The IRS Now Lets Some Businesses Download an EIN Verification Letter (147C). Single-Member LLCs Are Not on the List Yet.

A bank asks for your EIN letter. You go looking for the notice the IRS sent when the number was assigned, and it is not in the folder. Maybe it went to a formation agent who never forwarded it, maybe it went to an address you left two years ago, or maybe you applied from outside the US and the paper never made the trip.

The document that replaces it is Letter 147C. Most writing on the subject stops at that definition, which is the least useful part, because what decides whether you have proof in hand next week is the order of the steps. Do them out of order and the letter goes to an address you cannot read.

Here is the short version. The original notice is never reprinted. The IRS has opened a download for some businesses, and eligibility for it turns on your entity type and your role in the account rather than on simply having an account. Everyone else asks by phone, and the letter is mailed to the address the IRS already has on file, which is why the address comes first.

An original CP 575 cannot be duplicated, and that is why Letter 147C exists

This is not an interpretation. It is written into the procedures IRS staff follow. IRM 21.7.13.3.9.2 tells the assistor exactly what to do when someone asks for a reprint: "If the taxpayer asks for a duplicate CP 575, send Letter 147C, EIN Previously Assigned. Explain the original notice of EIN assignment cannot be duplicated."

So the CP 575 in your records is a one-time document. Another familiar piece of paper left the menu along the way, since the IRS states that "We no longer provide the Form SS-4 notated with the EIN." When an institution asks for your EIN letter, the copy you can still obtain is Letter 147C, or the digital notice described below. Getting the number in the first place runs on a different procedure with its own rules, and our EIN guide covers that side. If the online application refused you with a reference number instead of issuing one, we've traced what the IRS manual actually says about code 101.

The IRS now lists three ways to confirm an EIN

The agency's main EIN page opens the subject with a count: "There are 3 ways to confirm your EIN". The three are an entity transcript, a download inside Business Tax Account, and a call to the business and specialty tax line asking for Letter 147C.

The download is the recent addition. The Business Tax Account page introduces it under a new label: "You can now download your employer identification number (EIN) verification notice from your account. The new CP575 notice is a substitute for the CP575A-J notice series and Letter 147C." A second IRS page repeats it in different words, describing the digital CP575 as usable "as a substitute for the original CP575A-J notice series and Letter 147C, EIN Previously Assigned." What neither page gives is a start date. The notice is labelled new and nothing more, so the only date we can honestly anchor to is our own reading on August 14, 2026, of a page the IRS stamps as last reviewed or updated on August 13, 2026.

One word in the IRS's own summary carries the weight: "Eligible Business Tax Account users can download a digital CP575, Employer Identification Number Verification Notice in BTA." The rest of this piece is mostly about what eligible turns out to mean.

Your role inside the account decides whether the download appears

Business Tax Account is not a single thing. It has roles, and the roles carry different feature lists. A Designated Official holds full access, where the tax records line reads "Tax records – View tax transcripts, EIN verification letter and tax compliance reports." An individual partner or shareholder holds what the IRS calls limited access, where the same line reads "Tax records – View tax transcripts" and stops there.

Put those two lines side by side and the rule is plain. The EIN verification letter is a full access feature. Having an account is not the qualification; holding the top role is.

That role also expires on a schedule. The IRS is direct about it: "If you're registered as a Designated Official, you must renew your role annually to maintain access to Business Tax Account." A notification arrives during a six week renewal period, and missing that window means registering as a Designated Official from scratch. Anyone who plans to treat the download as standing proof should record the renewal somewhere visible.

Single-member LLCs are shut out of the download twice

The first exclusion is the account itself. The IRS says an account "is available for single member LLCs that file either" Form 1120-S or Form 1065, and then draws the line: "Business Tax Account isn't yet available for LLCs that file as sole proprietors with Schedule C or Schedule F (Form 1040)." A default single-member LLC reporting on Schedule C sits outside the account entirely.

The second exclusion catches the ones that clear the first. For single-member LLCs, the role list ends with "Designated Official (coming soon)", and the EIN verification letter lives inside the Designated Official feature list. A single-member LLC filing Form 1120-S can therefore hold an account today and still find no download waiting in it.

None of this means an owner outside the US is locked out of the account. The IRS says "You can register for an account as a sole proprietor if you have a Social Security number or individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN)", meaning an individual filing without an LLC in the way, and that route reaches the full access list with the download inside it. The partnership path described below carries no employment condition either. The two exclusions are narrow in wording, and both of them happen to land on the single-member LLC.

The W-2 line is where owners outside the US usually stop

For an S corporation or a C corporation, the IRS sets three conditions for the Designated Official, and the second one does the damage. The person has to be an officer or managing member of the entity, has to be "A current employee who received a W-2 for the most recent tax filing year", and has to be authorized to legally bind the business or entity.

A partnership is asked for something different. Its Designated Official must be "A general partner" or "A managing partner of the LLC", and no employment condition appears anywhere in that list.

For a founder living outside the United States, that last column is the whole story. If your company files as a corporation and nobody connected to it draws a W-2 from it, the top role has no eligible holder, and the download stays closed no matter how carefully you register. Where the company files a partnership return and you are a general partner, the same door opens with no payroll question attached.

If you call, the letter goes to the address the IRS already has

The procedure for a phone request sits in IRM 21.7.1.4.7.1. Once the assistor locates the number, the manual allows verification "verbally and/or in writing via fax, or mail to the address of record", and sets the expectation for paper: "advise the caller to expect the letter in 10 to 14 business days". The section covering what staff do when a previously assigned EIN surfaces during a call repeats the destination in plainer words: "Send 147C letter to the address of record".

Two things follow from that sentence. The number itself can be read out on the call, which is enough when all you need is the digits. The document, though, travels to wherever IRS records say you are, which is a separate question from where you asked it to go.

There is also a suppression rule that catches people who ask twice. The manual says "Do not send if research shows Letter 147C was sent within the last 30 days", and adds a companion instruction: "Do not send if research shows the EIN was assigned within the last 30 days as a CP 575 was generated during the assignment process." A company that received its EIN three weeks ago cannot order a replacement letter, because the original is already in transit to the address of record. That single rule is the strongest argument for settling the address question before anything else.

Correct the address of record before you ask for the letter

The business address change form is Form 8822-B. The IRS describes it as the way to "notify the Internal Revenue Service if you changed" your business mailing address, your business location, or the identity of your responsible party, and notes that the form "is for businesses and other entities with an Employer Identification Number application on file."

That page does not state how long a change takes to post, so treat the timing as unknown and put the form first in the sequence. If you are still at the application stage, the address the IRS will use comes from Form SS-4, where Line 4 and Line 5 ask for two different things, and our guide to the business mailing address walks through the split.

A fax is on the menu, and asking for it is usually your move

This is the part that changes the arithmetic for anyone waiting outside the country. The procedure that governs a 147C request lists fax beside mail as an ordinary delivery method, and attaches no instruction to withhold it.

Whether the assistor volunteers a fax depends on which situation you are in. When a brand new EIN has just been assigned and its notice is already travelling, the manual holds staff back: "Do not offer to fax an EIN confirmation letter to the caller. If the caller is authorized and initiates a request for a faxed EIN confirmation, provide it." In other situations the instruction runs the other way and staff are told to "Offer to mail and/or fax". What survives across all of them is the request itself: "If the caller requests immediate written confirmation of the EIN, fax Letter 147C."

So treat the fax as something you raise rather than something you wait to be offered. The manual also points assistors to additional disclosure requirements that apply to faxed copies of Letter 147C, so expect additional identity checks when you ask for one.

One limit is useful to know in advance if a formation company obtained your EIN for you. A third party designee's authority ends at the new number: "Do not fax the previously assigned EIN back to a third party designee. Their authority is to obtain newly assigned EINs only." Another section adds that "The authority granted to a Third Party Designee does not extend to receiving mail on behalf of the taxpayer." Whoever calls has to be you, or someone whose authorization is current.

One transcript shows the number in full, and it is the business entity transcript

Transcripts normally redact. The IRS says so directly: "For your protection, most transcripts hide personally identifiable information like taxpayer identification numbers. The only exception is business entity transcripts."

That one exception is what makes the entity transcript usable as evidence. The IRS describes it as a document that "Verifies information in IRS records such as employer identification number (EIN), filing requirements and if the business is a single-member or multiple-member limited liability company (LLC)." A related version, the modified business entity transcript, "Shows employer identification number (EIN), current name, address and name control (first four letters of the business name) for electronic filing."

There are three ways to get one: inside the business tax account, by mail with Form 4506-T, or through the business line. The mail route carries a detail people miss, since the IRS instructs that "For business entity transcripts, write to the IRS address where you filed your return." Whether a given bank will take a transcript in place of the letter is that bank's decision, and asking costs one email against the wait for mailed paper.

The IRS publishes three numbers, and only one of them is for callers abroad

The IRS publishes different numbers for different callers, and the difference matters a great deal if you are dialing from abroad.

Two cautions belong with that table. A toll free US number does not always connect from outside the country, which is why the IRS publishes a separate line for international callers. And the manual section governing 147C requests describes the procedure without naming any phone number, so read the list above as the contact information the IRS publishes rather than as a dedicated hotline for this letter. The last of the three is an application line, which makes it the wrong place to ask for a copy of a document you already have.

Whichever number you dial, authorization is the first gate. The manual instructs staff that "For purposes of identification and to prevent unauthorized disclosures of tax information, establish the caller's relationship with the entity to determine if they are authorized to receive the EIN." When the caller is not authorized, the script offers two ways out: "Conference the taxpayer into the call," or "Have the taxpayer call personally." The IRS puts the same promise in friendlier language on its EIN page, saying "We'll verify your identity and provide the number over the phone if you're authorized to receive it."

Every route in this article ends at an address

The download route ends on a screen, for the businesses that qualify. Everything else ends at paper: a 147C mailed to the address of record, or a transcript requested from the office where you filed.

For a founder outside the US, that is usually where these procedures break. The CP 575 was mailed once, to whatever address the application carried, and nobody opened it. Ordering the 147C repeats the same trip to the same place unless the address on file changed first. A US address that somebody actually reads is not a convenience here. It is the precondition that makes every other step work.

The same question shows up in the next room over. Banks apply their own address rules when the account is opened, and they ask again during account reviews, where the paperwork a bank wants during a de-risking review shapes how the review ends.

Auteur is building a US mailbox for this stream of paper. The address will be a real commercial street address, every envelope will be opened and scanned, and a letter the IRS sends on its own schedule will not depend on someone remembering to forward it. Reserving a place is free.

Frequently asked questions

Can I download my 147C letter online? Only when your business and your role in Business Tax Account both qualify. The IRS now offers a digital CP575 inside the account and calls it "a substitute for the CP575A-J notice series and Letter 147C", but the feature appears in the full access lists rather than in the limited access ones. Single-member LLCs are excluded on two counts: no account at all while they file Schedule C or Schedule F, and "Designated Official (coming soon)" for the ones that file Form 1120-S or Form 1065. For everyone else, the letter still comes through a phone request.

Can I get another copy of CP 575? No. The IRS manual instructs staff to send Letter 147C instead and to "Explain the original notice of EIN assignment cannot be duplicated." The agency has also retired the other old workaround, stating that "We no longer provide the Form SS-4 notated with the EIN." What replaces the original is Letter 147C, or the digital CP575 for the accounts that can reach it.

How long does it take to get a 147C letter? For mail, the instruction to IRS staff is to "advise the caller to expect the letter in 10 to 14 business days", counted from the request. A fax is much faster, and it is available on request rather than by default. One rule can stop the clock before it starts: if a 147C went out within the last 30 days, or the EIN itself was assigned within the last 30 days, the IRS does not send another one.

Where does the IRS mail the letter? To the address of record, meaning the address held in IRS records for that entity, which is not always the address you would give over the phone. The manual is specific about it, telling staff to "Send Letter 147C, EIN Previously Assigned, to the address of record to notify the taxpayer of a previously assigned number." If that address has gone stale, file Form 8822-B first and request the letter afterward.

How do I request a 147C letter from the IRS? Call the IRS business line and ask for Letter 147C by name. Before anything is disclosed, the assistor has to "establish the caller's relationship with the entity to determine if they are authorized to receive the EIN", and an unauthorized caller gets only two options: "Conference the taxpayer into the call," or "Have the taxpayer call personally." A third party designee who obtained the EIN for you cannot stand in, because "The authority granted to a Third Party Designee does not extend to receiving mail on behalf of the taxpayer." If you need the document quickly, ask for the fax during the same call.

Bottom line

Work backwards from the mailbox. Confirm the address the IRS holds for your entity and fix it with Form 8822-B if it has gone stale, because both the replacement letter and the original notice travel to that address regardless of what anyone says on a call.

Then take the route your structure allows. When your entity type and your account role both qualify, the digital CP575 is a download and the problem is over. If the other side only needs to see the number inside an IRS document, a business entity transcript shows it in full and it is the one transcript that does not redact. Otherwise the phone route still works, as long as you ask for the fax, since the IRS will not offer it on its own.

This is general information about IRS procedures rather than tax or legal advice. IRS pages and internal procedures change over time; confirm your own situation with the IRS or a qualified professional.