Business and Tax Identification Match

Required Data

• Business Name
  • The legal name of the Business you are verifying. This should be the name the Business has registered with the U.S. IRS or the Secretary of State in their state of incorporation.
• Business Addresses
  • A list including the physical addresses of a business. For larger companies, this commonly includes the address of their headquarters (HQ) location.

• Taxpayer Identification Number
  • A unique 9-digit number that is used by the IRS to identify a business entity

Optional Data

• Peoples
  • A list of people associated with the business
• Business Structure
  • If you want to check against a Sole Proprietorship or LLC
• Website Address

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‍Business Names

• Collection of all developed business names linked to a business with a matching of the submitted name

‍Business Name and Tax Identification (TIN) Match

• Verifies that the submitted Business name and Tax Identification Number (TIN) combination match.

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Legal Name

An entity's legal name is meant to uniquely identify the business in a given state. Each state may have requirements around valid entity names (e.g., requires the use of alphabetical characters) or the use of suffixes (e.g., LLC, Inc.). Most states do not allow an entity to register with a name already in use, and some states require an entity name to reflect the operations of the business.

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While states guard against duplicative names, each state acts independently when forming entities. Therefore, many business entities have the same name as a separate business in another state. In this case, it is critical to understand the domestic and foreign jurisdictions of each state, and how and when each filing was made.

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Doing Business As (DBAs)

A company is said to be "doing business as" a name when the business operates under a name different than its legal, registered name. These names are also referred to as "assumed", "fictitious", or "trade" names.

State and local governments usually require companies to register these alternate names through a DBA filing, allowing the company to legally operate under a separate trade name.

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Business Name Responses

• Success: Verified
  • Match identified to the submitted Business Name
• Warning: Similar Match
  • Similar match identified to the submitted Business Name
• Failure: Unverified 
  • Unable to identify a match to the submitted Business Name
• Failure: Alternate Name
  • We believe the submitted TIN is associated with “name”

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Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN)

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All valid business entities will have an EIN issued by the IRS. The Federal government requires a legal entity to have an EIN to pay employees and to file business tax returns. To be considered a Partnership, LLC, Corporation, S Corporation, Non-profit, etc., a business must obtain an EIN when incorporating. EINs do not expire. Once an EIN has been issued to an entity, it will not be reissued. Each EIN is unique to a business and persists over time.

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List of TIN Types

• Social Security Number (SSN)
• Employer Identification Number (EIN)
• Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN)
• Taxpayer Identification Number for Pending U.S. Adoptions (ATIN)
• Preparer Taxpayer Identification Number (PTIN)

Formation

• Sole Proprietorship
• Partnership
• Limited Liability Company (LLC)
• Corporation
• Non-profit

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Verifying EINs against submitted people for SoleProp & Small LLC

Based on IRS documents, some small businesses like single-member LLCs have EINs that match against an officer's name instead of the registered business name. Middesk has an optional feature to verify if the submitted EIN matches the person's name in the case that it failed to match with the business name. Contact your account manager or support@middesk.com if you would like to opt-in, and see our reference for additional information.

TIN Verification Responses

• Success: Found
  • The IRS has a record of the submitted TIN and Business Name combination
• Failure: Mismatch
  • We believe the submitted TIN is associated with a different Business Name
• Failure: Not Found
  • The IRS does not have a record for the submitted TIN and Business Name combination
• Failure: Duplicate
  • TIN/name failure - Duplicate request
• Failure: Unavailable
  • TIN/name failure - IRS is unavailable
• Failure: Not Issued
  • TIN has not been issued by the IRS. There is often a delay after formation for the IRS database to process TINs for new businesses.