What is ein registration?
The federal tax ID — including the fax route that works for foreign owners without an SSN, and why mail is the wrong answer.
An EIN — Employer Identification Number, the nine-digit federal tax ID the IRS issues on Form SS-4 — is the number a US bank asks for before it opens an account, the number that has to sit on a first payroll filing, and the number that appears on every federal return the entity ever files. For a US-resident founder with a Social Security Number, getting one is close to a non-event: the IRS's online tool issues the number instantly, the same session. For an Indian company setting up a US subsidiary, or an Indian founder who is the sole owner of a new Delaware LLC or C-Corp, it is a genuinely different process — and treating it as the same five-minute step is the single most common way a US entity formation stalls for weeks with nothing else visibly wrong.
The IRS requires every SS-4 application to name a "responsible party" — a natural person, not the parent company, who controls, manages or directs the entity and its funds. Where the applicant has a Social Security Number or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, that field on the form gets a real number and the online EIN tool works end to end. Where the responsible party is, say, the Indian founder or an officer of the Indian parent with neither an SSN nor an ITIN, the IRS instructions say to write "Foreign" in that field instead of leaving it blank — and the moment that box says "Foreign," the IRS's online instant-issue tool refuses the application outright. There is no way around this by trying a different browser or a different time of day; it is a hard gate built into the online tool.
Who does what
| Your CapEasy team | EIN registration, the reconciliations and reporting behind it, and the questions list that keeps it honest. |
| Your CPA or enrolled agent | Everything that carries a licence in United States — rendered exactly as written: issue compilation, review or audit reports — those are restricted to licensed cpa firms. |
| You | One conversation with one named person, and the decisions that are genuinely yours. |
EIN registration in United States
The online instant-EIN tool is blocked the moment the responsible party has no SSN or ITIN
The IRS's own EIN Assistant only issues numbers instantly to applicants who can supply a Social Security Number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number for the responsible party. Per the IRS's own SS-4 instructions, an applicant without either writes "Foreign" in that field — and that value is exactly what the online tool rejects. This isn't a bug or a temporary outage; it's how the tool is built, and it applies to every India-based founder or Indian-parent officer named as responsible party on a US entity's SS-4, with no exception for entity type (LLC or C-Corp).
Phone is the fastest official channel, and it requires a completed SS-4 in hand before the call
The IRS operates a dedicated international line — 267-941-1099 — specifically for applicants outside the US filing without an SSN/ITIN responsible party. An IRS agent works through the completed Form SS-4 on the call and can issue the EIN the same call. The form has to be filled out correctly beforehand — name, entity type, formation date, responsible-party details with "Foreign" in the SSN/ITIN box — because the agent is confirming answers against a document, not drafting one live.
Fax beats mail by weeks, and the fee for guessing wrong is calendar time
A completed SS-4 faxed to the IRS's international fax number typically returns an EIN in roughly four to seven business days. The same form mailed to the IRS typically takes roughly four to six weeks — it enters the general paper queue rather than a dedicated international channel. Because a US bank account, state registrations and the entity's first bank-facing paperwork all wait on the EIN, choosing mail over fax (or over the phone line) is the most common way a few weeks of avoidable delay gets built into a foreign-owned entity's first month.
The responsible party is a real person, and they own what the form says
The IRS requires the responsible party to be a natural person who actually controls, manages or directs the entity and the disposition of its funds — never the parent company itself, and never a nominee with no real authority. Whoever is named carries legal responsibility for the accuracy of the SS-4. CapEasy can prepare every field and submit the form as an authorized third-party designee; the person named as responsible party is the client’s own officer or founder, and that stays true regardless of which of the three channels the form goes through.
What your CPA or enrolled agent receives from us
- A completed Form SS-4 — legal name, entity type, formation state and date, responsible-party details with "Foreign" correctly entered in the SSN/ITIN field where applicable — ready for phone, fax or mail submission.
- A recommendation on which of the three IRS channels fits the timeline: the international phone line (267-941-1099) for same-call issuance, fax for a roughly four-to-seven-business-day return, or mail only where neither of the faster routes is available.
- The IRS-issued EIN confirmation — either the number given during the phone call, or the CP 575 notice the IRS mails after a fax or mail submission.
- A note on what depends on the EIN next: opening a US bank account, registering for state tax and payroll accounts, and (for a foreign-owned entity) the Form 5472 and pro forma Form 1120 filing obligation that a US CPA, EA or international-tax attorney takes from here.
