How do I get a US EIN if I have no US tax number?
The identifier is applied for centrally, but a foreign applicant with no US personal tax number cannot use the fast route that domestic applicants take. That means the application goes through a slower channel, which makes getting it right worth considerably more than getting it in quickly. The practical consequence is one of sequencing: work backwards from the date you need the identifier for, and start the application well before that. Businesses that leave it to the week the operation launches usually find the identifier is what everything else is waiting on.
Is an EIN the same thing as registering in a state?
No, and confusing the two causes real problems. A federal employer identification number is an identifier: it names you in the federal system so that returns, payments and filings can be attached to you. State registration is an obligation, and it is one you may already have incurred before you applied for anything. They have different triggers, different timing and different consequences. Having the identifier does not settle whether you have nexus in any state, and having nexus does not go away because you have not yet obtained an identifier. Answer both questions, in that knowledge, rather than treating one as the other.
Should I just register in every state to be safe?
No. Registration creates filing obligations, and a registration in a state where you have no activity gives you returns to file with nothing to report, in every period, for as long as the registration stands. That is a standing administrative cost and a source of penalties for missed filings that you had no need to take on. Nexus is tested state by state on economic activity, employees and inventory. Test it that way, register where the test is met, and keep the borderline states under review. Registering in the wrong order creates obligations before revenue, which is the opposite of prudence.
Does a state obligation begin when we register or earlier?
Earlier, in most cases. Nexus arises from what you do in a state, tested on economic activity, employees and inventory under that state's own rules. Registration is the administrative step that follows it. So the date you register is rarely the date the obligation began, and the gap between the two is what has to be filed. This is why the first piece of work here is historical rather than procedural: establish when the facts in each state first met that state's test, and only then decide how to come forward. Businesses that register from today and treat the matter as closed have dealt with the future and left the past where it was, which is where the missed periodic filings sit.
Do I need an EIN before hiring or opening accounts in the US?
In practice the identifier is what other US systems key off, so it tends to be asked for early and by several parties at once. That is a good reason to start the application in good time. It is not a reason to treat the identifier as the whole of your US position. Obtaining it tells you nothing about whether you have nexus in any state, and nexus is where the obligations with deadlines attached usually sit. Run both workstreams in parallel: apply for the identifier on the timeline the application needs, and test the state position on what you actually do.
How do I work out which states I actually have nexus in?
State by state, on the facts of what you do there. The recurring triggers are economic activity measured against that state's own threshold, employees present in the state, and inventory located there, and each state sets its own rules. Start from records rather than recollection: sales by destination for each period, where your people have been and what they did there, and where your stock has physically sat, including anything held for you by a fulfilment provider. Compare that history against each state's rules, one state at a time, and keep the working, because the same exercise has to be repeated every time the business changes shape.
Should I use a branch or a subsidiary abroad?
A branch is the same legal entity operating in another country, so its profits and losses sit with the parent and it is taxed there as a permanent establishment. A subsidiary is a separate company, taxed in its own right, with dividends and withholding on the way home. Losses, repatriation cost and liability usually decide it, and the answer differs by country pair. See branch vs subsidiary.
What is a totalization agreement and how do I use one?
A social security agreement that stops you contributing to two systems for the same work, and lets periods in both count towards benefit eligibility in either. Which system you stay in depends on the agreement's rules for your situation — a seconded employee usually remains in the home system for a set period, a locally hired one usually joins the host system. You evidence it with a certificate of coverage obtained before or shortly after the assignment starts. See certificates of coverage.
