How to Apply for an EIN in Vermont

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 Vermont unchanged.

What Vermont needs first

Form your entity with the Vermont 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.

Vermont assigns its own record 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 Vermont requires once you have the EIN

• Register with the Vermont Department of Taxes through myVTax before doing business if the LLC will sell taxable goods, rent rooms, sell meals or alcohol, or hire employees. The Department asks for the business's FEIN, opens a separate account for each tax type, and does not require the tax account to be renewed.
• File the annual report with the Secretary of State within three months after the end of the LLC's fiscal year on record. The report renews the LLC's registration each year and must be filed online.

What is actually different about Vermont

• Vermont ties the LLC annual report to the fiscal year end the company has on record with the Secretary of State, not to its formation date. An LLC has three months after that fiscal year end to file, while a profit corporation has two and a half.
• Every Vermont LLC taxed as a partnership files a Business Income Tax Return, Form BI-471 (or the shorter BI-476 when all owners are Vermont residents and only the minimum tax is due), and pays the state's minimum business entity tax each year, even in a year with a loss. The Department of Taxes says simply being registered with the Secretary of State triggers the minimum tax. A single-member LLC that is disregarded for federal purposes and reports on Form 1040 Schedule C is not required to file BI-471.
• Vermont taxes restaurant meals, alcoholic beverages served in bars and restaurants, and room rentals under a Meals and Rooms Tax that is separate from its sales and use tax. A business that does both needs a separate Meals and Rooms account and license alongside its sales and use tax account, and each is registered and filed through myVTax.