OpenBase USA
U.S. company identifiers explained
CIK, EIN, state registration number, LEI, UEI and industry classifications are different things.
No single identifier serves every purpose
A company can have a federal tax identifier, a state registration number and one or more specialized identifiers. Always record the type, issuer and jurisdiction alongside the value.
| Identifier | What it identifies | OpenBase coverage |
|---|---|---|
| State registration number | An entry in a jurisdiction’s business register. The same business may register in several states. | Not yet imported. Use the official state authority. |
| EIN / FEIN | A federal tax identifier assigned by the IRS. | Only values published in the imported SEC source; no universal EIN lookup or IRS validation. |
| CIK | A SEC filer’s Central Index Key. | Available for every SEC profile in this collection. |
| LEI | A Legal Entity Identifier in the global LEI system. | Not collected in this version. |
| UEI | The federal Unique Entity ID used in SAM.gov. | Not collected in this version. |
Industry codes are classifications
SIC and NAICS describe economic activities, not a unique legal entity. Our SEC profiles display SIC as reported in that source. We do not relabel SIC as NAICS.