Employer Identification Number - EIN
Categories: Regulations, Company Management
You start a bird feed delivery business. At first, you just drive the seeds to your clients on your own. Eventually, you get big enough that you need to hire some employees.
The process of having employees involves a good deal of paperwork, tax stuff, and other government-required documents. As part of filing this paperwork, the government will give you an Employer Identification Number.
The EIN is like a social security number for businesses that have employees. It's a way for the government to identify the company.
People can have similar names (John Smith of Syosset, New York, vs. John Smith of Walla Walla, Washington); well, companies can similar names as well. Your Bird Madness! LLC birdseed delivery business might get confused with the L.A.-based ornithological pyschiatry practice Bird Madness? LLC. The EIN prevents this. You get a number that's unique to your business, which appears on all the appropriate forms.