CASE D-02 · einwithoutssn.com/determinations
Neither SSN nor ITIN — multi-member LLC
Same closed online door as the single-member case, same paper routes — and one decision the single-member case never faces: with several owners and no US tax numbers among them, who is named at line 7a decides whether this application is processed or returned.
ROUTE: FAX — CINCINNATI
Facts as examined
The LLC is formed, with two or more members, all of them foreign persons with no SSN and no ITIN. The specimen fragment shows the lines this case turns on:
Application for Employer Identification Number
Rev. December 2025
Cat. No. 16055N
SPECIMEN — RECREATION OF FORM SS-4 FOR A FICTIONAL ENTITY. NOT A FILED FORM.
Ruling
The route is D-01's; the case is won or lost at line 7a. No member's lack of a US number blocks the application: the responsible party writes “foreign” on line 7b exactly as in Case D-01, and the fax, phone and mail routes to Cincinnati are identical. What changes is everything the plural touches — the member count on line 8b, the classification on line 9a, the annual return this EIN will be filed under, and above all the choice of the one individual the form demands. The rules for who that individual is are the reference library's REF B-1 — Responsible-party rules; this page works the choice for a multi-member company.
The filing, line by line as completed
Line 7a — choose the controlling member. The Instructions for Form SS-4 define the responsible party as the person who ultimately owns or controls the entity, or exercises ultimate effective control over it — the person whose level of control over the entity's funds and assets lets them, directly or indirectly, control, manage or direct the entity and the disposition of its funds. In a multi-member LLC that is a member: typically the member with the largest interest or the one the operating agreement puts in control. It is a question of fact about your company, and the operating agreement is the document that answers it.
Failure mode one — the entity names itself. Line 7a completed with the LLC's own name is Returned, Exhibit 3: unless the applicant is a government entity, the responsible party must be an individual, not an entity.
Failure mode two — the helper steps forward. A manager, agent or formation provider who does not own or control the company is not the responsible party, however convenient their paperwork would be. The IRS states that nominees are not authorized to apply for an EIN. A person filing on behalf of the members belongs in the third-party designee block — authorized to receive the EIN and answer questions about this one application — while line 7a keeps the controlling member (Exhibit 7).
Line 7b. “Foreign,” for the chosen member, on the same instruction as D-01: no SSN, no ITIN, not eligible for either — an entry is required, and blank stalls the form (Exhibit 2).
Lines 8a–8c and 9a — where plural changes the answer. Line 8b states the true member count — two or more. By default, a domestic LLC with two or more members is treated as a partnership, and the instructions direct you to check the “Partnership” box on line 9a if you accept that classification (an election to be taxed as a corporation is a separate filing, Form 8832, not an SS-4 improvisation). Get the count wrong and you have not made a typo; you have described a different taxpayer.
The wait
Windows, the phone route (267-941-1099, during the call, for eligible international applicants) and the mail route (approximately four weeks) are as in D-01 and on The Wait — including the IRS's high-inventory warning, which is part of the timeline and not fine print. One D-02-specific bind: the one-EIN-per-day limit runs against the responsible party. If the controlling member named here is also forming a second company this week, its EIN waits for another day — by any route, in any combination.
What comes back — the partnership consequence, in orientation only
The CP 575 returns as in D-01 — issued once; Letter 147C is the replacement path if it is lost. What differs is the filing life this EIN now belongs to. A partnership-classified LLC files Form 1065 and issues Schedules K-1 to its members; where US-source income reaches foreign partners, withholding questions under section 1446 arise. This desk states that much so the case is not misread as the single-member one — and no further: the reference depth for the partnership's EIN life is being catalogued at EIN for Non-Residents (until it publishes, see REF D-1 for the contrasting single-member duty and After the CP 575 for orientation), and the returns themselves are a CPA's work, not a filing desk's. If the responsible party later changes — a member leaves, control moves — the change is reported on Form 8822-B within 60 days; the reference entry is REF B-5.
If this desk files it
EIN Complete ($249) covers this case: the responsible-party determination documented from your operating agreement before anything is transmitted, the SS-4 completed as above, faxed with a return number, tracked against the published window, and closed with the CP 575 in your hands. Nothing is for sale today — fulfillment opens only when it can be walked end to end, and the route in is the launch list. Filing it yourself is equally legitimate: the EIN is free from the IRS, and this determination is the whole method.
Sources: Instructions for Form SS-4 (Rev. December 2025) — responsible-party definition, nominee prohibition, lines 8a–8c and 9a default classifications, one-per-day limit; IRS — Employer Identification Number — routes and windows. Checked against irs.gov on November 5, 2026. EIN Complete is pre-launch: nothing is for sale yet; the $249 package joins by launch list only.