How to Apply for an EIN in Minnesota

The EIN step itself

One federal form, one agency, the same options wherever the business sits: online, fax, mail, or the international phone line. The method decides the timeline, not the state. Every method and what it actually takes covers that in full, and it applies to Minnesota unchanged.

What Minnesota needs first

Form your entity with the Minnesota Secretary of State before applying. The IRS asks for the legal name and formation date exactly as the state recorded them, and a mismatch is one of the common causes of a rejected application.

Minnesota assigns its own file number. It identifies your company in state records and is not a tax ID. It cannot be used where an EIN is asked for, and the IRS has no record of it.

What Minnesota requires once you have the EIN

• Register with the Minnesota Department of Revenue through Business Tax Registration in e-Services to receive a Minnesota Tax ID Number, the seven-digit number used to report and pay Minnesota business taxes such as sales tax and employee withholding.
• File the annual renewal with the Secretary of State by December 31 of every calendar year, starting the calendar year after the articles of organization are filed.

What is actually different about Minnesota

• Minnesota's annual renewal is due December 31 for every LLC, regardless of the month it was formed, and it is filed under the Secretary of State's file number. An LLC that misses it is administratively terminated without further notice, and it can reinstate retroactively by filing the current year's renewal with a reinstatement fee.
• The Minnesota Tax ID Number is a separate state number, not a copy of the EIN. The Department of Revenue says a business does not need one to open a bank account, and that a business required to get a new federal EIN must also apply for a new Minnesota Tax ID.
• Minnesota's corporate farm law requires an LLC to be certified by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture before it farms or holds an interest in agricultural land, and the Secretary of State's annual renewal asks every LLC whether it owns, leases or has a financial interest in farmable land.