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...
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Messages in this Thread |
| Colorado Notary Question-SE Tax - Brandi Solano on 2/3/19 10:13am |
| Good question. No authoritative answer. - Lee/AR on 2/3/19 12:08pm |
| Do you complete and stamp one jurat or two? - Linda_H/FL on 2/3/19 12:21pm |
| wow, Linda, not so in Oregon! Its the number of people. - sigtogo/OR on 2/3/19 1:19pm |
| Not sure if we'd get away with that here in FL - Linda_H/FL on 2/3/19 1:59pm |
| Re: wow, Linda, not so in Oregon! Its the number of people. - Brandi Solano on 2/3/19 2:19pm |
| Ack/jurat certs are PROOF of the notarial act - LisaKT/CA on 2/3/19 4:29pm |
| Re: Do you complete and stamp one jurat or two? - LisaKT/CA on 2/3/19 2:06pm |
| Re: I’ve always done as Linda since early 1990 - Carolyn Bodley on 2/3/19 6:37pm |
| think of all the taxes you may have unnecessarily paid :) - sigtogo/OR on 2/4/19 3:51pm |
| Re: How so? - Carolyn Bodley on 2/4/19 8:43pm |
| Re: Correction — one certificate /one act // not one doc n/m - Carolyn Bodley on 2/4/19 8:45pm |
| If you could earn more and pay less SE tax would you? - sigtogo/OR on 2/5/19 12:42am |
| Re: If you could earn more and pay less SE tax would you? - VT_Syrup on 2/5/19 6:47am |
| Re: If you could earn more and pay less SE tax would you? - LisaKT/CA on 2/5/19 6:58pm |
| Re: If you could earn more and pay less SE tax would you? - VT_Syrup on 2/5/19 8:08pm |
| Colorado Notary Fee CRS 24-21-529(1) - ABC Legal Docs, LLC - Jerry Lucas on 2/3/19 6:09pm |
| Found this interesting - Luckydog on 2/3/19 8:25pm |
| #2 page 5 IRS sorry n/m - Luckydog on 2/3/19 8:26pm |
| I'm confused by your post. The deduction for SE tax is a - MW/VA on 2/4/19 10:21am |
| Possibly focusing on the wrong question? - JanetK_CA on 2/4/19 2:56am |
| Re: Colorado Notary Question-SE Tax - Doris_CO on 2/4/19 11:04am |
| Colorado Notarial Acts CRS 24-21-502(6) - ABC Legal Docs, LLC - Jerry Lucas on 2/4/19 12:38pm |
| While I reach same conclusions as you Jerry, it seems... - sigtogo/OR on 2/4/19 3:35pm |
| Colorado Notarial Acts - ABC Legal Docs, LLC - Jerry Lucas on 2/4/19 4:00pm |
| Re: ABC - Carolyn Bodley on 2/4/19 5:02pm |
| Colorado Notarial Acts CRS 24-21-502(6) - ABC Legal Docs, LLC - Jerry Lucas on 2/4/19 10:48pm |
| Re: Colorado Notary Question-SE Tax - Carolyn Bodley on 2/4/19 4:52pm |
| Re: Colorado Notary Question-SE Tax - LJCA on 2/4/19 7:57pm |
| My last .02 FWIW...about the suggestion to - Linda_H/FL on 2/5/19 6:18am |
| Re: My last .02 FWIW...about the suggestion to - JanetK_CA on 2/5/19 2:03pm |
| We’ll agree to disagree - LisaKT/CA on 2/5/19 6:37pm |
| CA Handbook & Newsletter defines notarial act - LisaKT/CA on 2/4/19 11:46am |
| Colorado State Archives Charges $10 for Notary Services - ABC Legal Docs, LLC - Jerry Lucas on 2/5/19 12:32pm |