***Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer.  This post doesn’t constitute legal advice our counsel.  I’m simply sharing with you my past experience.  It is always advisable to consult a lawyer when working on legal paperwork for a church.

Once you have your Articles of Incorporation complete, the next step is to get a Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN).  The EIN is like the social security number for the new church.  It uniquely identifies the organization.  Unlike many steps in the legal process, getting an EIN is easy and painless.  To begin, go to the IRS website.  Go to the bottom of the page and click APPLY ONLINE NOW.  For some reason this morning as I’m writing this blog, the IRS website appears to be down.  Probably because I said the process was easy and painless.  While I’ve never run across this problem before, there is more than one way to skin this cat.  You can also apply by downloading Form SS-4 from the IRS website.  This is simply the paper version of the online application.

The application is very straightforward.  Here are some tips:

• You will be asked to provide a responsible party.  This can be an individual or an organization.  You will need to provide the individual’s social security number or the organization’s EIN.  It’s easiest just to use the church planter as the responsible party.  Yeah, I know church planter and responsible is sometimes a stretch, but go with it.
• You will want to mark that the new church is a corporation.  They give options for different types of corporations.  Don’t be fooled, you are just a plain old everyday corporation.
• Your reason for applying is that you started a new business
• For the date the business was started, enter the date the state accepted your articles of incorporation.  It should be stamped on the state certificate or provided in the letter back from the state.
• The closing month of accounting year is December if you are operating your fiscal year based on the calendar.
• There is one slightly tricky question about tax liability.  If you pay more than $4000 a year in wages, don’t check the box.  The only way this will be true is if you are bi-vocational and not drawing a salary of if the denomination or church planting organization that is sponsoring you will pay your salary.  The way to know is whose name will be on your paycheck.  If your paycheck comes out of the church account, you are being paid by the church, even if the funds are being funneled from elsewhere.
• For Principal activities selected “Other”.  For the online form this will bring up a new page asking you to specify.  The answer is organization.  It will say religious in parentheses.  If you fill out the paper form be sure to write something like religious organization or church to specify.

That’s it.  If you are filling this out online, you will get your EIN instantly.  Be sure to save a copy of the EIN to your computer and back it up.  I also suggest printing a copy and putting it in your corporate records book.  If you do the paper version, you will need to download the instructions to see where to mail the form in your state.