How to Find Your LLC’s EIN Number

The six places your LLC’s EIN is written down

1. The CP 575 notice. If the LLC applied online, this was a PDF offered at the end of the session, usually saved to a downloads folder or forwarded by email. Search for “CP575,” “EIN,” or the LLC’s name plus “IRS.” If a service filed for you, it is in that service’s account. What the notice looks like.
2. Business bank records. The bank captured the EIN when the LLC’s account was opened. It is often shown under account details or documents in online banking, and a banker will read it to an authorized signer.
3. The LLC’s federal return. A multi-member LLC files Form 1065 and the EIN is at the top of page one. A single-member LLC reports on the owner’s Schedule C, which has an EIN box on line D; if that box is blank, the LLC may have been reporting under your SSN.
4. Payroll. If the LLC has ever paid an employee, the EIN is in the payroll provider’s tax setup and on every W-2, 941 and state filing it produced.
5. State tax registrations. Sales tax permits and withholding accounts were opened with the EIN, and the state confirmation letter usually repeats it.
6. Anything the LLC applied for. Business credit cards, merchant accounts, payment processors, insurance policies and licenses all asked for it.

The number on your state certificate is not the EIN

Every state stamps a filing number on the certificate of formation: Florida calls it a document number, Texas a filing number, Connecticut a business ID, and so on. It identifies the LLC in state records and nowhere else. A bank or payroll provider asking for the EIN will reject it. The EIN comes only from the IRS and is only ever nine digits with a hyphen after the second. The state tax ID vs federal EIN guide sorts out the other numbers a state may have given you.

Nothing turned up? The LLC may not have one

This is more common than owners expect. A single-member LLC with no employees is allowed to report under the owner’s SSN, and some formation services skip the EIN unless it is bought as an add-on. If the LLC has never opened a bank account in its own name, never run payroll, and never filed a return of its own, there may be no number to find. In that case you apply for one, in the LLC’s exact legal name; the LLC guide covers the application. Do not assume an EIN you got as a sole proprietor before forming the LLC is the LLC’s number. It is registered to you personally, under your own name.

The route that always works: a 147C letter

If the LLC has an EIN and you cannot find it in any of the places above, call the IRS Business and Specialty Tax Line at 800-829-4933 and ask for a 147C verification letter. The agent verifies that you are a member or manager, reads you the number, and can fax the letter during the call. The 147C guide has the exact script and what to have ready, and the phone number page has the hours.

Do not apply for a second EIN to find the first one

A second application for the same LLC creates a second number the IRS then has to close, and the bank, the state and your returns end up split across the two. Ten minutes on the phone beats months of reconciling. The only time a new application is right is when the LLC genuinely never had a number.

Quick answers

Can I look up my LLC’s EIN online?

Not from the IRS; it has no self-service lookup. Your own records and the 147C call are the routes. The EIN lookup guide covers the public sources that exist for other companies.

Is my LLC’s EIN the same as my personal EIN?

Only if you never got the LLC its own number and have been reporting under yours. The moment the LLC has employees, elects corporate taxation, or gains a second member, it must have an EIN of its own.

My formation service says they applied for an EIN. Where is it?

In their portal or in the confirmation email they sent, usually with the CP 575 attached. If they cannot produce it, they may never have filed; a 147C call settles it either way.