LLC is physically located.
If you have a Mailing Address that is different than the Principal Address, then at the bottom
you're going to select "Yes" and on the next page you'll be able to enter your Mailing
Address.
After you enter the LLC's address and phone number, click "Continue".
The next page is a physical location verification.
This is simply the IRS just cross-referencing your address via the database.
You can click "Accept Database Version".
On the next page, you're going to enter the legal name of the LLC, as well as the county
and state it is located, as well as the state it is organized in.
The state where your LLC is located in the state where it is organized will most likely
be the same.
2 important things to remember when entering your LLC's name: make sure to include the
suffix "LLC" and do not enter a comma.
For this example, let's use "Rob's Bakery LLC".
I will enter the name as follows: you will next enter the LLC's "start date".
This is going to be the same date you've used in your LLC's Operating Agreement and will
also be the date in which you received your documents back from the State.
Once you've entered all of your information, click "Continue".
There's a few questions here they're going to ask.
For me, all of these are "No".
Take a quick read-through here and see if anything applies to you, regarding whether
or not you manufacture, sell alcohol, tobacco, gambling, you know, I have a truck over 55,000
lbs, etcetera.
The majority of cases it will be "No" but make sure you take a quick read-through.
This questionnaire, select "Yes" or "No" and then hit "Continue".
On this page, they'd like to know what your business does.
This is going to be the same thing you filled out in your Operating Agreement.
In my case, this is a consulting company.
What I'm going to do is I'm going to scroll down to the bottom and select "Other".
However, take a look at the categories and make sure that you put yours in the correct
category.
Once you've done so, hit "Continue".
Because I've selected "Other" on the 2nd page, I'm going to select "Consulting".
You'll see how they have "Manufacturing, Organization, Rental, Repair, Goods", etcetera.
I'm going to hit "Continue".
It says "Do you provide operating advice and assistance to businesses and other organizations?"
I'm going to select "Yes" and type in "general business consulting", then hit "Continue".
On this page, they ask "How would you like to receive your EIN confirmation letter?"
You can receive it by mail, or you can receive it online.
Most likely you want to receive it online (takes 4 weeks to arrive by mail).
Simply hit "Receive letter online".
In a few pages you'll be able to print and save a PDF version of your confirmation letter.
This page is simply a review, take a quick scroll through and make sure everything is
correct.
Once so, you're going to hit "Submit".
Here is the confirmation page, where you will see your EIN assigned and the legal name of
your business.
It says "Important: Save and/or print this page and the confirmation letter below for
your permanent records", so I'm going to go up here and select "File Print", just to select
here and you'll see this link here.
I'm going to click that and I'm going to save that PDF file to my computer, and I'm also
going to print it out.
Once you are done, click "Continue".
Hit "Continue" again.
And that concludes the Online Application for an Employer Identification Number.
Make sure you save that PDF to your computer, and you print a copy for your records.