Reverse EIN Lookup: Find a Company From Its EIN
A reverse EIN lookup turns a 9-digit Employer Identification Number into the company that holds it, and it works for exactly 2 groups at $0. For public companies, search the number in SEC EDGAR full-text search; the Form 10-K cover page prints it. For nonprofits, enter it in the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search. Private-company EINs appear in no public database.
The short answerA reverse EIN lookup, from a 9-digit number to a company name, works for exactly 2 groups at $0: SEC registrants, whose EIN prints on the cover of every Form 10-K and is found by searching the number in EDGAR full-text search, and tax-exempt organisations, whose EIN is searchable in the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search. A private company's EIN is confidential under 26 U.S.C. § 6103 and appears in no public database; IRS TIN Matching confirms a name and EIN pair a payer already holds but never returns a name.
Which reverse EIN lookup sources work?
Three sources accept a number and return a name, and all 3 cover only public filers. Everything else either confirms a pair you already hold or resells the same public data.
| Source | Covers | Search by number? | Official | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEC EDGAR full-text search | Public companies and other SEC registrants | Yes: search the number in quotes, with and without the hyphen; the cover page of Forms 10-K and 10-Q prints it | Yes (SEC) | $0 |
| IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search | Tax-exempt organisations with a determination letter or a filed Form 990 | Yes: the search form has an EIN field | Yes (IRS) | $0 |
| ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer | The same nonprofits, from IRS Form 990 data | Yes: EIN search box | No; mirrors IRS data | $0 |
| IRS TIN Matching | Any payee you file a 1099 for | No: confirms a name and EIN pair you already hold; returns match or no-match, never a name | Yes (IRS e-Services) | $0 |
| State business registry | Every registered entity in that state | No: indexed by legal name, not EIN | Yes (state) | $0 |
| Paid data broker | Records scraped from public filings and W-9s | Sometimes; results are secondhand and unverified | No | Per record or subscription |
| The company itself | Any private business | Not a search: ask for a signed Form W-9 | Yes (the holder) | $0 |
Sources: SEC EDGAR; IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search; IRS TIN Matching; 26 U.S.C. § 6103 [1], [3], [7], [8].
How do you reverse look up a public company’s EIN?
Search the 9 digits in quotes in SEC EDGAR full-text search, open any Form 10-K or 10-Q in the results, and read the cover page. The whole lookup takes under 2 minutes and costs $0.
- Open EDGAR full-text search. Go to efts.sec.gov/LATEST/search-index and leave the date range at the default, which covers filings from 2001 onward.
- Search the number in quotes. Enter the EIN in quotes, for example "91-1646860". If nothing returns, repeat without the hyphen: "911646860".
- Open a Form 10-K or 10-Q in the results. The cover page carries the line I.R.S. Employer Identification No. beside the exact legal name of the registrant.
- Confirm on the company profile. Click the filer name to open the EDGAR company page; the CIK, state of incorporation and SIC code there confirm you have the right entity.
The hyphen matters. Filers type the number both ways, so a search that returns nothing with the hyphen often returns dozens of filings without it. Subsidiaries complicate the picture: a payment from Amazon arrives from Amazon.com Services LLC, while the EIN on the 10-K cover, 91-1646860, belongs to the parent, Amazon.com, Inc. The public EIN list page carries the EINs of the 500 largest SEC registrants pulled from those headers, and the EIN search by company name page runs the same lookup in the forward direction.
How do you reverse look up a nonprofit’s EIN?
Type the number into the EIN field of the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search. The result shows the legal name, city, state, exemption type and, where filed, the Form 990 series returns, all at $0.
Nonprofit EINs are the 1 category Congress made public on purpose: 26 U.S.C. § 6104 opens exempt organisations’ returns and applications to inspection, which is why the IRS can run a search in both directions for them and for nobody else. ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer indexes the same Form 990 data with an EIN search box and shows the financial summary from each return; private foundations appear there through Form 990-PF. Match the EIN to the entity that issued the receipt, because a national charity and its local chapters hold separate numbers.
Can you reverse look up a private company’s EIN?
No. A private company’s EIN is confidential return information under 26 U.S.C. § 6103, so no IRS, state or federal database returns a name from the number. The number is confirmed, not discovered.
| What you hold | What to do | What you get back | Cost / time |
|---|---|---|---|
| A number and the name you believe it belongs to, and you pay that business | Run IRS TIN Matching through an e-Services account | A match code: the pair is correct or it is not | $0; seconds interactive, within 24 hours bulk |
| A number alone, from an invoice or 1099 | Read the payer or payee name printed on the same document; the EIN never travels alone on an IRS form | The name the issuer reported under | $0; 1 minute |
| A number alone, no document | Ask the business for a signed Form W-9 | Legal name, entity type and EIN, certified under penalty of perjury | $0; as long as the company takes |
| Your own company's number, unconfirmed | Call 800-829-4933 (Monday-Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time) for Letter 147C | The EIN and legal name on IRS letterhead | $0; 1 call |
A payer who files a 1099 with a number that does not match IRS records receives a CP2100 notice and must start 24% backup withholding under 26 U.S.C. § 3406, which is why TIN Matching exists. The full verification flow is on the verify an EIN number page.
What does the number itself tell you?
Only where the IRS processed the application. The first 2 digits map to 1 of 10 IRS campuses, the online route, or the SBA (prefix 31); the last 7 digits are a sequence with no meaning.
That rules out some numbers before any search: 17 two-digit prefixes (00, 07, 08, 09, 17, 18, 19, 28, 29, 49, 69, 70, 78, 79, 89, 96, 97) have never been issued, a 3-2-4 grouping is an SSN or ITIN, and a 9-digit number with no hyphen that fails every search is often a DUNS number. The EIN number format page carries the full IRS prefix table and the DUNS number vs EIN page separates the two.
What if the business has no EIN yet?
Then no lookup, forward or reverse, can find it, and the business applies: $0 from the IRS on Form SS-4, 15 minutes online with an SSN or ITIN, or 4 business days by fax without one.
ein-number.com prepares and files the form for $69 (Standard) or $99 (Fast, filed within 24 hours), with every line checked by a second reviewer and a full refund if an error on our side causes a rejection.
Get an EIN filed right, from $69What else do people ask about a reverse EIN lookup?
What is a reverse EIN lookup?
A reverse EIN lookup starts with a 9-digit Employer Identification Number and returns the legal name of the business that holds it, the opposite of looking up a number by name. It works only where the number is already public: SEC filings for public companies and IRS Form 990 data for the 1 group of entities whose returns are open by law, tax-exempt organisations.
Is there a free reverse EIN lookup tool?
Two official ones, both $0. SEC EDGAR full-text search finds every filing since 2001 that contains the number, and the cover page of a Form 10-K or 10-Q labels it IRS Employer Identification No. The IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search accepts an EIN directly and returns the organisation's name, city and exemption status. No tool covers private companies.
Does the IRS offer a reverse EIN lookup?
Only for tax-exempt organisations, through the Tax Exempt Organization Search at apps.irs.gov. For every other entity the IRS treats the EIN as confidential return information under 26 U.S.C. § 6103, so it runs no public search in either direction. IRS TIN Matching confirms whether a name and EIN pair you already hold is correct, but it never returns a name from a number.
Can I find any company by its EIN?
No. About 2 categories are findable: companies that file with the SEC and organisations that file Form 990. Private LLCs, corporations and sole proprietors, which make up most of the businesses in the United States, do not appear in any public database by EIN. For those, the number is confirmed, not discovered: request a Form W-9 or run IRS TIN Matching on the pair you hold.
How do I confirm an EIN belongs to a specific company?
For a company you pay, use IRS TIN Matching: it checks up to 25 name and EIN pairs per interactive session, or 100,000 per bulk file, against IRS records at $0 and returns a match code. For your own business, Letter 147C from the IRS Business and Specialty Tax Line restates the EIN beside the legal name. For a public company, compare against the 10-K cover page on EDGAR.
Why does my reverse EIN search return nothing?
Four causes cover nearly every empty result: the company is private, so the number is in no public filing; the number was typed with the wrong grouping (EDGAR needs the exact form the filer used, 12-3456789 or 123456789); the entity files under a parent or subsidiary name you did not expect; or the number is not an EIN at all, for example a 3-2-4 SSN or a 9-digit DUNS number.
What does the EIN itself tell you about the company?
Very little. The first 2 digits identify the IRS campus that assigned the number, or that it was issued online, out of 83 valid prefixes on the IRS list; the last 7 digits are a sequence. Nothing in the 9 digits encodes the entity type, the state or the year. A number beginning with 1 of the 17 unassigned prefixes, such as 00, 07 or 89, is not a real EIN.
Is a reverse EIN lookup legal?
Yes. Searching public filings on EDGAR or IRS Form 990 data is exactly what those disclosure regimes exist for, under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and 26 U.S.C. § 6104. Using an EIN to open credit or file returns in another business's name is the crime, not the search; the IRS handles that as business identity theft and takes reports on Form 14039-B.
What does a reverse EIN lookup cost?
$0 through every official route: SEC EDGAR, the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search, ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer and IRS TIN Matching all charge nothing. Paid brokers sell records they scraped from the same public filings or from W-9s, so a paid result for a public company costs money for data that was free 1 click away, and a paid result for a private company is unverified.
What if the company never had an EIN?
Then there is nothing to find, and the business applies for one. The IRS issues an EIN for $0 on Form SS-4: 15 minutes online with an SSN or ITIN, 4 business days by fax with the word Foreign on line 7b for applicants without either. ein-number.com prepares and files the form for $69 or $99 with a second-reviewer accuracy check.
Which primary sources back this page?
Every fee, deadline, form number and phone line above is taken from the 8 official documents below. No third-party blog is cited.
- SEC. EDGAR full-text search
- SEC. EDGAR company search
- IRS. Tax Exempt Organization Search
- ProPublica. Nonprofit Explorer (IRS Form 990 data, searchable by EIN)
- IRS. About Form 990, Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax
- IRS. Employer Identification Number
- IRS. Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) Matching
- Cornell LII. 26 U.S.C. § 6103 — Confidentiality and disclosure of returns and return information