ENTITY IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (EIN)

A three-part coding scheme of twelve characters used to identify organizations and individuals. A "1" in the first position of the EIN identifies the recipient as an organization; a "2" means an individual. The next nine characters are the Internal Revenue Service tax identification number (TIN) for organizations or the social security number (SSN) for individuals. The last two characters will be "A1" thru "ZZ" for an organization to identify its various components, or blanks for an individual.

 Position

Value

Description

 1

 1

Identifies the recipient as an organization

 2

Identifies the recipient as an individual

 2-10

This is the standard Employer Identification Number (EIN) issued by the Internal Revenue Service and furnished to HHS by the organization. When this EIN is not available for use to HHS, a pseudo code will be assigned to the organization that is compatible, but does not overlap, with the EIN.

 11-12

A suffix to follow the EIN to provide distinction between organizational entities that are assigned a single EIN. The entities could be subsidiaries, divisions, branches, subdivisions, or other organizational groupings of a major organizational entity. The suffix is assigned by the CRS for additions and is cited by the user on all changes or deletions for organizations. This field must be left blank for individuals.