How to Get an EIN Number in Utah: Apply Online, Fax, or Mail

To get an EIN in Utah, apply directly through the IRS online EIN tool at irs.gov. It is free, takes about ten minutes, and you receive your nine-digit Employer Identification Number as soon as you finish the final screen. No state agency issues the EIN; it comes from the Internal Revenue Service, and the number is the same whether your business sits in Salt Lake City, St. George, or anywhere else in the country.

Do You Actually Need One

You need an EIN if you plan to hire employees, operate as a partnership or corporation, file excise taxes, or withhold taxes on income paid to a non-resident alien.¹ Most multi-member LLCs, S-corporations, and C-corporations fall into one of those categories.

A single-member LLC with no employees is the common gray area. The IRS does not require one in that situation, but you may still need it to file certain excise or employment tax returns, or because a Utah bank won’t open a business account without one.

If you are forming an LLC or corporation, register with the Utah Division of Corporations and Commercial Code first.¹ The IRS application asks for the exact legal name on your formation documents, and a mismatch between the two records causes problems later.

What to Have Ready Before You Start

The online session does not save partway through, so gather everything first. The questions come from IRS Form SS-4, and you can preview that form on the IRS website if you want to see the flow.²

The exact legal name on your Utah formation documents, plus any trade name or DBA.
Your entity type: sole proprietorship, single-member LLC, multi-member LLC, partnership, S-corporation, C-corporation, or nonprofit.
The reason you are applying — commonly a new business, first-time hiring, or creating a trust.
A physical Utah mailing address where you can receive IRS correspondence.
The Social Security Number or ITIN of the responsible party, meaning the individual who ultimately owns or controls the entity. It must be a person, not another company.³
The highest number of employees you expect to have in the next 12 months, broken into agricultural, household, and other.³
The date the business began or was acquired, which the IRS uses to set your fiscal year.

One limit catches people off guard: the IRS issues only one EIN per responsible party per day through the online tool. If you need numbers for several entities, space the applications across different days.¹

How to Apply

Online

This is the only method that gives you the number the same day. The IRS tool is available at these hours in Mountain Time (converted from the posted Eastern Time hours):¹

Monday through Friday, 4:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.
Saturday, 4:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

When you finish the final screen, you can view, download, and print your EIN confirmation right away.

Fax

Complete and sign Form SS-4 and fax it to 855-641-6935. The IRS typically faxes the number back within four business days.⁴

Mail

Send the signed Form SS-4 to Internal Revenue Service, Attn: EIN Operation, Cincinnati, OH 45999.⁴ Expect roughly four weeks.³

Phone applications are available only to international applicants with no U.S. residence or office, so a Utah business cannot use that route.³ No method carries a fee.

What Arrives After

Online applicants get the EIN instantly on screen. Fax takes about four business days; mail takes about four weeks.³ The IRS also mails Notice CP 575, the formal confirmation letter. Keep it. Banks, licensing offices, and lenders routinely ask for it as proof of your EIN.

If the notice goes missing, check any tax return you have already filed, or contact a bank or agency where you used the EIN to open an account.⁵

Register With Utah After You Have the EIN

The federal EIN does not register you for Utah taxes. File Form TC-69, Utah State Business and Tax Registration, with the Utah State Tax Commission to open accounts for sales and use tax, employer withholding, and any other state taxes that apply to you. The form requires your federal EIN for every entity type except sole proprietors without employees, who use their Social Security Number and add the EIN only once they hire.

Avoid the Paid Lookalike Sites

Search results for “EIN application” are crowded with third-party sites that charge up to $300 to file the free IRS form on your behalf. In 2025, the Federal Trade Commission sent warning letters to operators of these sites, saying their practices may violate federal rules against impersonating or claiming affiliation with a government agency.⁶ Confirm the URL in your browser bar starts with irs.gov. If a site asks for a credit card, you are not on the IRS portal.

When a Change Means Getting a New EIN

Your EIN stays with the entity for life in most cases. Certain structural changes, however, trigger a new one:⁷

A sole proprietor incorporates, forms a partnership, or declares bankruptcy.
A corporation converts to a partnership or sole proprietorship, or merges to form a new corporation.
A partnership incorporates, dissolves and one partner continues as a sole proprietor, or ends and starts fresh as a new partnership.
An LLC terminates and reforms as a corporation or partnership.

A name change, address change, or state-level conversion that leaves the underlying structure intact does not require a new EIN. Corporations and partnerships also keep their EIN through bankruptcy; only sole proprietors need a new one after filing.⁷

1
Internal Revenue Service. Get an Employer Identification Number
2
Internal Revenue Service. About Form SS-4, Application for Employer Identification Number (EIN)
3
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form SS-4 (12/2025)
4
Internal Revenue Service. Where to File Your Taxes for Form SS-4
5
Taxpayer Advocate Service. Getting an EIN
6
Federal Trade Commission. FTC Warns Operators of Websites That Charge for an Employer Identification Number and Claim Affiliation With the IRS
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Internal Revenue Service. When to Get a New EIN