How to Get an EIN for Your Michigan LLC (Free, Direct From the IRS)

An EIN for a Michigan LLC is free, takes about ten minutes, and comes directly from the IRS at IRS.gov. There is no state fee, no LARA involvement, and no legitimate reason anyone has to charge you for access to the application. If you have a Social Security number or ITIN and your LLC is already approved by the State of Michigan, you can finish the online application in a single sitting and download your confirmation letter before you close the browser tab.

The rest of this guide covers the parts people actually get wrong: whether your LLC needs an EIN at all, the exact order of operations relative to your LARA filing, how to answer the application’s trickier questions, and what to do with the number once you have it in Michigan specifically.

First: does your Michigan LLC actually need one?

An EIN (Employer Identification Number, sometimes called a Federal Tax ID) is a nine-digit number the IRS uses to identify a business entity. The Michigan Limited Liability Company Act (MCL 450.4101 et seq.) says nothing about EINs — it’s a purely federal matter. Michigan doesn’t require one to form or maintain your LLC.

Whether you need one depends on how your LLC is structured and what it does:

Your situation	EIN required by the IRS?
Single-member LLC, no employees, default tax treatment	No — you may use your SSN
Multi-member LLC (two or more owners)	Yes, always
Any LLC with W-2 employees	Yes
LLC electing S corporation or C corporation taxation	Yes
LLC owing federal excise taxes (fuel, heavy highway vehicle use, etc.)	Yes
Single-member LLC owned by another entity	Yes
Non-resident owner without an SSN or ITIN	Yes (by mail/fax or phone, not online)

That “no” in the first row comes with a loud asterisk. A single-member Michigan LLC is a disregarded entity by default, meaning the IRS treats its income as flowing straight onto your personal Form 1040, Schedule C. Technically you can operate on your SSN alone. In practice, almost nobody should:

Banks. Most Michigan banks and credit unions ask for an EIN to open a business checking account in the LLC’s name. Keeping business and personal funds separate is one of the most important habits for preserving your limited liability protection, so this alone settles it.
Clients and 1099s. If you do contract work, every client will send you a Form W-9. Putting an EIN on that form instead of your SSN keeps your Social Security number out of a dozen accounts payable inboxes.
Vendors and wholesale accounts. Suppliers, payment processors, and marketplaces routinely require one.
Hiring later. The moment you hire your first employee — even part-time seasonal help — you need an EIN and Michigan withholding registration. Getting it now avoids a scramble.
Specialty tax forms. Some federal returns can’t be filed with an SSN at all. Form 2290, the Heavy Highway Vehicle Use Tax return, requires an EIN outright, which is why it’s a non-negotiable first step for anyone running an LLC for trucking and owner-operator work.

Bottom line: if you’re forming an LLC and plan to actually do business, get the EIN.

Get your LARA approval first

This is the sequencing mistake that creates the most cleanup work.

The IRS application asks for your LLC’s exact legal name and the date your business started. If you apply before the State of Michigan has approved your Articles of Organization, you’re guessing. If LARA rejects your chosen name because it’s not distinguishable from an existing entity — which happens — you’ll end up with an EIN attached to a business name that doesn’t exist, and correcting it means writing a letter to the IRS and waiting.

The correct order:

File Articles of Organization with LARA through the MiBusiness Registry Portal. The filing fee is $50. Standard online processing typically takes a few business days; optional 24-hour expedited service is available for an additional $50 if you’re on a deadline.
Wait for the approval and your filing confirmation. You’ll want the exact legal name as filed and the effective date.
Apply for the EIN at IRS.gov. Same day is fine.
Open your business bank account. Bring the stamped Articles, your EIN confirmation letter, and your operating agreement.

If you want the full sequence from name search through first-year compliance, our free 10-step Michigan LLC startup checklist lays it out in order, and the Michigan LLC cost calculator will show you exactly which fees are real state charges versus optional add-ons.

Before you open the application, have these ready

The IRS online assistant is session-based. It times out after roughly 15 minutes of inactivity and does not save partial progress, so gather everything first:

Exact legal name of the LLC as it appears on your approved Articles of Organization, including the “LLC” or “L.L.C.” designator exactly as you filed it.
Michigan business address. A physical street address is preferred; a P.O. box can cause issues. This can be your home.
Responsible party’s full legal name and SSN or ITIN. The responsible party must be a natural person who controls or manages the LLC — not another company. For a single-member LLC, that’s you.
Number of members. This determines your default federal tax classification.
Date the business started or will start. The LARA effective date is the safe answer.
Closing month of your accounting year. December for virtually every small LLC.
Whether you expect employees in the next 12 months, and if so, roughly how many and when you’ll first pay wages.
A one-line description of your principal activity. Plain English: “residential lawn maintenance,” “freelance graphic design,” “short-term rental of residential property.”

Step by step: the free IRS application

Step 1 — Go to IRS.gov and search “Apply for an EIN Online.” Make sure you’re on an irs.gov domain. Paid lookalike sites buy ads on the same search terms and use nearly identical page layouts.

Step 2 — Check the hours. The online EIN assistant is only available on weekdays during IRS business hours (roughly 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern). It is closed on weekends and federal holidays. This surprises people on a Saturday morning.

Step 3 — Select “Limited Liability Company” as your entity type, then enter the number of members and select Michigan as the state where the LLC is organized.

Step 4 — Confirm your tax classification. For a single-member LLC, the IRS will tell you it’s treated as a disregarded entity. For a two-or-more-member LLC, it defaults to a partnership. Neither is a trap — these are just defaults, and you can elect corporate or S corporation treatment later with Form 8832 or Form 2553. Don’t check the corporation box here unless you’ve already talked it through with a CPA.

Step 5 — Enter the responsible party. Your name and SSN, and indicate whether you’re an owner or a third-party designee. Answer as the owner.

Step 6 — Enter addresses and the legal name. Copy the LLC name character-for-character from your LARA approval. Enter the county (Kent, Oakland, Washtenaw — whichever applies) and the Michigan formation date.

Step 7 — Answer the activity questions. Employees, excise taxes, alcohol/tobacco/firearms, highway vehicles over 55,000 pounds. Answer honestly; “no” to all of these is normal for most new LLCs.

Step 8 — Choose how to receive the letter. Select the option to receive it online. You get your EIN on screen immediately and can download the CP 575 confirmation notice as a PDF.

Step 9 — Save that PDF in three places. The IRS will not reissue a CP 575. If you lose it, the replacement is a Letter 147C, which you have to request by phone and wait for. Save it to cloud storage, email it to yourself, and print a copy for your records folder with your Articles and operating agreement.

One more limit worth knowing: the IRS issues one EIN per responsible party per day. If you’re forming two LLCs, you’ll be applying across two days.

If you can’t apply online

If the responsible party doesn’t have an SSN or ITIN, file Form SS-4 by fax or mail instead. Fax turnaround is typically a few business days when you include a return fax number; mail takes several weeks. International applicants can also call the IRS international EIN line to get a number over the phone.

Why paying a third party is almost always a waste

Here’s what the market actually looks like:

	IRS directly	Typical third-party service
Cost	$0	A service fee, sometimes well over $100
Time to receive EIN	Immediate, on screen	Same day to several business days
Who files it	You	They submit the same IRS form
Form used	Online SS-4 assistant	Online SS-4 assistant or faxed SS-4
Confirmation letter	CP 575 PDF, instantly	Forwarded to you afterward

There is no expedited lane. There is no insider channel. A paid service fills out the identical form with the identical information you would have typed, and in many cases they do it slower than you would, because they batch submissions.

Where a service has genuine value is when it’s bundled sensibly with formation and you’d rather not touch a federal form at all — which is why we offer an EIN filing add-on alongside our formation package. We’ll say plainly what it is: you’re paying for convenience and for someone else to own the accuracy of the entry, not for access. If you have ten free minutes on a weekday and your SSN handy, do it yourself and spend the money elsewhere.

The same honesty applies to formation generally. See our side-by-side pricing comparison of what the national services charge versus the actual state fees.

What to do with the EIN once you have it

The EIN is a federal number. It does not register you with the State of Michigan for anything. Depending on your business, you may still need to:

Register with Michigan Treasury. If you’ll collect Michigan’s 6% sales tax, owe use tax, or withhold income tax from employee wages, you register your business for those taxes through Michigan Treasury Online. You’ll need your EIN to complete that registration. Retailers and anyone selling prepared food — including an LLC set up for a food truck — will need a sales tax license before the first sale.
Register with the Unemployment Insurance Agency if you have employees, for Michigan unemployment tax.
Open the business bank account in the LLC’s exact legal name.
Update your W-9s so clients report payments to the EIN rather than your SSN.
Set up payroll before your first paycheck, not after.

And keep your state-side obligations on the calendar. Every Michigan LLC must file an annual statement with LARA by February 15 each year, with a $25 fee. It’s a small filing, but missing it repeatedly puts your LLC’s good standing at risk — and good standing is what banks and lenders check. If you’d rather not track it, our annual statement filing service handles the deadline for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Michigan charge anything for an EIN? No. The EIN comes from the IRS, not the State of Michigan, and it is free. Michigan’s charges are the $50 Articles of Organization filing fee, the optional $50 expedited fee, and the $25 annual statement each February 15.

Can I get an EIN before my LLC is approved by LARA? You can, but you shouldn’t. If your chosen name is rejected as not distinguishable from an existing Michigan entity, you’ll have an EIN tied to a name that doesn’t exist, and fixing it requires written correspondence with the IRS.

I lost my EIN confirmation letter. What now? Check your business bank account paperwork or a prior tax return first — the number appears on both. If you need official confirmation, call the IRS Business & Specialty Tax Line and request a Letter 147C, which they can fax or mail to the responsible party.

Do I need a new EIN if I move my LLC within Michigan or change its name? No. An address change or a name amendment filed with LARA does not require a new EIN. You generally need a new one only if the entity structure itself changes — for example, a single-member LLC takes on partners and becomes a partnership for tax purposes.

My LLC hasn’t made any money yet. Do I still need to do anything with the EIN? The EIN itself has no annual filing or renewal. However, if you registered for Michigan sales tax or withholding, you may owe zero-dollar returns on schedule, and your $25 LARA annual statement is due regardless of revenue.

Getting the number is the easy part. If you haven’t formed the LLC yet and want the Michigan filing handled correctly the first time — correct name check, proper resident agent, Articles filed with LARA — you can start your Michigan LLC formation here. Then grab your EIN from the IRS in ten minutes, free, and get on with the actual business.