Is an EIN the same as TIN?

Somebody told me that an EIN is not the same as a TIN which really confuses me. Is this true?

 

EIN Employer Identification Number.
TIN Taxpayer identification number.

For a business the EIN is the substitute for the SS# that the business does not have. So while they are entirely two different things there are times when the EIN would be used in place of the TIN. For example it would be submitted to Google on the TIN form if the account is a registered business.

 

An Employer Identification Number (EIN) is used to identify a business for tax purposes with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). An EIN, also referred to as a Tax Identification Number (TIN), is similar to a social security number for your business.

 

Oh ok, so they are the same. Thanks for the info.

 

They have the same use, the ITIN is for people who can't or don't have a SSN.

http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96287,00.html

 

I was referring to a TIN for business purposes.

 

Okay, all of these answers are either not correct or are incomplete. An EIN and a TIN are not the same thing. An EIN is a TIN, but a TIN is not an EIN.

TIN stands for "Taxpayer Identification Number". It is an identification number used by the IRS. There are 5 different types of TINs:

1. SSN - Social Security Number
2. EIN - Employer Identification Number
3. ITIN - Individual Taxpayer Identification Number
4. ATIN - Taxpayer Identification Number for Pending U.S. Adoptions
5. PTIN - Preparer Taxpayer Identification Number

An EIN is also know as a "Federal Tax ID Number" or "Federal Tax Identification Number". Now these are the same thing: an EIN and a Federal Tax ID Number are synonymous, although, officially, EIN is used more often by the IRS. Sometimes it will be referred to as a "Federal Employer Identification Number" too. And rarely, you may find the acronym FEIN, although is not commonly seen and the IRS does not refer to it is the FEIN. The IRS does note that the EIN is also known as a Federal Tax ID Number, but not an FEIN.

Hopefully this helps! So in short, they are not the same, but rather an EIN is a type of TIN that is used to identify a business entity (LLC, Corporation, Limited Partnership, etc).

 

The replies while you may deem them incomplete were good enough for the OP at the time.


Why do you feel the need to to bump a 4 year old thread for a banned member?

 

Hey Colby, I am new on the forum, so I didn't notice the things you mentioned. I came across this thread via a google search and figure that other people might do the same and I didn't want people to get poor information. I'm also an online marketer and I figured it was time I signed up for DP

 

The post by mmx1346 was very helpful to me.

I feel the need to bump the X-year old thread for a banned member to vindicate mmx1346's efforts.

Thank you mmx1346.

 

I also found the post by mmx1346 very helpful to me.

Thank you mmx1346.