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State payees include vendors who contract with a state agency to provide goods or services and individual recipients. In almost all cases, payees are required to provide one of these nine-digit identification numbers to obtain a TIN:
If the payee is a foreign entity or non-resident alien who does not have an EIN, SSN or ITIN, please see how to request a Comptroller-assigned TIN.
Note: See Fraud Prevention Recommendations for documentation to accept from payees as proof of their identification numbers.
TINS no longer uses an SSN or ITIN as the key payee identifier. See Comptroller-Assigned TINs. The SSN or ITIN is still required under law for tax administration and identification for individuals, sole owners and individual partners of a partnership. This requirement has been adopted under these statutes:
In addition to facilitating reporting to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), using the payee’s TIN helps ensure your agency receives proper credit for payments to historically underutilized businesses.