Step 2: the EIN

Now that tax day has past, I get to spend a little more time dealing with IRS forms. On my plate now is the form SS-4, the application for an employer ID number (EIN). I'm not really an employer, per se, but an EIN is required for a letter of exemption- in other words, it will allow me to accept charitable donations and donors can itemize it on their returns (more on that later). The IRS has made this part of the process almost perfectly painless. I say almost because the website has a way of thinking that I'm telling it that I'm a "health care organization" rather than a... whatever I really am, something more like a social services type of thing. We'll get to the bottom of this soon and then we'll have a lot of fun with form 1023. Cripes, you don't even want to know about form 1023...