Daycare EIN Lookup: Finding Your Child Care Provider’s Tax ID

Where the number usually already is

1. The year end statement. Centers and licensed home providers issue one each January with the total paid, the provider’s name, address and EIN or SSN, because every parent needs it for the same form. Check email and the parent portal.
2. Receipts and invoices. Many providers print the EIN on every receipt. Monthly invoices from a center’s billing system usually carry it in the header or footer.
3. The enrollment contract. The provider’s legal name and tax number are often on the first or last page.
4. Your dependent care account claims. If you paid through a dependent care FSA, each claim you submitted needed the provider’s tax number, and the plan administrator’s portal keeps the claims.
5. Last year’s Form 2441. If the provider has not changed, the number has not either.

Ask with Form W-10

Form W-10, Dependent Care Provider’s Identification and Certification, is a one page form the provider fills in with their name, address and taxpayer number and signs. You keep it; it is not filed with your return. The Form 2441 instructions name it as the way to show due diligence: get it, keep it, and the credit cannot be disallowed for a provider number you could not obtain. Any provider that issues year end statements has given the same information to every other parent, so the request is routine.

What to enter on Form 2441, by provider type

When the daycare is a church or a nonprofit

A tax exempt provider is the one case where the number is public. Search the organization in the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search and the record shows its EIN. Form 2441 does not actually need it: for a tax exempt provider the instructions say to enter “Tax-Exempt” in the number column. Churches are exempt without applying and are often missing from the search; that does not change the entry. The nonprofit EIN lookup guide covers the search and why real organizations can be absent from it.

A sitter, a nanny, or a relative

An individual who cares for your child in their own home is a provider and gives you their SSN or ITIN on Form W-10. Someone who cares for your child in your home is your employee, and the number on Form 2441 is still their SSN, but the EIN in the picture is yours: a household employer needs one for Schedule H and the W-2. The household employer guide covers that case. Payments to your spouse, to the child’s other parent, to your own child under 19, or to a dependent do not qualify for the credit at all.

If the provider refuses or cannot be reached

The instructions are specific. Fill in what you can, the name and address at least, and enter “See Attached Statement” in the columns you cannot complete. Attach a statement explaining that you asked for the information and the provider did not supply it. Keep whatever shows you asked: the W-10 you sent, the email, the text. That is due diligence, and with it the credit stands. Without it, the instructions say the credit may be disallowed. Parents living abroad whose provider has no U.S. number enter “LAFCP” instead.

Dependent care FSAs need the same number

A dependent care flexible spending account reimburses you only with the provider’s name, address and tax number on each claim, and the amount you excluded through the account is reconciled on the same Form 2441. One W-10 at enrollment covers both.

Running a daycare? Your own EIN

Every parent you serve will ask for your tax number in January. A home daycare run as a sole proprietorship can give its SSN, and then that SSN sits on dozens of other people’s tax returns. An EIN is the number you can hand out freely: it goes on the W-10, the year end statements and the receipts, and it is required anyway the day you hire an assistant or form an LLC. The sole proprietor EIN guide explains what the application asks, and we can file it for you.

Quick answers

Is a daycare’s EIN public?

Only when the provider is a tax exempt organization, whose EIN is in the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search. A private daycare’s EIN is not published anywhere official, so you get it from the provider: the year end statement, a receipt, or a completed Form W-10.

The daycare closed. How do I get its EIN?

Check last year’s Form 2441, the dependent care account claims you filed, any receipt or enrollment contract, and your bank’s record of the payments. If none of those has it and the former owner cannot be reached, file Form 2441 with the name and address you have, enter See Attached Statement in the number column, and attach a statement explaining what you did to get it.

Can I claim the child care credit without the provider’s number?

The instructions say the credit may be disallowed unless you show due diligence. Asking for a Form W-10 and keeping a copy is due diligence. If the provider will not supply the number, enter what you have, write See Attached Statement, and attach the explanation.

Does my babysitter or nanny need an EIN?

An individual who cares for your child in their own home gives you their SSN or ITIN, not an EIN. If you pay someone to care for your child in your home, you are a household employer, and the EIN that matters is yours.