EIN Confussion

[Pipan]

Jurisdiction

Texas

Hi


Last year I registered an LLC in Wyoming and this year I registered another LLC with the exact same name in Texas (basically the companies are completely independent from each other). Lat year for the WY company I had got an EIN, and just shortly ago I wanted to get an EIN for the TX business on IRS website. The IRS website gave an error and prompted me to call IRS.

I talked to this super nice IRS lady, who put me on hold for 5-6 times, each time for 5 minutes, and she was saying that me as the owner of the businesses could use the same EIN. This seemed to be wrong to me, because I neither registered the second company as a Foreign LLC in Texas, nor did I transform the business from WY to TX.

Eventually when she saw I was insisting this doesn't seems to be correct, and after a few other holds told me in that case I should either fax the EIN application form or mail it to IRS, which can take up to 4 weeks to receive the EIN.


Could I really use the same EIN for both businesses?


Thanks.

 

[army judge]

Could I really use the same EIN for both businesses?

You need to seek the guidance of a great lawyer in Wyoming or a super duper CPA.

Anytime you get solicit from the IRS do it in writing.
You have no way of proving Employee 17823456 told you to do anything, unless you get a letter with a signature and date.

 

[Tax Counsel]

Hi

Could I really use the same EIN for both businesses?

Yes. As I explained on that other forum where you asked this, if you are the sole owner of the LLCs and you did not elect for either one to be treated as a corporation then the LLCs are ignored for federal tax purposes and instead viewed as sole proprietorships that you own. Because of that all the income from both businesses is reported directly on your individual tax return. That means that you don't even need an EIN at all unless you have employees, the businesses have certain kinds of retirement plans, or you need to file federal excise tax returns. And even if you have any of those things for either or both LLCs, you would only need one EIN for that since the IRS does not see different business entities here. It's just you running business in two different states.

 

[Tax Counsel]

Anytime you get solicit from the IRS do it in writing.
You have no way of proving Employee 17823456 told you to do anything, unless you get a letter with a signature and date.

Ah, but with the IRS if seek answers to tax law questions from a front line IRS employee and ask for the answer in writing you'll not get it. The tax law and IRS procedures provide that the only advice on tax law from the IRS that is binding on the IRS are private letter rulings (PLRs) that only come from IRS attorneys at the IRS national office in Washington DC. Congress requires that the IRS charge a fee for that service, and the fees are not cheap. The procedures and fees for seeking a PLR are very detailed and described in the first revenue procedure that the IRS issues every year. It's a good idea for taxpayers to use a tax attorney when making a PLR request to have the best shot of getting a favorable determination. The IRS national office attorneys review those requests carefully and the PLRs when issued are released for public access (with taxpayer identifying information redacted). I wrote a number of PLRs when I was an attorney at the national office so I'm well familiar with how it works. But the result of this process is that the IRS instructs all other employees never to put tax advice to taxpayers in writing. Instead, they are to refer taxpayers to other published guidance.