{
  "id": "BRD-041",
  "slug": "brd-041",
  "title": "The entity type must match the classification on the tax record",
  "statement": "The selected entity type must match how the business is classified on its tax record, with documentation where the classification is not machine-verifiable.",
  "rationale": "Entity type drives which verification path runs and which use cases open, so it is checked against the tax classification rather than taken on trust. Honest mismatches are everywhere: an LLC taxed as an S-corp, a member-owned co-operative, a non-profit that never completed its exemption. The registrant picks the description that feels true and the record says something else.",
  "layer": "BRAND",
  "layerSlug": "brand",
  "object": "brand.entity_type vs the tax record",
  "severity": "BLOCKING",
  "detectability": [
    "EXTERNAL_DATA"
  ],
  "failureClass": "TERMINAL_EXTERNAL",
  "authorities": [
    "TCR",
    "Twilio",
    "Bandwidth"
  ],
  "codes": [
    {
      "provider": "Twilio",
      "code": "30796",
      "remediable": true
    },
    {
      "provider": "Twilio",
      "code": "30797",
      "remediable": true
    },
    {
      "provider": "Twilio",
      "code": "30798",
      "remediable": true
    }
  ],
  "applicabilityText": "Applies to every 10DLC registration.",
  "universal": true,
  "remediation": "Match the entity type to the classification on the IRS letter rather than to how the business describes itself. Nearly every commercial company — LLC, S-corp, C-corp, partnership — is PRIVATE_PROFIT. Where the classification is genuinely unusual, attach the determination letter with the registration.",
  "notes": "The tax record is not something we can read. The user has to check their CP-575 or determination letter and pick the entity type that matches it — and where the two genuinely differ, attach the document rather than arguing the point in an appeal, because the reviewer is comparing against the same record.",
  "phase": "approval",
  "automated": false,
  "attestation": {
    "question": "Does the entity type you selected match the classification on the IRS letter, rather than how the business describes itself?",
    "howToCheck": [
      "Read the classification on the CP-575 or the determination letter.",
      "Nearly every commercial company — LLC, S-corp, C-corp, partnership — is PRIVATE_PROFIT, whatever it calls itself internally.",
      "Where the classification is genuinely unusual (a co-operative, a mutual association), attach the determination letter with the registration."
    ],
    "failureLooksLike": "An LLC taxed as an S-corp picks the description that feels most accurate, and the record says something else. The mismatch fails the verification path rather than merely re-grading it."
  },
  "url": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-041/",
  "markdown": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-041.md",
  "registry": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/",
  "updated": "2026-07-25",
  "licence": "CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}