Federal employer identification numbers are issued once, never reissued, and never published in a central index. A lookup against a company therefore means looking through the documents that company was required to file, and the answer depends on whether it files any. A listed company is easy. A private limited liability company in a single state is usually impossible without asking it.
One number, issued once, never listed
The Internal Revenue Service assigns an employer identification number to a business entity and keeps it with that entity for its life. It is not reassigned when a company closes. It is also not published: there is no federal register of numbers against names, and the IRS will not confirm another business's number to a third party. Any service claiming to run a complete federal search against all companies is selling an index nobody has.
Where a company's number is on the record
Public companies print the number on the cover page of annual and quarterly filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, labelled as the IRS employer identification number. Tax-exempt organisations have theirs published because their exempt status is public. Companies that have taken federal grants or contracts often have theirs in the award record. Outside those three situations the number is generally not available from any public source at all.
Reading the state record when the federal one is closed
If the federal number is not obtainable, the state business register still identifies the entity properly: the exact legal name, the state file or charter number, the entity type, its current status, and its registered agent. Those fields are what a counterparty check usually needs, and unlike the federal number they are public by design in every state. Start there, and ask the company for the federal number if the contract genuinely requires it.
Questions people ask about federal tax id number lookup company
Can I look up any company's federal tax ID?
Only where the company has disclosed it, typically in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, an exempt-organisation record or a federal award. There is no general index.
Does the IRS confirm another company's EIN?
No. The IRS will not confirm a third party's employer identification number. It will confirm your own to an authorised representative.
Is a FEIN different from an EIN?
No. FEIN is simply federal employer identification number written out. It is the same nine-digit number as an EIN.