Estate EIN: How to Get a Tax ID Number for an Estate

What an Estate EIN Is

An EIN (Employer Identification Number) is a nine-digit federal tax ID. When a person dies, their estate becomes a separate legal entity that can earn income, hold a bank account, and file its own tax return, so it gets its own number instead of using the deceased person’s Social Security number. For a plain-English definition of the term itself, see the estate EIN glossary entry.

The estate uses the EIN for its bank account and for any income tax return it has to file while it is being settled. It is a federal number, so the process is the same in every state.

When You Need One

Get an EIN for the estate when any of these is true:

• You are opening an estate bank account. Banks almost always require an EIN to open one in the estate’s name.
• The estate earns income during administration, such as interest, dividends, rent, or a taxable sale. That income is the estate’s, and it is reported under the EIN.
• A payer asks for a tax ID to release a final payment to the estate rather than to an individual.
• A revocable living trust has become irrevocable at the grantor’s death and now needs its own number.

Once a formal probate estate is opened and you receive your letters from the court, getting the EIN is usually the very next step so you can collect and manage the estate’s money.

When You Can Skip It

Not every estate needs an EIN. You can often skip it when:

• The estate is small enough to settle with a small-estate affidavit and no court estate is ever opened, so there is no estate account and no estate income to report.
• Every asset passes outside probate by beneficiary designation, payable-on-death or transfer-on-death registration, or survivorship, and there is nothing left for the estate itself to hold.
• There is no income to report and no bank account to open.

If you are unsure whether a court estate is even needed, start with the free probate assessment or the probate process overview.

How to Get One

The IRS issues an EIN for free. You apply directly with the IRS on Form SS-4, and there are a few ways to do it:

• Online is fastest for a responsible party with a U.S. taxpayer ID, and the number is issued at the end of the session.
• By fax or mail using a completed Form SS-4 is the route when the online tool will not work for your situation, including when the responsible party is outside the United States.

What the online application asks, step by step:

1. Open the IRS EIN application and start a new request.
2. Choose Estate as the type of entity.
3. Enter the deceased person’s legal name, Social Security number, and date of death.
4. Name yourself as the responsible party and enter your own Social Security number or ITIN.
5. Give the mailing address where the estate should receive IRS mail.
6. Review and submit. The EIN appears right away. Download and save the confirmation letter before you close the window, because you cannot reopen that screen.

You generally need to have been appointed first, because you are applying on behalf of the estate.

Because a paid service cannot get you anything the IRS will not give you directly for free, there is rarely a reason to pay a third party for this. Confirm the current application steps on the IRS website before you file, since the online tool’s hours and details change.

EIN vs. the Decedent’s Social Security Number

This trips up a lot of first-time executors. The deceased person’s Social Security number belongs to them and covers income they earned while alive, which goes on their final personal income tax return. Income the estateearns after the date of death belongs to the estate and goes under the estate’s EIN.

Keeping the two separate is not just tidiness. A bank or brokerage that keeps paying interest under a dead person’s SSN creates a reporting mismatch, and mixing the estate’s money with anyone’s personal accounts undercuts the clean accounting the court and beneficiaries expect.

Opening the Estate Bank Account

The EIN exists mostly so you can open an estate account and run all of the estate’s money through one place. When you go to the bank, bring:

• the estate’s EIN confirmation,
• your letters from the court showing you are the personal representative,
• a certified death certificate, and
• your own ID.

Most families need several certified death certificates for exactly these errands. See how to order death certificates for the state-by-state process, and the executor checklist for where this step fits in the whole job.

Common Snags

• The online tool returns a reference error. The IRS online assistant rejects some applications for reasons it does not fully explain. When it does, the fallback is to apply by fax or mail with Form SS-4.
• The responsible party is outside the U.S. or has no U.S. taxpayer ID. The online tool will not work; use fax or mail.
• You have not been appointed yet. You generally apply as the estate’s responsible party after the court appoints you, not before.
• You already have the deceased person’s SSN on accounts. Update payers to the estate’s EIN so post-death income is reported correctly.

An EIN is one step in a longer process. For the full sequence, start with the first steps after a death and the executor checklist.