2.4.8. Command Codes ESIGN and BSIGN

(1) Overview: This IRM Section provides an overview of the ESIGN and BSIGN Command Codes.

(2) Purpose: This IRM contains procedural steps for use of the ESIGN and BSIGN Command Codes.

(3) Audience: These procedures apply to IRS employees who are responsible for the processing of Employer Identification Numbers (EINs). These employees are located in the following areas: Large & Medium-Sized Business, Small Business/Self-Employed, Tax-Exempt & Government Entity’s, and Wage & Investment.

(4) Policy Owner: The Chief Information Officer (CIO) is responsible for overseeing all aspects of our systems that operate the nation’s tax infrastructure.

(5) Program Owner: IT.

(6) Primary Stakeholders: Large & Medium-Sized Business, Small Business/Self-Employed, Tax-Exempt & Government Entity’s, and Wage & Investment.

(7) Program Goals: This IRM provides the fundamental knowledge and procedural guidance for employees who work with The EIN Research and Assignment System (ERAS). By following the processes and procedures provided by this IRM, employees will process new EINs in a manner that follows IRS policy and procedures while promoting he best interests of the Government.

(1) TC000 — BMF and EPMF: A TC000 is generated to update the Master FIle with the new account.

(2) TC590 — BMF (non EO) Only: TC590 will be generated to suppress TDI issuance if the Wages Paid Date or Business Operational Date is in a future quarter within the current year or future year.

(3) FTDs — FTD data will be sent daily to a vendor for BMF entities with 941, 940, 943, 944, 945, 1042, 8804, CT–1, 1120 or 720 filing requirements (unless suppressed at the time of input).

(4) Notices — A notice will be generated for each entity (unless suppressed with Notice Information Code " D" or "E" at the time of input). How a Notice Information Code is input will determine which notice the taxpayer receives (See ESIGN Input format Notice Information element description (Exhibit 2.4.8–3)).

(5) Sequence Number — The sequence number, which was inserted into the input cycle field of the IDRS record at the time ESIGN was input, is changed to an actual input cycle.

(6) Quality Review — ESIGN transactions that were deleted by Quality Review will have the corresponding TIF and NSF accounts deleted through daily batch processing.

(7) NSF Processing — During the update attempt to the NSF by the ESIGN Command Codes an indicator will be set to determine whether the attempt was successful. If this indicator shows failure to update, the ERAS daily batch processing will write the account to tape. This tape will be taken to the NAS system to be sent to MCC for update.

(8) Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA) — In BSC only, ERAS will process data from Federal National Mortgage Association on a monthly basis. This data contains an EIN and associated pool number. From this, ERAS will generate a TC 000 with the FRM-1041-FR set.

(9) ESIGNT — During the daily analysis, those entities for which ESIGNT has been used will be dropped from the TIF, and further ERAS processing. See 2.4.8.10 for a description of ESIGNT.

(10) BSIGN — The range of EINs assigned with BSIGN will be validated using NAP validation during the ERAS daily batch processing. Any EINs within the range will be identifies on the Bulk Assignment Report generated for the Entity Control Unit.

(1) Accounts input from an SS–4 are deleted from the TIF when the account is established on either the Business Master File or the Employee Plan Master File.

(2) All other accounts established will be aged when the SS–4 is received from the taxpayer or after 30 weeks.

(3) Those entities, which were marked for deletion by ESIGND during the week, will be deleted from the appropriate TIF.

(1) ERAS interfaces with the EACS (EP/EO Application Control System). Exempt Organization applications are controlled on EACS when the Key District Office receives them and maintained until the determination as to whether the organization qualifies for exemption.

(2) The application is input to EACS without an EIN.

(3) The EACS Plan Case Control File (PCCF) is updated with an EACS Application Case Identifier.

(4) The Form SS–4 is annotated with the EACS Application Case Identifier and sent to the Service Center.

(5) The Form SS–4 is input with the EACS Application Case Identifier via the ESIGNR command code.

(6) ERAS updates the PCCF with a valid EIN during End of Day (EOD) Processing.

(7) Upon qualification for exemption and receipt of a valid EIN, the Key District Office closes the "Case" and the following is produced by EACS:

1. A TC000 DOC-CD 80 (entity establishment) or TC016 DOC-CD 80 (exempt organization status change) transaction will be generated for posting to the BMF.

2. A Form 5548, Exemption Organization Record (EACS), will be generated daily for each "closed" EACS case.

(8) For further information concerning EACS see IRM 2.3, Chapter 66, Command Code ENMOD, IRM 2.3, Chapter 15.

(1) During Real Time the following functions are performed.

1. An EIN is generated from the EIN Assignment Control File (EACF), which is part of the Real Time Combined Area (RTC).

2. Validity checks are performed to ensure that data is as accurate as possible.

3. The taxpayer's entity information is recorded on the Name Search Facility (NSF) and either the Business Master File (BMF) or EPMF Taxpayer Information File (ZTIF).

4. A record is sent through End of Day (EOD) processing to update the Master File.

(2) Following are the various ERAS command code definers and their descriptions.

1. Request a formatted input screen using ESIGNR.

2. Input taxpayer information from the formatted ESIGNR screen using ESIGN.

3. Delete taxpayer information the same day as entry using ESIGNT.

4. Delete taxpayer information that failed to post on the Master File with an Unpostable Code (UPC) of 302 or 802 using ESIGND.

5. Upon receipt of the SS–4, update the ERAS Notice Information Code using ESIGNU.

6. Issue a block of EINs to an institution to assign to estate/trusts accounts using BSIGN.

(1) This command code is used to request a formatted ESIGN input screen.

(2) ESIGNR must be preceded by either Command Code NAMEE or NAMEB to determine if the taxpayer already has a valid EIN.

(3) See Exhibit 2.4.8–1 for ESIGNR Input Format.

(1) The ESIGN command code is used to input taxpayer information. Taxpayer information may then be input without an EIN if one was not found, or with an EIN if one was found but is not established on the appropriate master file.

(2) If a specific EIN is not entered on the ESIGN screen, one will be generated from the EIN Assignment Control File (EACF). The new EIN will be validated using the National Account Profile (NAP) to ensure that the EIN does not already exist on the Master File.

1. The first two digits of an EIN no longer indicate the geographic jurisdiction (prefix) assigned to the account; but are associaed with particular campuses.

2. The third digit of an EIN indicates whether the account is a Regular Series or an Estate/Trust Series.

Note: An Estate/Trust Series EIN must consist only of the 1041 filing requirement, no other filing requirements can be present. All others will be assigned as a Regular Series EIN.

(3) Validation checks are performed to assure that the input data is as accurate and consistent as possible. If invalid conditions are present, the input data will be redisplayed and errors identified with an asterisk next to the item. When all fields are determined to be valid, an EIN will be assigned to the taxpayer's account.

(4) After the EIN is assigned, the taxpayer's information is stored on the following databases: The Name Search Facility (NSF), the EIN Key Index File (EKIF), and either the BMF Taxpayer Information File (BTIF) or the EPMF Taxpayer Information File (ZTIF).

1. The NSF is a database that contains taxpayer name and address information and can be accessed using the Command Code NAMEE oe NAMEB.

2. The BTIF and ZTIF are databases that contain the taxpayer's account information and can be viewed using taxpayer's EIN via the Command Code ENMOD.

(5) An ERAS establishment transaction record is produced which is sent to the end of day processing.

(6) See Exhibit 2.4.8–3 for ESIGN Input Format.

(1) This command code will be used to delete ERAS accounts that fail to post on the Master File with an Unpostable Code (UPC) of 302 or 802.

(2) ESIGND must be preceded by Command Code ENMOD.

(3) Accounts cannot be deleted unless two weeks have passed since the initial input.

(4) The records will be removed from the NSF and the TIF.

1. The TIF records will be marked for deletion, which is indicated by a "D" on the ENMOD screen, and removed from the database during the next weekend's processing.

2. The account will be immediately deleted from the NSF. If the account cannot be deleted immediately, it will be marked for deletion and processed during ERAS Daily Batch Processing.

3. If ESIGND is input for the primary record, the secondary record will also be deleted, and vice versa.

(5) The account cannot be reinput during the week that the ESIGND was done, unless the EIN has been changed.

(6) See Exhibit 2.4.8–5 for ESIGND Input Format.

(1) This command code will be used to delete ERAS accounts on the same day they were entered.

Restrictions: Consideration must also be given to the time of the closeout of the transaction file by the computer room for each day (input between 6 p.m. and 12 p.m. for that day will be processed in the next day's daily update.) Therefore, any ESIGN transaction input before 6 p.m., which needs to be deleted, must be deleted before 6 p.m.; any ESIGN transaction input between 6 p.m. and 12 p.m., which needs to be deleted, must be deleted before 6 p.m. the next day. Entity Control Unit managers in each service center should check with their computer room to determine their particular cut-off schedule.

(2) ESIGNT must be preceded by Command Code ENMOD.

(3) The records will be removed from the TIF and NSF. The TIF records will be marked for deletion, which is indicated by a "T" on the ENMOD screen, and removed from the database during the nightly processing.

(4) The account cannot be reinput during the same day of the ESIGNT input unless the search key data is changed.

(5) See Exhibit 2.4.8–6 for ESIGNT Input Format.

(1) This command code will be used to indicate that the Form SS–4, Application for Employer Identification Number, has been received from the taxpayer by changing the ERAS Notice Information Code to a " U".

(2) ESIGNU must be preceded by Command Code ENMOD.

(3) After the Notice Information Code has been changed to a " U", the record will be dropped from the TIF on the next weekend update.

(4) See Exhibit 2.4.8–7 for ESIGNU Input Format.

(1) This command code is used to request a block of EINs to be assigned to an institution to assign to estate/trusts in their care.

(2) Bulk assignments can be issued in a block of numbers from 10–100 or 200. Internet prefixes 20 and 26 can also make bulk assignments in increments of 100,000.

(3) There is no deletion capability with BSIGN. If an erroneous request for bulk EINs is input, the assigned group of EINs can either remain unassigned, be reassigned individually using ESIGN, or be reassigned to another institution.

(4) Daily Analysis — The data records produced by BSIGN will be combined during End of Day Processing to produce the BULK-EIN-ASSIGNMENT-LOG. During Daily Analysis each EIN within the range will be validated using the LAP/NAP and any EIN that has previously posted at Master File will be noted on the BULK-EIN-ASSIGNMENT-LOG.

(5) See Exhibit 2.4.8–8 for the format of BSIGN.

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(2) Record Element Description:

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(1) ESIGN with Foreign Address — Example — this example deals with the input of entity data with a foreign address. The instructions below concern only those fields related to the input of the foreign address itself. Specific Notes:

1. The foreign country is entered in city field on the line 10.

2. The foreign state, if present, will be entered in the Street Address field on line 9. If a foreign state is not present, the city may be entered in the Street Address field.

3. The city is entered on line 9, if the foreign state is not present.

4. The street address is entered in the Foreign Street Address, line 8.

5. A Zip Code will not be entered for foreign addresses.

6. When entering any foreign address change, the data in city-state field must be followed by a comma, and (instead of a state abbreviation) a period (.), for validation purposes.

(2) Input Display.

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