ASSIST ME TO TRANSFER A PAYROLL AND POS ACCOUNT TO A NEW OWNER

[CCF8073]

Transfer ownership of your Square account

Note: Items in black and the underlined paragraphs below are Square paragraphs. Items in red or purple are my comments.

I have been seeking assistance from the Square staff (people who answer the phone and supervisors) for five weeks without one ounce of success.

I am the new owner of a business attempting to get the business’s Square POS and payroll systems transferred to me, THE NEW OWNER .

I need help from someone who has been through this process successfully.

Before and after the sale of a business the LLC name is the same, the LLC EIN is the same, the employees are the same, the business address is the same, the products sold are the same, the utilities are paid by the same LLC, etc. THE ONLY THING DIFFERENT IS THE NEW OWNERS NAME, ADDRESS, TELEPHONE NUMBER AND EMAIL ADDRESS.

Below are a number of things that are contradictory (in my mind) and very difficult to understand (in my mind).

Who is this article for?

•   Only account owners can transfer ownership of a Square account.

  About transferring your Square account

  You can transfer your Square account to a new owner or accept a transfer to become the new owner of an existing Square account. Transferring an account changes all the personal information associated with an account, such as the owner’s name, email address, date of birth, and Social Security Number (SSN). This does not seem to be true. See paragraph marked #2 below, because the LLC is not an individual or sole proprietor.

  Before you begin

  Before beginning an account transfer, make sure you have:

  • Tax Information: Taxpayer information must be on file at all locations attached to the Square account.
  • Presence of existing owner: The existing owner of the account must be able to sign in to their Square account on their Square Dashboard, verify their identity, and transfer ownership.
  • Set aside time: Once the existing owner starts the account transfer process, the new owner must complete the final steps within 24 hours. If the new owner waits longer than 24 hours, the ownership transfer request will expire and must be re-requested by the existing owner.

    You cannot undo an account ownership transfer. Once the transfer is complete, the only way to regain ownership of the account is to complete another transfer.

    OK

    Review transfer eligibility for account owners

    There are a few reasons why an ownership transfer might not be supported for your Square account.

    No EIN or SSN

    Loans requirement

    Hardware financing

    Frozen or disabled account

    Negative account balance

    Square Payroll subscription

    If your account has a Square Payroll subscription, but you meet all of the other eligibility requirements, contact the Square Payroll Support team for help completing your account transfer. Again, this does not seem to be true as the account must be owned by an individual or sole proprietor, not an LLC. Again, refer to paragraph marked #1 & #2.

    Square Savings account

    Sale of Business

    #1

    Square does not support transferring an account during the sale of a business because the transfer disrupts tax reporting for the new owners. All payments will continue to be attributed to the taxpayer information on file at the time of issuing 1099-Ks.

    MY BUSINESS IS AN LLC THEREFORE IT WOULD NOT QUALIFY FOR A TRANSFER BASED ON THIS PARAGRAPH. Some Square staff says I can qualify and some Square staff say I cannot qualify – CONFUSING!

    Unsupported business type

    #2

    Only individual or sole proprietorship businesses are supported for transfers.

    MY BUSINESS IS AN LLC SO BASED ON THE FACT IT IS AN LLC THEN I CANNOT TRANSFER  BASED ON PARAGRAPH #2, BUT NUMEROUS SQUARE STAFF HAVE SAID I CAN TRANSFER THE POS AND PAYROLL ACCOUNTS. AGAIN, THIS IS CONFUSING.

    Original owner or designate is not willing or able to transfer the account

    If your Square account is not eligible for transfer, or if you’re the new business owner and the original account holder is no longer associated with the business or organization, we recommend the following:

    1. Download the previous account’s sales history. Learn how to view sales summaries.
    2. Contact the previous account holder and request they deactivate the current Square account.
    3. Activate a new Square account using your information. You can use the same EIN and bank account regardless of whether these were used with the previous account. Learn how to create a Square account with the Square setup guide.

       IF I CHOSE THIS METHOD, HOW WOULD I TRANSFER THE PREVIOUS OWNER’S POS DATA TO MY POS?

       HOW DO I START A NEW POS PORTAL?

       Start a Square account transfer HOW DO I TRANSFER WHEN I AM NOT AN INDIVIDUAL OR SOLE PROPRIETOR? Refer to paragraph #2 above.

       1. Sign in to your Square Dashboard and select Settings > Account & Settings.
       2. Select Business information > About my business > Transfer business.
       3. Fill out the form to verify your identity, including your legal name, date of birth, and last four digits of your SSN. WHAT FORM?
       4. Enter the new account owner’s email address. Square sends an identity verification form to the new owner.
       5. Select the box for Transfer of Account Agreement, then select Agree & Continue.
       6. Read the Transfer of Account Agreement and select OK.
       7. Check your email inbox for the automated Transfer Account Confirmation email.

          Select Confirm Transfer.

          Accept a Square account transfer

          If you are the new account owner, you must complete these steps within 24 hours of the transfer initiation.

          1. Open the Transfer Account Verification email sent to the email address attached to the Square account and select Verify Identity.
          2. Fill out the identity verification form, including your legal name, home address, last four digits of your SSN or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), and phone number. Your personal information will only be used to confirm your identity and will not be used to perform a credit check.
          3. Check the box for Transfer of Account Agreement and select Agree & Continue. If the identity verification is successful, then the ownership transfer is complete.
          4. Check your email for a password reset notification email from Square. Open the email and select Reset Password.
          5. Enter your new password, and select your language and time zone preferences.
          6. Select Save Changes.

             AS YOU CAN SEE BY MY NOTES ABOVE, THESE INSTRUCTIONS ARE VERY CONFUSING.

             ANY COMMENTS WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

             ALSO, the previous owner and I ran into another obstacle – see below. When the previous owner and I tried to go through the above instructions in the previous owner’s portal we were stopped by the below statement.

             Transfer of account not available

             Transfer of account ownership is currently not available for the following reasons:

             • To be eligible for transfer, your account must have Taxpayer Information with an EIN or SSN on file for all locations, including inactive locations. THIS ACCOUNT DOES HAVE AN EIN ON FILE AND THE PREVIOUS OWNER HAD ONLY ONE LOCATION.
             • This account has an active Square Payroll subscription or has started signing up for Square Payroll in the past. THIS SENTENCE INDICATES THAT IF THE LLC HAS A SQUARE PAYROLL SUBSCRIPTION, THEN THE TRANSFER OF THE PAYROLL ACCOUNT IS NOT AVAILABLE. THIS PARAGRAPH CONTRADICTS ITSELF.
             •  
             • AGAIN, THE LLC DOES HAVE A PAYROLL SUBSSRIPTION SO THEREFORE THIS PARAGRAPH STATES THAT THE PAYROLL ACCOUNT IS NOT TRANSFERRABLE.
             •  

               CONFUSING!!!

               Visit Square Support to learn more about the requirements.

[Candlestore · Accepted solution]

@CCF8073 ;

So let me understand this, you bought a business EIN, Bank Account(s), Employees so that would me you are inside the Organization.  Reason I am asking is because :

Transfer business

This transfers the business to a new person within your organization. To process payments, Square needs to verify their identity. Don’t worry, you’ll still be able to process payments during the transfer process.

NOTE: This feature is not supported when selling a business.

Last line says not supported when Selling a Business, which is where the problem is.

Since you are still in the same business with the same information it sounds like you would not be buying but transfered to process payments.  I am only saying this since the Sale was completed and you already Bought the Businesses EIN and Bank accounts.  If this is the case you may need the previous owner Processor to come to the location to Transfer the Square account to you while you are also there.

Have the 'ex-pay processor' loginto their Square account on a computer.

The Square Dashboard

Then tap on Account and Settings on the left side of the screen

Then Business Information

About My Business

On this screen you can see the text above and a Link in blue letters that says Transfer Business

Here is a link : https://app.squareup.com/dashboard/business/about-my-business 

Again since you bought the business and it says can not be used for Selling a business but can be used for transferring the processing of payments with in an organization.  This is all as you stated confusing and I am not a legal expert or how this works.  I would suggest calling Square, and ask them since you already Own the EIN and Bank Accounts from what you state, but how does the Bank look at you as the owner of the account there?  I would talk to your accountant and a Business Laywer to confirm all this before proceeding.  Problems are that if you bought the business, who is responsible for the taxes from Jan 1st till you bought it?  Square will only show the 1099 for the year for the 1 EIN.  If you start your own business EIN, then Square would Show 1099 for previous owner from Jan 1st till your EIN and account took over, and you would get a 1099 for your sales.  This is why this is not a straight forward answer and you should talk to others who helped with the Business Transfer / Sale.

[CCF8073]

I am a new business owner, having purchased the previous owner's membership interest in an LLC. My LLC's EIN, business, employees, address, etc., remain the same as the previous owner's. Is it possible to change the old owner's personal information to the new owner's information and keep the current Square Online account?

[Katie_SQ]

Hi @CCF8073,

I've merged your post into your existing thread to consolidate the discussions and make it easier for others to find this information in the future.

As Candlestore mentioned, unfortunately, it's not possible to transfer ownership of a Square account when a business has been sold, and it's also not supported for LLC business types at this time. Even if all business details remain the same except for the Account Owner's information, a new account must be created.

In this case, you'll need to set up a new Square account under your name as the new business owner.

If you have any further questions about the process, please let us know.