Transfer Ownership of Your Square Account

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 will change all the personal information associated with an account, such as the owner’s name, email address, date of birth and Social Security Number (SSN).

Start a Square Account Transfer

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 log in to their Square account, verify their identity and be willing to transfer ownership.

If you are the existing Square account owner:

1. Log in to your online Square Dashboard and go to Account and Settings.

2. Select Business information > About my business click 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.

4. Enter the new account owner’s email address. Square will send an identity verification form to the new owner.

5. Check the box for Transfer of Account Agreement, then click Agree & Continue.

6. Read the Transfer of Account Agreement and click OK.

7. Check your email inbox for the automated Transfer Account Confirmation email.

8. Click Confirm Transfer. Note: 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.

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 attached to the Square account and click 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. Note: 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 click Agree & Continue. If the identity verification is successful, then the ownership transfer is complete.

4. You will then receive an email to reset your Square account password. Open the email and click Reset Password.

5. Enter your new password, and select your language and time zone preferences.

6. Click Save Changes.

Note: If the new owner does not start the final steps within 24 hours, the ownership transfer request will expire and must be re-requested by the current owner.

Account Ownership Transfer Eligibility

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

• No EIN or SSN: For your account to be eligible for a transfer, your account must have Taxpayer Information with an EIN or SSN on file for all locations, including inactive locations. Log in to your Square Dashboard and select Account and Settings > Business > Tax Forms to update your tax information.

• Loans Requirement: You have an active loan from Square, or a pending application for one. If you have an active loan, you’ll be able to transfer your account 10 days after your loan balance is fully paid off. If you have a pending application, you can cancel it to transfer your account. Visit the Loans section of your Square Dashboard to manage your loans.

• Hardware Financing: You have an active hardware financing plan from Square. You’ll be able to transfer your account when your balance is fully paid off.

• Frozen or Disabled: Your account is frozen, or your payments have been disabled, and you must resolve this before initiating an account ownership transfer.

• Negative Balance: Your account has a negative balance, and you must resolve it before initiating an account ownership transfer.

• Square Payroll Subscription: Your account has a Square Payroll subscription or has started signing up for Square Payroll in the past. If you meet all of the other eligibility requirements, please contact the Square Payroll Support team for help completing this account transfer.

• Square Savings Account: Your account has an active Square Savings account. If you meet all of the other eligibility requirements, please contact our Square Savings Support team for help closing the Savings account before proceeding with the account transfer.

If your account is not flagged for one of these reasons, there are a couple of other reasons you may not be able to transfer your account.

• Sale of Business: Square does not support transferring an account during the sale of a business because this 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.

• Original owner or designate is not willing or able to transfer the account: The original owner must verify their identity by entering their SSN and date of birth.

Ownership Transfer Not Eligible

If your Square account is not eligible to transfer ownership, 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.

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.

FAQ