{
  "id": "BRD-017",
  "slug": "brd-017",
  "title": "A tax ID is required for every entity but a sole proprietor",
  "statement": "A tax ID or business registration number must be supplied for every entity type except sole proprietor.",
  "rationale": "The tax ID is the identifier the brand is actually verified against, so without it there is nothing to check the name and address into — the registration cannot be approved, only held. Sole proprietors are the deliberate exception because they are verified by mobile OTP instead, which is the whole point of that tier.",
  "layer": "BRAND",
  "layerSlug": "brand",
  "object": "brand.ein",
  "severity": "BLOCKING",
  "detectability": [
    "DETERMINISTIC"
  ],
  "failureClass": "RETRY_FIELD",
  "authorities": [
    "TCR",
    "AWS",
    "Bandwidth"
  ],
  "applicabilityText": "Applies to every 10DLC registration.",
  "universal": true,
  "remediation": "Enter the nine-digit EIN from your CP-575 or 147C letter. Non-US entities supply the registration number their home country issues. Done when the identifier is present and matches the document it came from.",
  "example": "ein: 12-3456789",
  "pitfalls": [
    "A brand-new EIN can be present and still fail verification because the IRS has not published it yet — that is BRD-027, and the fix is to wait rather than to change the number."
  ],
  "phase": "approval",
  "automated": true,
  "url": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-017/",
  "markdown": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-017.md",
  "registry": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/",
  "updated": "2026-07-25",
  "licence": "CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}