Closing an EIN — the IRS never cancels one

Verified on November 5, 2026 against the IRS page “Employer identification number”, cited in full at the foot of this entry.

§ 1 —The rule, as the IRS states it

Once an EIN has been assigned to an entity, it becomes that entity's permanent federal taxpayer identification number. The IRS states that it cannot cancel the EIN; the number is never reused and never reassigned to another entity, whether or not it was ever used to file a return.¹ It remains the entity's number if the entity is ever revived.

§ 2 —What is closed instead: the business account

If the entity has finished — the business never started, or operations have permanently ceased — the IRS guidance directs the entity to ask the IRS to close its business account. The request is a letter, not a form. As the IRS publishes it, the letter includes:

— the complete legal name of the entity;
— the EIN;
— the business address;
— the reason the account should be closed;
— and, if available, a copy of the EIN assignment notice (the CP 575) that was issued when the number was assigned.

The IRS's EIN page gives the address to write to: Internal Revenue Service, Cincinnati, OH 45999.¹

§ 3 —What closing the account does not do

Closing the IRS business account is not the same act as dissolving the entity with its state, and neither act performs the other. A state-filed dissolution does not close the federal account; the account-closure letter does not dissolve the state entity. Nor does closing the account erase filing obligations that already exist for periods when the entity was active — including, for a foreign-owned disregarded entity, the Form 5472 record for its active years (REF D-1). Which final filings a given entity owes is a question for its own qualified tax professional; this entry covers the number itself, and states only what the IRS publishes about it.

§ 4 —The unused number

The IRS's guidance addresses the common case directly: an EIN obtained for a business that never started. The number still cannot be cancelled — the account-closure letter above is the published route, stating that the business never began. “We never used it” is a reason to write the letter, not a reason the number lapses on its own.

General information only, not tax advice. Where this page and an IRS source differ, the IRS source governs.