My startup's name includes a character that is not accepted in the IRS's online EIN application. What should I do?
The IRS's online EIN application won't accept certain kinds of characters in a business name. The only characters their online system accepts are:
- alpha (A-Z)
- numeric (0-9)
- hyphen (-)
- ampersand (&)
If your startup's name, including the corporate suffix, contains a symbol or any other type of character, you can refer to the following chart*:
| If your legal name contains: | Then: |
|---|---|
| A symbol, such as a "plus" symbol (+) or "at" symbol (@) | Either (1) spell out the symbol or (2) drop the symbol and leave a space. Example: If the legal name of your business is "Jones@Home Inc", then enter it into the IRS form as "Jones At Home Inc" or "Jones Home Inc". |
| A period (.) | Either (1) spell out the symbol or (2) drop the symbol and leave a space. Example: If the legal name of your business is "Jones.com Inc.", then enter it into the IRS form as "Jones Dot Com Inc" or "Jones Com Inc". |
| Backward (\) or forward (/) slash | Substitute a hyphen (-) |
| Apostrophe (') | Drop the apostrophe and do not leave a space. |
*This chart is based on information provided by the IRS.
You still need to include the rest of your startup's corporate suffix
When you apply for an EIN online, make sure to include your startup's full legal name — including the corporate suffix. You'll just need to leave the period out, since the application doesn't accept periods. Other than that, spell the suffix as you normally would.
Example: "Corp." → "Corp"; "Inc." → "Inc" and so on.