What is an EIN Number and Can I Verify it?
An Employer Identification Number (EIN), also known as a Federal Tax Identification Number, is a 9-digit number assigned by the IRS to identify a business entity. The IRS uses the number to identify taxpayers who are required to file various business tax returns.
Businesses are required to have an EIN in order to pay their employees and file tax returns. Without an EIN, a business will not be able to open a bank account or an account with other financial institutions. Applying for an EIN can be done electronically on the IRS website for free. Employer Identification Numbers are unique, never expire, and are never reissued to another business, even if the original employer goes out of business.
How Do I Verify an EIN?
To verify a business’s EIN, you can request the EIN validation letter that the business receives from the IRS, or you can simply contact the company directly. However, since obtaining a company’s EIN isn’t always easy, it’s worth looking into other options such as service providers who offer EIN verification as part of their solution.
Melissa’s Nonprofit Organization Lookup tool is an easy way to verify an organization’s information. By entering the 5-Digit ZIP Code, Organization Name or 9-Digit Tax ID (EIN), the lookup tool will return useful information related to that organization. If you are looking to verify the EIN, you can do that by entering another piece of the search criteria and the tool will return the information.
Listware, Melissa’s Cloud-based Data Cleansing & Enrichment Tool, offers EIN verification as part of its flexible tool set. Listware’s Business Coder verifies company name and address, plus appends firmographics such as SIC/NAICS Code, number of employees, phone number, website, and EIN.
Why Melissa?
As the leader in Address Verification, Melissa has over 35 years of experience helping businesses with their data quality needs. Melissa verifies, corrects, updates and enriches customer contact data to provide businesses and organizations with support for Know Your Customer (KYC) initiatives, fraud prevention and cost savings.