The EIN, for non-residents — the whole route, on one page
An Employer Identification Number is free from the IRS and slow for exactly the people this site serves. Here is the Form SS-4 line by line, the fax and mail timelines as the IRS publishes them, the difference between a CP 575 and a 147C, the five errors that bounce applications, and the Form 5472 duty that follows.
Form SS-4, annotated
| Line | Field | The examiner’s view |
|---|---|---|
| Line 1 | Legal name of the LLC | Exactly as it appears on the filed Articles — the IRS prints this name on the CP 575 and banks match against it. A mismatch here is the most common avoidable error on this form. |
| Line 3 | Executor / administrator / trustee — the responsible party | The individual who controls the entity and its assets. For a foreign-owned LLC this is normally the foreign owner. The IRS requires the responsible party’s own tax ID where they have one; a foreign responsible party with no SSN or ITIN writes “foreign” — see line 7b. |
| Line 4a–5b | Mailing and street address | The mailing address may be outside the United States. Use an address that reliably receives IRS mail — the CP 575 is a paper letter, and a lost one means the 147C route below. |
| Line 6 | County and state where the LLC is located | The formation state from your state sheet, and its county. |
| Line 7a / 7b | Name of responsible party / SSN, ITIN or EIN | Line 7b is the whole case for founders without a US tax number: enter “foreign” when the responsible party is a foreign person with no SSN or ITIN. Do not invent a number, do not borrow one, and do not copy the example numbers that circulate on forums — a fabricated 7b is a rejection and a record. |
| Line 8a–8c | Is this application for an LLC? How many members? | Yes; the member count from your diagnostic. A single-member foreign-owned LLC is disregarded by default — which is precisely the status that carries the Form 5472 duty below. |
| Line 9a | Type of entity | “Other” — foreign-owned US LLC, stating the default classification. Choosing a corporation election here by accident creates a tax posture you did not intend. |
| Line 10 | Reason for applying | “Started new business” for a new formation, naming the business type. |
| Line 13–17 | Employees, activity, first wage date | Most new non-resident LLCs have no US employees; answer for your real case. Claiming employees you do not have opens payroll accounts you do not need. |
| Line 18 | Has the LLC ever applied for an EIN before? | Answer truthfully — a second EIN for the same entity creates duplicate-identity problems with banks and the IRS. |
Fax, mail, phone — the real timelines
| Route | How | Published window |
|---|---|---|
| Fax | Completed SS-4 faxed to the IRS EIN operation at 855-215-1627 (from outside the US, fax 304-707-9471); include a fax number and the IRS faxes the EIN back. | EIN within about 4 business days |
| SS-4 posted to: Internal Revenue Service, Attn: EIN International Operation, Cincinnati, OH 45999, USA. | About 4–5 weeks in IRS inventory | |
| Phone (status & the 147C) | International applicants can call 267-941-1099 (not toll-free), 6 a.m.–11 p.m. Eastern, Monday–Friday. | Live examiner; have your SS-4 details ready |
| Online | Closed to you if the responsible party has no SSN or ITIN — the assistant ends the session. This is an IRS rule, not a service’s upsell. | Not available |
CP 575 vs. 147C — the two letters
The CP 575 is the original EIN confirmation notice the IRS mails (or faxes back) when the number is issued. It shows the EIN, the entity’s legal name exactly as the IRS recorded it, and the name-control line banks use for TIN matching. It is issued once. Guard the PDF like a passport.
The 147C is the replacement letter: if the CP 575 is lost, the IRS will fax or mail a 147C on request — obtained by calling the Business & Specialty Tax line (international callers use 267-941-1099) and verifying the entity’s details. A 147C proves the same number; it is not a new EIN, and requesting one does not change anything about the entity. If a bank asks for “a 147C dated recently”, this phone call is the whole errand.
The five rejection errors we see most
Writing “N/A” or leaving 7b blank instead of “foreign”
The examiner cannot process a blank identity line. The instruction for a foreign responsible party is a word, not a number: “foreign”.
A name on the SS-4 that differs from the filed Articles
Even a punctuation-level difference can issue the EIN under a name your bank will not match. File the state document first; copy the name from it.
Applying online anyway
The online EIN assistant requires an SSN or ITIN for the responsible party and closes the application without one. The fax/mail route is not a workaround — it is the designated route.
Using a US agent’s or friend’s SSN as the responsible party
The responsible party is a legal role — the person who controls the entity. Borrowing a number misstates the application.
Applying twice because the first answer is slow
Mail applications sit in IRS inventory for weeks. A duplicate application creates a second record that must later be merged. Track the first; use the phone line to confirm receipt.
After the EIN: Form 5472 + pro-forma 1120
A foreign-owned single-member LLC that is disregarded for federal tax must still file, every year: Form 5472 (information return of a 25% foreign-owned US corporation or a foreign-owned US disregarded entity) attached to a pro-forma Form 1120, filed by mail to the IRS service center in Ogden, Utah, at the address in the Form 5472 instructions. Reportable transactions include the money you put into your own company — capital contributions count. The due date follows the pro-forma 1120 calendar (April 15 for a calendar-year filer, with an automatic extension available on Form 7004).
Penalty for a missing or late Form 5472: $25,000
That figure is from the Form 5472 instructions (Internal Revenue Code § 6038A), and continuation penalties can follow after IRS notice. Multi-member LLCs file Form 1065 instead, with Schedule K-2/K-3 and withholding analysis when US-source income reaches foreign partners. This page is information, not tax advice: a cross-border tax adviser on your own facts is worth their fee in year one. What is not optional is knowing the duty exists before you form — which is why every dossier in this Atlas repeats it.
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