Foreign Employer ID?

Hello friends
I'm an American living in the UK and I recently changed employers, from one large multi-national to an even larger multi-national. I have always been paid in GBP and treated as a local employee. My accountant in the US has knows that I have changed employers and has asked me to provide a Foreign Employer ID or an EIN for my new UK employer. This seems strange to me. Whatever I provided him (or indeed IF I provide him with anything) for my old company was so long ago that I have no idea what it was or how I got it.
So my question to you...do I really need this number for my new employer? Is my accountant confusing something?
Thanks!
Krista

Hello friends
I'm an American living in the UK and I recently changed employers, from one large multi-national to an even larger multi-national. I have always been paid in GBP and treated as a local employee. My accountant in the US has knows that I have changed employers and has asked me to provide a Foreign Employer ID or an EIN for my new UK employer. This seems strange to me. Whatever I provided him (or indeed IF I provide him with anything) for my old company was so long ago that I have no idea what it was or how I got it.
So my question to you...do I really need this number for my new employer? Is my accountant confusing something?
Thanks!
Krista

It may be time to call time on this tax adviser; it is possible that your employer has an EIN if it files tax returns itself in the States, but there is no reason why you would or should know what it is.

To my mind, the accountant should be talking with you about the tax implications of staying in the UK more than 15 years as you get close, the optimum treatment of pension plans and other cross-border issues rather than asking you irrelevant and unnecessary questions.

Still got a while before I hit 15 years! (And even more til retirement!) But yes...all those things do keep me up at night occasionally and I am considering my options. In the interim, I'll ask him to call his software vendor about the EIN thing. Perhaps it's an interface thing and whatever software he uses doesn't deal well with ex-US income.