Hi everyone,
We just noticed that under Settings > General > Business details, our entity type was switched from Corporation to Individual.
We have always had it set up as a corporation and never requested this change.
Has this happened to anyone else recently? If so, did you find out what caused it and how you fixed it?
This usually happens because of Shopify’s backend verification sweeps. If there was slight mismatch between your shopify account details and your tax documents (like the IRS database), or if a periodic verification check failed, the system sometimes reverts the account to a default individual status to keep the account active while waiting for updated proof of corporation status.
This happens when your EIN, Legal business name, or the address on file doesn’t perfectly match what the payment processor has, the system may have downgrade the type during a routine update.
As this is involves your Shopify payments accounts and tax information, you cannot fix this yourself in the settings. For security reasons shopify locks these fields once they have verified.
Hi Finny,
Thank you for the reply. Since I’m the only admin and 110% confident I didn’t change it, your explanation that “this isn’t something that changes on its own” doesn’t actually align with what happened here.
We’ve been on Shopify since 2014. In 2018, Shopify requested additional Corporation documents, which I provided and were fully approved, I even have the original confirmation email. There is currently no verification notice, no pending update, and payouts are processing normally.
The most telling detail is that when I reverted the entity back from Individual to Corporation, it automatically pulled an archived address that we had completely wiped from the Shopify system years ago. This strongly suggests a legacy data sync error or a database “roll-back” on Shopify’s end rather than a user-initiated change.
“Someone edited it" explanation doesn’t fit, the system didn’t just change the status; it reached into a deleted history and pulled a 6+ year-old address that no longer exists in any active field. There’s been weird things with this account (we have a few stores so I see differences) as we are on a legacy plan (we pay like $135 for advance plan).
I was just reaching out to see if any other companies experienced this and their process of reverting back to corporation without any hiccups eg. temporary pause in Shopify payments etc. as we quite a bit of sales and any downtime will really impact us.