The bank is solving a bank problem
A signature card tells the bank which humans may move the money. A W-9 tells a payer which name and taxpayer number to print on an information return. An employer identification letter gives the company a number so the account can be opened in the company's name. All three are worth keeping. All three stop at the job they were printed for. None of them is Form 2553 or Form 8832, and none of them is the IRS acceptance of those forms.
The box on a W-9 that describes the federal classification is a statement to the payer. It can be wrong. It can be outdated. It can have been checked by a banker who needed the form finished before lunch. We read it as a clue about what the bank believes, and then we look for the election page that would make that belief true.
When the bank form and the tax page disagree
Disagreement is common and it is not a scandal. The account may be titled as a corporation because that is what the certificate's name sounded like, while the tax classification is still disregarded. Or the W-9 says partnership because there are two owners, which happens to match the default, while somebody remembers an S election that was never accepted. The fix is not to argue with the teller. The fix is to put the acceptance, if it exists, on top of the packet and then correct the bank forms so they stop contradicting it.
Correcting the bank does not create the election. Filing the election does not automatically retitle the account. They are two chores. We will say which one is actually open. Bring both pages if you have them. If you have only the bank page, we will treat the classification as unproven and look for the letter. The search under the pile is the usual next hour.
What you can still learn from the bank
The statements tell you whether cash moved. They help close a month. They do not classify the company, and a year of tiny deposits does not answer whether a return is due. That question is on the quiet-year page. The statements do show owner money going in and out, which becomes the capital rollforward once the classification is known. Tag those transfers. Do not call them the election.
An online banking profile that says LLC is a label from the application. It is the same family of evidence as the signature card. Useful, local to the bank, and silent on which federal form was accepted. Pair it with the certificate and you still have two pages that are not the choosing page.
Name the bank page you have
List the bank sheets you can put your hands on, and say if an acceptance letter is among them.
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.