Join  |  Login  |   Cart    

Notary Rotary
Just PoliticsLeisure
Welcome to the Notary Talk General Discussion Forum. Before posting, please read the

You are replying to this message:
 Possibly focusing on the wrong question?
Posted by  JanetK_CA on 2/4/19 2:56am

Either that, or you may be conflating two different, but related things. I believe the question everyone's addressing (which IS state specific) is what are you allowed to charge for your services. Once you get that straight, you have your answer about how much you can deduct for SE tax, which cannot exceed what you've been paid in any given transaction.

I'd be curious to know the source of the response that was quoted below, because it doesn't make much sense to me. I've always considered a "notarial act" to refer to any time I apply my stamp, sign my name and complete a certificate. But then, every state is free to interpret those details however they wish. Fortunately for those of us in CA, our law very clearly states that we're allowed to charge 'per signature'.

It seems like every year or so questions come up about what can be excluded from SE taxes. This may become more important as fees drop, to avoid issues in case of audit, since we're not allowed to average out NSA fees over several assignments, as I understand the federal law on this.

For example, if one loan signing has lots of signatures to the point where the fees you'd be able to charge (either per act or per signature, as your state allows), you can only deduct up to what you were actually paid on that assignment. For example (to keep the numbers simple), assuming your state allows you to charge $10/sig or act, if you were paid $100 for an assignment with 1 signer and 10 notarizations, you break even and can deduct your entire fee. However, if you only get paid $80 for that same assignment, you could only deduct the $80 you actually earned on that assignment. If the next assignment you do has 2 notarizations for the same fee, you could only deduct $20. So just counting the total number of notarizations (unless your state only allows extremely low fees) could have you deducting too much.

This could also be an issue for NSAs in state that have had recent increases in allowable fees. Just a heads up for anyone dealing with this for the first time...
Important Notice

At this time, you must be signed-in to Post a Message to the Notary Talk Discussion Forum.

In order to sign-in, you must have a Notary Rotary™ membership. Basic Membership is free. Basic Members should update their profiles at least every 6 months to prevent them from being deleted.

If you do not already have a membership, click the Join link above. After creating your profile, you should log in and update it from the My Profile page. If you do not want your information displayed to others (e.g. advertised under Find a Notary), you can hide it by checking the "Hide profile from searches" box.

If you already have a profile, click the Login link above to sign-on. If you have forgotten your password, follow the directions on the login page.

 
Find a Notary   Notary Supplies   Terms   Privacy Statement   Help/FAQ   About   Contact Us   Archive  
 
Notary Rotary™ is a trademark of Notary Rotary. Copyright © 2002-2024, Notary Rotary, Inc.  All rights reserved.
500 New York Ave, Des Moines, IA 50313.