EIN Requirements

• You need an EIN for your business if you answer yes to any of the following questions: Do you have employees? Do you operate your business as a corporation or a partnership? Do you file one of these tax returns: employment, excise, or alcohol, tobacco and firearms? Do you withhold taxes on income, other than wages, paid to a non-resident alien? Do you have a Keogh plan?
  
  You also need a federal tax ID if you are involved with any of the following types of organizations: trusts, except certain grantor-owned revocable trusts, IRAs, Exempt Organization Business Income Tax Returns; estates; real estate mortgage investment conduits; non-profit organizations; farmers' cooperatives; or plan administrators.
  
  

New EINs

• If the ownership or structure of a business changes, the business generally needs a new EIN. Sole proprietors are required to get a new EIN if they are subject to a bankruptcy proceeding; they incorporate their business; they take in partners and operate as a partnership; or they purchase or inherit an existing business that they operate as a sole proprietorship. Partnerships are required to get a new EIN if the partnership incorporates; one of the partners takes over the partnership and operates it as a sole proprietorship; or a partnership ends and a new one begins. Corporations are required to get a new EIN if the corporation receives a new charter from the secretary of state; the corporation is a subsidiary of a corporation using the parent's EIN or becomes a subsidiary of a corporation; the corporation changes to a partnership or sole proprietorship; or a statutory merger creates a new corporation.
  
  

Limited Liability Company

• If you form an limited liability company, or LLC, you can elect for the IRS to treat your business as a corporation, a partnership or a sole proprietorship. You must then follow the rules for the business type you elected.
  
  

Canceling an EIN

• The IRS does not cancel EINs. However, if you received an EIN and no longer need it, you can write to the IRS and request that the agency close your business account. The EIN still belongs to the business, and you can later reactivate the EIN.