Can You Get ITIN If You Already Have an SSN?

Today we’re going to be talking about can you get an ITIN if you’ve had an SSN before.

Hey everyone, this is Sina Bonabi from EIN Express. I’m an IRS-certified acceptance agent and I’ve been both trained and authorized by the IRS to help Non-US citizens all over the world, just like you, to successfully get their EINs and their ITINs for them.

We’ve helped over 2,240 non-US citizens to successfully get their EINs and ITINs, and we’d love to help you get yours as well.

Apply for your ITIN here: https://einexpress.com/itin

Can You Get an ITIN Even If You Have an SSN?

So today we’re going to be discussing a question that not many people think is a common question, but it is a common question, and it’s a scenario that I run into a lot. It’s can you get an ITIN even if you had an SSN before or you currently have one.

The answer is no. The reason why is, so let’s say hypothetically you have an SSN. And then now you want to apply for an ITIN, for whatever reason.

And that’s another topic of its own. The list of reasons why people want to apply for an ITIN even though they already have an SSN, that’s a separate thing. But let’s just say for this conversation you have an SSN and you want to apply for an ITIN.

Let’s say hypothetically you put all the documentation together and you apply for an ITIN.

What’s going to happen?

Reason Why You Can’t Have an ITIN?

When the IRS service center in Austin, Texas that processes ITIN applications, when they get your ITIN application, and they start processing it into the system, when it gets to the section of tax IDs, it’s going to pop up in their system that you had a social security number. And immediately in their system, it’s going to raise a code error. And as soon as a code error like that pops up in their system, your application is going to get automatically rejected.

Why? Because you’re already in the system of the United States of having a federal tax ID, which is your social security number. And that’s going to automatically disqualify you from being able to get an ITIN.

So it’ll never get through. And so, therefore, your application will automatically get rejected.

Furthermore, we get people saying, “Well, you know, I had this SSN a long time ago, I haven’t used it.” That doesn’t matter.

Once you have your SSN, the rule of thumb is, regardless of whether you move away or not, your SSN could still be used for tax reporting purposes as your tax ID.

Apply for your ITIN here: https://einexpress.com/itin

What Should I Do if I Have an ITIN and I Get an SSN After?

So this question, a lot of people don’t think it gets asked a lot or this scenario pops up a lot, but it does. I get this on almost a daily basis. So I wanted to shed some light on this on this question and provide a more thorough answer for all of you guys to clear up any confusion.

So if you have an SSN, you cannot apply for an ITIN. Now there’s another situation where let’s say you applied for an ITIN, you get an ITIN, and then eventually down the line, you want to apply for citizenship and you ultimately get it and you get a social security number.

If you had an ITIN and eventually get an SSN, you need to contact the IRS and let them know that, “Hey, I had an ITIN before for my tax reporting purposes. It was my tax ID. And now I’ve gone ahead and I’ve got a social security number. I would like for you guys to now remove my name and disassociate it from that ITIN and I’m going to be using my social security number moving forward for all tax reporting purposes.”

What To Do Next

It’s your obligation and you must do that if that’s the scenario for you. And when you get an ITIN, it’s written on the back of your official ITIN documentation that the IRS issues you that you have to do that as well, too.

So I hope this answer was informative for a lot of you guys on this subject. If you have any questions, please go ahead and comment below.

We’d love to hear those questions from you guys. if you want to get your EIN and your ITIN, if you’re ready to start the application, go ahead and apply for your ITIN here. Thank you.