There may be situations where you need the EIN number in the course of business operations. In this case the first question to ask is if the company is a publicly traded company or private.

If the company is publicly traded you can usually find this information from the Securities and Exchange Commission. They maintain a database of all public registrations and their correlated documents. Usually you can find the EIN number on one of these documents.

If the company is a tax exempt nonprofit, there are databases where you can perform a similar EIN lookup.

For companies that are privately held, it may require some extra leg work, but you may still be able to locate the number.

✔    The most obvious step you can take is to just contact the company, usually the accounting department, and just ask for it.

✔    You can also look at a company’s state or local registration filings such as Articles of Organization for an LLC or Articles of Incorporation for a corporation.

✔    If you have no luck finding the EIN number for free, there are paid services and databases where the number may be located