You write to the IRS and ask it to close the business account linked to the EIN. The number is never cancelled or given to anyone else; the account is just marked closed. File any returns you still owe first, including the final pro forma 1120 with Form 5472.
Send a signed letter that includes the LLC's legal name, the EIN, the business address and the reason you want the account closed. If you still have the EIN assignment notice (CP 575), include a copy. Mail it to Internal Revenue Service, MS 6055, Kansas City, MO 64108, or to Internal Revenue Service, MS 6273, Ogden, UT 84201.
The IRS will not close the account while returns are outstanding. For a foreign-owned single-member LLC, that usually means a final pro forma Form 1120 with Form 5472 for the last year the LLC existed. Mark it as a final return.
Closing the EIN does not dissolve the LLC. You also file articles of dissolution (or the state's equivalent) with the Secretary of State and stop paying the registered agent. If you skip this, the state keeps expecting annual reports and fees.
If the EIN was issued but never used, the same letter works. Say that the EIN was never used and the business never started.
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