How do you cancel an EIN?
One of the most searched questions about closing a US business, asked about 4,900 times a month across 65 wordings. The answer turns on a distinction the IRS makes and most people do not.
People ask this at the end of closing a company. The state filing is done, the final returns are in, and the EIN is the last thing still sitting there attached to a business that no longer trades.
The question arrives in 65 different wordings and every one of them uses the word cancel. That word is where the confusion starts, because it is not the word the IRS uses.
Asked about 4,900 times a month on Google, across 65 phrasings.
@Andresplatts·
You cannot cancel it. The IRS says so directly: we can't cancel it, but we can deactivate it. Once an EIN is assigned to a business entity it becomes that entity's permanent federal taxpayer ID number, and it stays attached to that entity.
To deactivate it, send a letter with your entity's EIN, its legal name and address, the EIN assignment notice if you still have it, and your reason for deactivating. Mail it to Internal Revenue Service, MS 6055, Kansas City, MO 64108, or Internal Revenue Service, MS 6273, Ogden, UT 84201.
Note the address, because this is where most write-ups get it wrong. Cincinnati is where you APPLY for an EIN. It is not where you close one.
They will not deactivate anything while you still owe them work. If you made tax payments, owe business taxes, or were sent a notice to file a business return, every outstanding return has to be filed and the tax paid first.
Exempt organizations follow a different route, and cannot deactivate at all if they have applied for exemption, been covered by a group ruling, or filed an information return.
