What Are the 5 Ways to Look Up an LLC EIN Number?
The 5 methods are the CP-575 letter, a filed federal return, the bank or payment-processor file, a 147C letter from the IRS at 800-829-4933, and confirming that no EIN was ever assigned. All 5 cost $0.
They run in that order because each one is slower than the one above it. Methods 1 and 2 answer in 0 minutes from a file the LLC already holds. Method 3 needs an account login. Method 4 waits on an IRS agent. Method 5 ends the search and starts an application. The full application route sits on how to get an ein for an llc, and the SS-4 walked through field by field sits on llc ein application.
Method 1: Read the CP-575 confirmation letter
The IRS prints the EIN at the top right of the CP-575, in the format XX-XXXXXXX, beside the LLC's legal name exactly as the state approved it. The letter also carries the assignment date and the tax forms the IRS expects from the LLC. Time to answer: 0 minutes. Cost: $0. The IRS issues this letter once per EIN and never reprints it.
LLC CP-575 LetterMethod 2: Open a return the LLC already filed
Every federal return an LLC files carries the EIN in a fixed box. A partnership finds it in the header of Form 1065 and in box A of every Schedule K-1. A foreign-owned single-member LLC finds it on Form 5472 and on the pro-forma Form 1120. A US owner finds it on line D of Schedule C. Time to answer: 0 minutes. Cost: $0.
EIN for a Multi-Member LLCMethod 3: Pull the bank or payment-processor file
Mercury, Wise, Relay, Stripe, and PayPal each recorded the EIN when the LLC's account opened, because none of them opens a business account without it. The number sits in the account profile or in the onboarding email thread. Time to answer: 0 minutes once the profile or the thread is open. Cost: $0.
EIN for an LLC Bank AccountMethod 4: Call the IRS and request a 147C letter
The IRS Business and Specialty Tax Line at 800-829-4933 releases the EIN to an authorized person after identity verification, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time. Owners outside the United States call 267-941-1099, open 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern. The agent states the number on the call and sends the 147C letter. Cost: $0.
Lost LLC EINMethod 5: Check whether an EIN was ever assigned
A search that returns nothing in methods 1 through 4 points at one answer: the LLC holds no EIN. State approval creates the company and assigns no federal number. The EIN arrives only after Form SS-4 reaches the IRS, and the application takes 15 minutes online, 4 business days by fax, or 4 weeks by mail.
llc ein application| Method | Where the number sits | Time to answer | Who can use it | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. CP-575 letter | Top right, format XX-XXXXXXX | 0 minutes | Anyone holding the letter | $0 |
| 2. Filed federal return | Form 1065 header, K-1 box A, Schedule C line D | 0 minutes | Anyone holding the return | $0 |
| 3. Bank or processor file | Business account profile | 0 minutes | Account signatory | $0 |
| 4. IRS 147C letter | IRS master file | Same call, letter by fax | Responsible party, line 7a | $0 |
| 5. No EIN assigned | Nowhere | Ends the search | Anyone | $0 |
Source: IRS Instructions for Form SS-4 (Rev. 12-2025) and IRS telephone assistance hours, verified July 2026. Method 3 times are the seconds it takes to open an account profile the LLC already controls; no bank or payment processor publishes an EIN-retrieval commitment, so none is claimed here.
Which LLC Documents Carry the EIN?
Eight documents carry an LLC's EIN: the CP-575, a 147C letter, Form 1065, Schedule K-1, Form 5472, the pro-forma Form 1120, a signed Form W-9, and the business bank application.
Each one prints the number in a fixed position, which turns the lookup into a mechanical read rather than a search. The exact box matters, because a 9-digit EIN sits next to other 9-digit numbers on the same page.
| Document | Exact location of the EIN | Which LLCs hold it |
|---|---|---|
| IRS CP-575 letter | Top right, beside the approved legal name | Every LLC with an EIN |
| IRS 147C letter | Body of the letter, with the legal name | Any LLC that requested one |
| Form 1065 | Header box D, above the partnership name | Multi-member LLCs |
| Schedule K-1 (1065) | Box A, partnership employer identification number | Every member of a multi-member LLC |
| Form 5472 | Part I, the reporting corporation's EIN | Foreign-owned single-member LLCs |
| Pro-forma Form 1120 | Header, employer identification number | Foreign-owned single-member LLCs |
| Form W-9 | Part I, employer identification number boxes | Any LLC paid by a US business |
| Business bank application | Tax ID field on the signed application | Every LLC with a US account |
Source: IRS form instructions for SS-4, 1065, 1120, 5472 and W-9, verified July 2026.
Check the format before trusting a match. An EIN is 9 digits written XX-XXXXXXX, with the hyphen after the second digit. A Social Security Number is 9 digits written XXX-XX-XXXX. A state file number carries a different length in every state. One glance at the hyphen position rules out two of the three.
In Which Order Should You Search for a Misplaced LLC EIN?
7 places, cheapest first, before any phone call: the CP-575, bank onboarding documents, the last federal return, payroll software, state registrations, W-9s and 1099s the LLC issued, and a full-text email search. 6 of the 7 resolve in under 10 minutes at $0.
| Order | Where to look | What carries the number |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | IRS CP-575 letter | Top right, beside the approved legal name |
| 2 | Business bank file | Signed account application and the welcome pack |
| 3 | Last federal return | Form 1065 header box D, or the 1120 header |
| 4 | Payroll software | Company tax settings in Gusto, ADP, or QuickBooks |
| 5 | State registrations | Sales-tax and withholding registrations at the state DoR |
| 6 | W-9s and 1099s issued | Part I of the W-9; payer TIN box on a 1099 |
| 7 | Email full-text search | CP-575 or 147C PDFs attached to old IRS correspondence |
Step 7 closes more cases than founders expect. Gmail has full-text-searched PDF attachments since 2023, and Outlook indexes PDF content once Windows Search Indexing has run over the mailbox. 8 search terms cover the ground: CP-575, EIN, employer identification, W-9, 1099, 147C, IRS letter, and any 3 consecutive digits of the remembered number. An owner who never printed the CP-575 but received it as an attachment finds it in about 5 minutes.
Step 4 is the one most owners forget. Gusto, ADP, Rippling, and QuickBooks Payroll all store the EIN in company tax settings, because they file Form 941 under it every quarter. Any LLC that has ever run 1 payroll cycle has the number sitting in that screen. If all 7 come up empty, the 147C call below is the fallback, and it costs $0. Recovery mechanics in full on lost LLC EIN.
How Do You Get a 147C Letter for an LLC?
Call the IRS Business and Specialty Tax Line at 800-829-4933, verify identity as the responsible party, and request Letter 147C. The agent states the EIN on the call and sends the letter. Cost: $0.
A 147C letter is the IRS replacement for a lost CP-575. It carries the same 9-digit EIN and the same legal name, and banks accept it in place of the original. The IRS never reprints a CP-575, so the 147C is the only written confirmation available after the first letter is gone.
What the IRS asks for on that call
The LLC's legal name from Form SS-4. Character for character, including LLC versus L.L.C. A mismatch stops the release.
The name on line 7a. The responsible party the IRS has on file. Only that person, or an authorized third party, receives the number.
The mailing address on the application. Form SS-4 lines 4a and 4b. An address changed since filing gets updated on Form 8822-B.
A fax number for the letter. The IRS faxes the 147C during the call. Without a fax number it goes by mail, on no published timetable.
The line runs Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time, closed on US federal holidays. Owners calling from outside the United States use 267-941-1099, open 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern. Full recovery walkthrough: Lost LLC EIN.
Does a State Business Search Show an LLC's EIN?
No. State registries publish a state file number or entity ID assigned by the state, not the federal EIN. All 50 states work this way, because the IRS assigns the EIN through Form SS-4 separately.
This is the single most common wrong turn in an LLC EIN lookup. An owner searches the Secretary of State site, finds the state file number beside the company, and files that number on a bank application as the EIN. The bank rejects it. Three separate numbers attach to an LLC, and each one comes from a different issuer.
| Number | Issued by | Format | Public? | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EIN | IRS, via Form SS-4 | 9 digits, XX-XXXXXXX | No | Federal returns, banking, payroll |
| State file or entity number | Secretary of State | Varies by state | Yes | Annual reports, state filings |
| State tax ID | State revenue department | Varies by state | No | Sales tax, state withholding |
| Owner SSN or ITIN | SSA or IRS | 9 digits, XXX-XX-XXXX | No | Personal returns only |
Source: IRS and state registry documentation, verified July 2026.
One more myth to retire: the first two digits of an EIN do not encode a state. The IRS assigned geographic prefixes until 2001 and switched to campus-based prefixes after that. A 9-digit EIN starting 98 identifies the IRS system that issued it and names no state of formation.
Can You Look Up Another LLC's EIN Number?
Only through documents that LLC gives you. The IRS releases an EIN to the responsible party named on Form SS-4 line 7a and to nobody else, and no free public database lists private LLC EINs.
Three legitimate paths exist for a vendor, a landlord, or a payer who needs a counterparty's number, and all three run through the LLC itself rather than around it.
Request a signed Form W-9. Part I carries the EIN. A US business paying an LLC $600 or more in a year needs it to issue Form 1099-NEC.
Check a 1099 you already received. The payer's TIN box on a 1099-NEC or 1099-MISC prints the paying LLC's EIN.
Read a signed contract or lease. Commercial leases and vendor agreements state the tax ID in the signature block.
Two federal databases return EINs, and neither covers a normal LLC. SEC EDGAR publishes the IRS number on filings by public companies. The IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search publishes EINs for organizations holding tax-exempt status. A privately held LLC files with neither.
The confidentiality is statutory rather than a policy choice. Internal Revenue Code section 6103 treats return information, including the EIN, as confidential, so the IRS confirms a number only to the responsible party or an authorised representative. That is why no free national registry exists and why every site advertising one resells the same 2 public sources.
Which Public Sources Return Another Company's EIN?
6 sources, and the answer depends entirely on who owns the entity. A public company resolves on SEC EDGAR in 5 minutes. A 501(c)(3) resolves on 3 different free databases. A private LLC resolves through a signed W-9 or not at all.
| Source | Covers | Lookup fee |
|---|---|---|
| SEC EDGAR | US public companies, 8,000+ filers | $0 |
| State SoS filings | Legal name and agent for LLCs in 50 states | $0-15 |
| Vendor W-9 request | Any US business you pay | $0 |
| IRS TEO Search | 1.6 million 501(c)(3) non-profits | $0 |
| GuideStar / candid.org | 1.9 million non-profits | $0 |
| ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer | 3 million 990 filings | $0 |
For a public company, open SEC EDGAR, search the name, open the most recent 10-K, and read the cover page: the number is labelled IRS Employer Identification No. on the third header line. The method covers the filer itself and not its private subsidiaries, and roughly 3,500 of the 8,000 filers hold subsidiaries with separate EINs that never appear in EDGAR.
For a non-profit, every 501(c)(3) files Form 990 and the 9-digit EIN sits on line 1 of that return. The IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search indexes 1.6 million exempt organizations. State Secretary of State records rarely help: 44 of the 50 states publish the legal name, formation date, and registered agent but not the EIN.
Paid databases are worth it at volume and nowhere else. LexisNexis, D&B Hoovers, and Dun & Bradstreet each charge $20 to $150 per query to aggregate the same free public filings. At 1 to 10 lookups a month the free sources match them at $0. For your own LLC's number a paid service is never justified, because the 147C route is $0 at the IRS.
Source: SEC EDGAR, IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search, and 26 U.S.C. § 6103 on EIN confidentiality, verified July 2026.
How Do You Look Up an LLC's EIN Without an SSN?
Call the IRS at 267-941-1099, open 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern. The agent verifies the caller against the responsible party on Form SS-4 line 7a, where line 7b holds the entry Foreign. The 147C letter costs $0.
Line 7b accepts the entry Foreign, so an EIN exists for LLCs whose owner holds no SSN and no ITIN, and the recovery route exists for them too. Identity verification on that call runs against the SS-4 record rather than against a Social Security Number: the legal name of the LLC, the responsible party's name, and the address the IRS holds.
Written requests reach the IRS by fax on 855-641-6935 for entities based in a US state, and 855-215-1627 for international entities. Neither fax line carries a fee. The route for the original application is on LLC EIN Without SSN, and the compliance obligation that follows the number is on Form 5472.
Have an SSN? Go to irs.gov. A replacement EIN confirmation costs $0 on the phone, and a brand-new EIN takes 15 minutes in the online assistant, also $0. Nothing on this page needs to be bought.
No SSN? The fax route works. The IRS publishes 4 business days on the Fax-TIN line and 4 weeks by mail, with no tracking number, no online status page, and no written deadline, and a rejected form restarts the wait at day one. Or we file it: $97, faxed within 7 business days or that fee is refunded, and 16–19 business days to the EIN in total. If the bank is waiting, $127 is filed and the IRS call made within 24 hours, guaranteed, or that fee is refunded, and it runs 6 to 8 business days in total.
Why Does an LLC EIN Lookup Fail?
Five causes account for failed lookups: no EIN was assigned, the legal name does not match IRS records, the caller is not the responsible party, the address changed, or the number found belongs to the state.
| Cause | What you see | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| No EIN was ever assigned | Nothing in any document, nothing at the IRS | File Form SS-4 |
| Legal name mismatch | The IRS agent finds no record on the call | Read the name off the Articles, character for character |
| Caller is not on line 7a | The IRS declines to release the number | The responsible party calls, or files Form 8822-B |
| Address changed since filing | Identity verification fails | Give the address on SS-4 lines 4a and 4b |
| A state number was mistaken for the EIN | The bank rejects the tax ID | Use the 9-digit XX-XXXXXXX number only |
Source: IRS Form SS-4 and Form 8822-B instructions, verified July 2026.
Form 8822-B updates the responsible party, and the IRS requires it within 60 days of the change. An LLC that changed hands without filing it hits the third row of that table on the first recovery call, since the IRS still holds the previous owner on line 7a.
What Do You Do When the LLC Has No EIN Yet?
File Form SS-4. State approval creates the LLC and assigns no federal number, so a company formed last week holds no EIN to find. The IRS charges $0 through every filing method.
Form SS-4 carries three classification fields that no other entity type faces. Line 8a marks the entity as an LLC, line 8b states the member count, and line 9a sets the classification. A single-member LLC defaults to a disregarded entity, and a multi-member LLC defaults to a partnership filing Form 1065 every year. Those fields follow the LLC into every future tax year, which is what the LLC Tax Classification page covers in full.
| Route | Price | Time to EIN | SSN needed | Written deadline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IRS online assistant | $0 | 15 minutes | Yes | No |
| IRS fax, Form SS-4 | $0 | 4 business days | No | No |
| IRS mail, Form SS-4 | $0 | 4 weeks | No | No |
| einforllc.co Standard | $97 | 16–19 business days | No | Yes, faxed in 7 business days |
| einforllc.co Fast | $127 | 6 to 8 business days | No | Yes, filed in 24 hours |
| Rocket Lawyer | $59.99 | Not published | N/A | No |
| ZenBusiness | $99 | Not published | N/A | No |
| Northwest | $200 | Not published | N/A | No |
Source: IRS timings from the Instructions for Form SS-4 (Rev. 12-2025), which state the Fax-TIN program returns the EIN within 4 business days and mail returns it in 4 weeks. Competitor prices verified July 2026. Northwest $200 is the no-SSN rate. Full breakdown on LLC EIN Cost.
Should an LLC Pay Anyone to Apply for a First EIN?
Not if the applicant holds an SSN. The IRS online assistant issues the EIN free in about 15 minutes. Paying is worth it when the online tool is closed to the applicant and the classification on lines 8a, 8b and 9a is unclear.
Read this before paying anyone, including us. A Social Security Number gets an LLC's EIN free at irs.gov in 15 minutes. The $97 exists for applicants without an SSN, who face a paper filing with no written deadline behind it and the three classification fields on lines 8a, 8b, and 9a that set federal tax treatment for the life of the company. The $127 tier buys speed on the same work: filed within 24 hours with the IRS call included. The EIN is priced on its own, so if your LLC already exists that is the whole invoice, and we will tell you to skip the $197 formation add-on rather than sell it to you.
This page states federal tax rules current as of July 2026. It is not legal or tax advice. Confirm your LLC's position with a licensed CPA or attorney before filing.