Go to Account & Settings on your online Square Dashboard. Click Business information > Service charges > Create service charge. Name your charge, choose a percentage-based or fixed-price service charge, then enter the amount of the charge. Select the location where the charge applies and add any applicable taxes.
Credit card fees are included in Square's fees, so there are no charges from credit card companies. Every card brand accepted has the same rate. Payment processing fees are taken out of the total amount of each transaction, including tax and tip.
To help offset these costs, you might consider passing fees to your customers in the form of a surcharge or convenience fee. Alternatively, you might offer cash discounts or apply a minimum transaction amount to use credit cards. While these types of strategies can help, they're not always effective.
Sellers may impose a credit card surcharge of no more than 5 percent of the purchase price. Surcharges must be clearly posted and communicated before payment. Sellers may not impose surcharges on their own branded credit cards and there is no statute on discounts for different payment methods.
The IRS requires Payment Settlement Entities, such as Square, to report the payment volume received by U.S. account holders. A Form 1099-K is the information return that is given to the IRS and qualifying customers. Review this sample Form 1099-K.
For most states, Square will issue a 1099-K and report to the IRS when you meet BOTH of the following thresholds: You processed more than $20,000 in gross sales from goods or services in the calendar year AND. You completed more than 200 transactions in the calendar year (2018)
If you're wondering if it is legal to charge credit card fees, the short answer is yes in most states. The practice of surcharging was largely outlawed for several decades until 2013 when a class action lawsuit permitted merchants in several U.S. states to implement surcharges in their businesses.
You aren't allowed to pass on debit card fees to customers, so you'll have to cover the cost yourself.
10 states still have laws on the books that say convenience and surcharge fees aren't permissible, but recent court rulings have invalidated some of these laws. To date, only two states and one jurisdiction still outlaw the use of credit card surcharges: Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Puerto Rico.
Convenience fees can be a fixed dollar amount or a percentage of the transaction amount (usually 2 to 3 percent) and must be disclosed to the customer in advance. Ways to charge credit card fees to your customers: Add a line item for credit card surcharge to the invoice and add a standard amount to each invoice.
You can refuse to pay the extra charge and insist on paying the actual amount. Inform the merchant that charging 2% is against RBI rules and they can be penalized. Report the merchant to your bank or card network, providing transaction details and receipts. The bank or card network will investigate and take action.
Square doesn't have monthly or hidden fees and it has the same processing fee for all major credit cards: 2.6% + 10¢ per swipe, dip, or tap, 3.5% + 15 cents for each keyed-in transaction, and 2.9% + 30 cents for each invoice or e-commerce transaction.
Credit card processing fees encompass three types of fees (interchange, assessment and payment processing) that get distributed to three separate financial institutions (issuing bank for the card, credit card network and payment processor) involved in facilitating the card payment process.
The main difference between Square and Stripe is that Square is best suited for in-person transactions while Stripe is a developer-friendly platform best suited for e-commerce, subscriptions and other online payments.
No. The ability to surcharge only applies to credit card purchases, and only under certain conditions. U.S. merchants cannot surcharge debit card or prepaid card purchases.
A surcharge is not a convenience fee. A convenience fee is levied by a merchant for offering customers the privilege of paying with an alternative non-standard payment method. Merchants can process convenience fees in all 50 states. A surcharge is levied by a merchant for customer purchases made with a credit card.
Surcharges must not be more than the amount that it costs a merchant to accept a particular type of card for a given transaction. For example, debit cards are typically less expensive for merchants to accept than credit cards.
Convenience fees are normally a flat fee or a small percentage of the total payment, but they can add up to a substantial sum if the payments are large or recurring. You may be able to avoid convenience fees by paying with cash or another form of payment.
Form 1099-K tax reporting: $600 rule
In the last year or so, you may have heard about the “$600 rule.” This refers to situations where payments you receive for goods or services through third-party payment networks and online marketplaces like Venmo, PayPal, Amazon, Square, eBay, Etsy, etc. exceed $600.
The ARP required third party settlement organizations (TPSOs), which include popular payment apps and online marketplaces, to report payments of more than $600 for the sale of goods and services on a Form 1099-K starting in 2022.
What If I Don't Report My Side Hustle Income? Failure to report earned income is a form of tax fraud. If you don't report your side hustle and you are audited, you could incur a failure-to-pay penalty, Hearn says.
Large Transactions
All Square merchants have a per transaction limit of $50,000. If you'd like to accept individual transactions above $50,000 each, you'll need to split the payment into multiple installments.