Guide 42 · When something goes wrong

Lost your EIN confirmation? The CP 575 and 147C route, at journey level

The EIN exists — the bank is asking for the letter that proves it, and the letter is gone. This is one of the most fixable problems in the founder's year: the number was issued, the IRS keeps the record, and a replacement confirmation (the 147C) is a phone call away. The journey-level route is here; the filing-depth version lives with the specialist site that owns it.

On this page

1. CP 575 and 147C: what the letters are
2. The route, step by step
3. When the simple route is not your case
4. Never lose it twice
5. Reading is step one. The paperwork is the rest.

CP 575 and 147C: what the letters are

CP 575 is the computer-generated notice the IRS issues when an EIN is assigned — the letter that states the number, the legal name it was issued to, and the filing obligations attached to it. Banks, marketplaces and landlords ask for it because it is the one document that ties the number to the name from the issuer's own hand. Form 147C is not a form you file; it is the IRS's name for the replacement letter it generates when the CP 575 is lost — an EIN verification letter carrying the same facts.

Everything in this guide follows from one distinction: you are not applying for anything. The number exists. You are asking the record-keeper to re-issue its own proof, which is why the route is a verification call and not an application — and why re-applying for a new EIN is the one wrong move, manufacturing the duplicate-number conflicts our stalled-application guide describes.

The route, step by step

1. Call the IRS Business & Specialty Tax Line (the published number for entity tax matters) and ask for a 147C letter for an EIN whose confirmation is lost.
2. Pass verification as an authorised person: the IRS will speak only to someone on its list — the responsible party recorded at application, an officer/member with authority, or a representative with a filed Form 2848 or 8821. Have the legal name, the EIN if you know it (the letter can be located by name and responsible party if you do not), the formation address and the responsible party's details as they appeared on the SS-4.
3. Choose delivery: the letter can be faxed during the call or mailed to the address of record. Fax during the call is the fastest honest route; if the address of record is the registered agent's, tell the agent it is coming.

The specialist filing-depth version of this route — examiner scripts, edge cases, what to do when the responsible-party record itself is wrong — is maintained by einwithoutssn.com, which owns EIN problem depth in the fleet's topic map. The route above is the standard case, and the standard case is most cases.

When the simple route is not your case

• The responsible party has changed — the person the IRS will verify against is the one recorded at application. Changes of responsible party are reported on Form 8822-B; if yours changed, expect the call to route through that correction.
• The legal name on the EIN record differs from the articles — a name-control mismatch that will also trip bank and 1099-K matching (see our 1099-K guide). The 147C shows the IRS's version; reconcile to it or correct it deliberately, never casually.
• You never received a CP 575 because the application is still pending — that is not loss, it is the stalled case, with its own escalation order.

Never lose it twice

Scan the 147C the day it arrives and file it with the articles, the operating agreement and the state certificate — the document pack our first-90-days checklist assembles. Inside a Sethhost membership, the EIN confirmation is captured to the portal's document shelf at issuance, so the 'lost letter' case for members is a download rather than a phone queue; the membership cannot make the IRS's copy arrive faster, but it can make losing yours a non-event.