"Cancelling" unused EIN?

My granddaddy gave the best possible advice in a case like this: "Let sleeping dogs lie." IOW, an EIN really never expires or goes away; just there in limbo. IRS won't care. ChEAr$, Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA

Come to think of it, I got an EIN for a sole proprietor tax practice I thought would be a good idea about 25-30 years ago. I actually filed one Schedule C before I came to my sen... er ... reconsidered. I never did anything with that EIN after that one year.

It is generally done by filing a "final" return.

So is this a bad idea? I've been putting my EIN on my Schedule C for 20+ years. I originally needed the EIN for two reasons: some clients wouldn't accept a SSN (don't ask me why) and the state wanted it for sales/use tax registration (though oddly only my SSN is on the actual resale certificate). Am I making a mistake? Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com

I'm tempted to do that.

However, there's the non-trivial chance I may need to apply for an EIN in the future (like needing one to start a solo

401(k)), and as I recall, one of the questions on the SS-4 is have you ever applied for an EIN before, and if so, what was the EIN. So I'd expect they'd at least look into the old EIN, and so would like to regularize its status beforehand.

-- Rich Carreiro snipped-for-privacy@animato.info

But that wasn't YOU applying for the EIN, it was a partnership of which you were a partner. So you can properly answer no, you have not - unless you are applying for another number for the same partnership. At least that's the way I always interpret the question. I apply for EIN's for newly formed corporations all the time, and always answer "no" to that question, because I am answering on behalf of the corporation, which wasn't in existence until just before that time and never applied for an EIN before. Stu

Technically you can do it either way, so it's not a "mistake" from that standpoint. But these days it actually makes more sense to get an EIN, that you can use whenever someone wants a tax ID number but you don't want to give out your SS number. Stu

When I changed my business from a sole proprietorship to an S corp, I had to get a new EIN for the newly formed corporation. Didn't have to do anything with the old one, so I suppose that if for some reason I wanted to go back to being a sole proprietor I could just reuse the EIN associated with it.

The IRS can be pesky with their inquiries as to what your employer taxes are, and when are you going to file your employer quarterly return. Don't ignore the computer-generated letters you may get asking for your Form

941...even if you never had any employees.

-Mark Bole

When they ask "have YOU ever applied before....", that means only the entity at hand. A 401k starts off with a brand new number, therefore the "you" in that case would be the 401k itself. ChEAr$, Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA

So the trick is this. When you first apply for an FEI#, and if you don't anticipate having employees (talking about schedule c filers of a genuine proprietorship and not an LLC), then so indicate "0" employees. ChEAr$, Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA (who actually drove past THE Cheers bar in Boston yesterday)