by Guest » Thu Aug 30, 2012 06:57 am
TIN, EIN and FEIN confuses me a lot. Can anyone please explain the difference?
And why would anyone need the FEIN for insurance?
And why would anyone need the FEIN for insurance?
Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 04:15 am Post Subject:
TIN = Taxpayer Identification Number. Used by non-resident aliens who work or conduct business in the US, by non-natural persons such as trusts, associations, partnerships, or LLCs for tax reporting purposes.
EIN/FEIN = Federal Employer Identification Number. Used by businesses for payroll and other tax reporting purposes. All business owners with employees are supposed to have a FEIN. Self-employed sole proprietors with no employees are expected to use their personal Social Security Number for business tax reporting purposes, and are advised by the IRS not to obtain a FEIN.
Insurance companies need some sort of personal identifying information about their insureds. SSNs were originally not supposed to be used for identification (mine, issued in 1966, says so right on the front: "Not for Identification for Tax Purposes Only"). But today the SS card makes no such statement, and our SSN is now the primary identifier for most Americans. Our Driver Licenses are a second form of ID that insurance companies use to distinguish persons with the same or similar names..
Insurance companies ask for a FEIN for any number of reasons and there is no good reason to withhold that information at all.
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