Need help finding daycare's EIN to finish my taxes tonight - any suggestions?

Thanks for the quick reply! I just went through all the paperwork they gave me when we enrolled last summer but don't see an EIN anywhere. I did find a statement they sent in January but it only has their name and address, no tax ID. I've never heard about the "Applied For" option - would that delay my refund or cause other issues? I'm claiming about $4,200 in childcare expenses.

Filing with "Applied For" might cause a slight delay in processing your return because the IRS may need to verify the information manually. It shouldn't affect your eligibility for the credit as long as all other information about the daycare is accurate and you've legitimately paid for the care. For the $4,200 in childcare expenses, make sure you have documentation of your payments (receipts, bank statements, cancelled checks) in case the IRS requests verification later. Also remember that the Child and Dependent Care Credit has limits based on your income and the percentage of expenses that qualify, so the actual credit might be less than the full amount you paid.

Does this taxr.ai thing actually work for finding EINs specifically? I'm in the same boat but with my elderly dad's home healthcare provider. Their office is closed for the weekend and I can't get through to anyone. Would it work with just a brochure or invoice that doesn't explicitly show the EIN?

I'm a bit skeptical tbh. How would a website know an EIN that isn't written on your documents? That sounds like they'd need access to some kind of private database. Is this legal? Not trying to be difficult, just wondering how it actually works.

It doesn't magically find EINs that aren't there, but it's really good at spotting them when they're in unexpected places on documents. In my case, the EIN was actually printed in tiny text at the bottom of the letterhead, formatted in a way that didn't look like an EIN (it had extra spaces and was labeled as "Federal ID"). I completely missed it when scanning the document myself. For your situation with the healthcare provider, it might work if there's any tax information at all on your documents. They use some kind of pattern recognition to find tax IDs even when they're not clearly labeled. It's all legal because it's just analyzing documents you already have access to, not hacking into any databases.

Wait, how does this even work? The IRS phone lines are notoriously impossible to get through on. I've literally spent hours on hold before giving up. Are you saying this service somehow jumps the queue or something?

This sounds too good to be true. I've been trying to reach the IRS for THREE WEEKS about a notice I got. No way they can get me through in 15 minutes when the IRS's own recorded message says wait times are 2+ hours. And would the IRS really give out a business's EIN over the phone? Seems fishy.

It uses a system that continuously redials and navigates the IRS phone tree until it gets a spot in the queue, then it calls you when it's about to connect. It's not jumping the line - it's just automating the frustrating part of the process so you don't have to sit there hitting redial for hours. The IRS can verify a business EIN for tax filing purposes if you have legitimate reason to need it (like claiming childcare expenses). They won't give out EINs for random businesses, but they will help taxpayers who need specific information to correctly file their returns. The agent asked me several verification questions about why I needed the information before providing it.

That's a really good suggestion about the state licensing database! I just checked my state's childcare portal and found our daycare, but unfortunately it only shows their state license number, not their federal EIN. I pay them by check so no digital payment records either. I think I'm going to try the "Applied For" option that the first commenter suggested, and then follow up with the daycare on Monday to get the correct number. Thanks everyone for all the suggestions!

This! Parent networks are amazing for this stuff. Also, sometimes daycares have their EIN on their website in the FAQs or enrollment sections. Worth checking if they have a site.