EIN Verification Letter (147C): How to Get One in 2026

An EIN verification letter is an IRS document confirming your business's Employer Identification Number. Since August 2026, most eligible businesses can download one, the digital CP575, straight from their IRS Business Tax Account, and the IRS says banks accept it in place of Letter 147C.¹ If you can't use that account, call 800-829-4933 and ask for a 147C by fax or mail.²

TL;DR — three ways to get it, fastest first:

• Online, same session: download the digital CP575 from IRS Business Tax Account, if you're a designated official for an eligible entity.
• Phone + fax: call 800-829-4933 and ask for Letter 147C; have a fax number ready and it can arrive during the call.
• Mail: no fax on hand? The IRS mails the 147C to your address of record: 10 to 14 business days, per its own internal manual, not the "4-6 weeks" some sites still quote.

This is what the IRS publishes, not tax advice. Check the IRS source before you rely on it for a deadline.

If you're collecting this letter for a client rather than your own business, skip to putting it on the onboarding request, or go straight to DokuTrak's 14-day free trial.

---

CP 575 vs Letter 147C: which one do you need?

Both confirm your EIN; the difference is timing. The CP575 is the notice the IRS mails when it first assigns the number, and the original "cannot be duplicated or recreated."¹ Letter 147C, "EIN Previously Assigned," is what the IRS sends later, on request, when that original is lost. Since August 2026, the new digital CP575 from Business Tax Account "can be used as a substitute for the original CP575A-J notice series and Letter 147C," according to the IRS.¹

One naming note: despite the name, form 147c isn't a form you file. It's a letter the IRS sends you; there's nothing to fill out or submit.

Citation capsule: An EIN verification letter is any IRS document confirming a business's Employer Identification Number. The three current ones are the original CP575 notice (mailed once, at assignment, and never reissued), Letter 147C (mailed or faxed later, on request), and the digital CP575 EIN Verification Notice, available since August 2026 through IRS Business Tax Account and accepted by banks in place of either.

The three ways to get it, compared

The IRS lists all three as valid ways to confirm an EIN.² Which one is fastest depends entirely on whether you can get into Business Tax Account.

Get it online: download the digital CP575 from Business Tax Account

If you're a designated official for an entity eligible for Business Tax Account, you can download the CP575 EIN Verification Notice yourself, the same session you sign in. The IRS added this in August 2026 and says the digital CP575 "is accepted by banks and other institutions as written confirmation of an entity's EIN."¹⁵

1. Sign in to Business Tax Account at irs.gov, verifying your identity through the IRS's third-party identity provider.³
2. Choose the business, if you manage more than one.
3. Open your account's tax records and download the EIN verification notice. The IRS describes this as available "under Tax Records" in the account.³ If the menu label looks different when you're there, look for the EIN verification notice under whatever section lists your notices and letters.

Who can't use it yet

Business Tax Account doesn't cover everyone. As of August 2026, it's not yet available for LLCs that file as sole proprietors on Schedule C or Schedule F.³ If you're not a designated official (an officer or managing member, generally), you won't have this download option either, and individual partners or shareholders get limited access to past K-1 records, not the EIN notice.³ Any of those three cases: use the phone route below.

Get Letter 147C by phone (and fax)

Call the IRS business and specialty tax line at 800-829-4933, Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time (Alaska and Hawaii follow Pacific time), and ask for "Letter 147C, EIN Previously Assigned."² The agent will ask who you are to the entity and verify that against the IRS's records before saying anything back to you.⁴

Have a fax number ready before you call; an online fax service works fine. The IRS's own manual tells agents they can provide the EIN "verbally and/or in writing via fax and/or mail,"⁴ so a fax on hand is what gets you the letter during the same call instead of waiting on the mail. No fax number? It goes out by mail instead, to the address the IRS has on file.

One timing tip that isn't on the IRS page: call earlier in the day, and avoid the weeks around major filing deadlines, when the line is busiest.

If your bookkeeper or lender sent you a DokuTrak link for this, upload the PDF or a phone photo of the faxed letter there. No account needed.

Get it by mail

If you don't have a fax number handy, the IRS mails Letter 147C to your address of record. Its own internal manual instructs agents to "advise the caller to expect the letter in 10 to 14 business days" once mailed.⁴ That's a real window, not the 4-6 weeks some older blog posts and the search results still quote. If your business has moved since the IRS last had your address, update it with the IRS first; otherwise the letter goes to the old one.

If you're not the responsible party

A bookkeeper, a new partner, or an office manager calling on a client's behalf runs into the same wall: the IRS releases EIN information only to someone it can authenticate for the entity, or to a representative with Form 2848 (Power of Attorney) or Form 8821 (Tax Information Authorization) on file.⁴ No authorization on file, no letter, regardless of how reasonable the request sounds on the phone.

Citation capsule: The IRS will not release EIN verification to a third party by phone unless that person can be authenticated as representing the entity, or has Form 2848 or Form 8821 on file for it. Without one of those, the owner or an authorized officer has to make the call, or be on the line for it.

In practice: if you're the professional and you don't have a 2848 or 8821 on file, the fastest fix is getting the owner to make the call themselves, or getting a designated official to log in and download the digital CP575 while you're on the phone with them.

Who asks for it, and what they'll take instead

Banks ask for it when opening a business account. The IRS itself says the digital CP575 is accepted as written confirmation of an EIN.¹ Lenders ask too: Fannie Mae's underwriting guide names "an IRS-Issued Employer Identification Number Confirmation letter" as acceptable documentation of a self-employed borrower's business history.⁶ Payroll providers and vendors collecting W-9s ask for the same proof when the TIN on file doesn't match what they expected. See how to collect W-9s from vendors if that's the request you're on the other end of.

If a specific bank or lender hasn't told you which document they'll take, ask them directly rather than guessing. The IRS presents the digital CP575 as a substitute for the 147C, but individual institutions set their own acceptance rules.

For bookkeepers and accountants: put it on the onboarding request

If you're the one asking a client for this letter, not the one who needs it for yourself, the fix isn't a better phone script. It's making sure the request never gets lost in email in the first place. Add "EIN letter (CP575 or 147C)" to your new-client request, the same way you'd add a signed engagement letter or a prior-year return; the new-client onboarding checklist already lists EIN and business registration details as one of the standard items, alongside the rest of what a new engagement usually needs.

With DokuTrak, the client gets a no-account upload link, follow-ups go out until the letter arrives, and an optional AI first pass flags a page that's unreadable or isn't the document you asked for. You still accept every file yourself. DokuTrak doesn't verify or authenticate the EIN; that stays the IRS's job. It makes sure the right document lands on your desk without five follow-up emails. See DokuTrak for bookkeepers for the rest of the onboarding flow.

---

Start your 14-day free trial and stop chasing new-client paperwork by email. 14-day free trial, no card. Add one only to keep going.

---

Sources

Footnotes

1. IRS, "Understanding your CP575 notice," retrieved 2026-10-01 (page last reviewed 16-Jun-2026). https://www.irs.gov/individuals/understanding-your-cp575-notice ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

2. IRS, "Employer identification number," retrieved 2026-10-01 (page last reviewed 17-Jul-2026). https://www.irs.gov/businesses/employer-identification-number ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. IRS, "Business Tax Account," retrieved 2026-10-01 (page last reviewed 24-Aug-2026). https://www.irs.gov/businesses/business-tax-account ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. IRS, Internal Revenue Manual 21.7.1.4.7.1, "EIN Verification and Requests for Letter 147C" (rev. 10-01-2026), retrieved 2026-10-01. https://www.irs.gov/irm/part21/irm_21-007-001r ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

5. IRS Newsroom, "Business Tax Account gives eligible taxpayers more secure, convenient ways to manage federal tax obligations online," IR-2026-87, Aug. 6, 2026. https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/business-tax-account-gives-eligible-taxpayers-more-secure-convenient-ways-to-manage-federal-tax-obligations-online ↩

6. Fannie Mae, Selling Guide B3-3.5-01, "Underwriting Factors and Documentation for a Self-Employed Borrower," Dec. 13, 2023, retrieved 2026-10-01. https://selling-guide.fanniemae.com/sel/b3-3.5-01/underwriting-factors-and-documentation-self-employed-borrower ↩