I have a question about Notary Assist bookkeeping platform I started using. For each signing do you count 1 signing pkg. as 1 document? And how do you list notarial acts? If you have for instance 7 pages you signed and stamped, do you list as 7 or 1 for the pkg? Thanks for your help!
I have not used Notary Assist, and I am a notary in VT, not PA. I suggest you research Notary Assist to find out why they are keeping track of notarial acts. A common reason for notaries to count the number of notarial acts is to calculate what part of the fee for an appointment is notarial fees. The part that is notarial fees can be excluded from social security income (although it is still taxable for income tax purposes).
The PA notary fees are complex and seem hard to understand to me. The part about a lower fee for the second signature on an acknowledgement is tricky, one wonders if software will be able to figure it out correctly. Who knows what “Taking verification on oath or affirmation (no matter how many signatures)” : $5.00 means? Does it mean $5.00 per document, no matter how many signatures? Or does it mean $5.00 per signature, and the fee is not reduced for the 2d, 3rd,… signature like it is for acknowledgements?
I don’t use Notary Assist either but, if I did, I would not put “1” as the entry - as Ashton stated, your authorized notary fee by the state is exempt from Self Employment Tax, so if you take that exemption, it’s impacting your contribution to SS.
I would think that somewhere in that software is a way to set up how your notary fees work so it can calculate them properly - like a settings menu in your profile that you set up prior to using the software.
I, personally, used Quicken for bookkeeping and kept a separate paper itemization of fees broken down into categories - (1) Payor/Signer, (2) total fee, (3) amount attributed to notary fees (at $10/notarization) and (4) residual fee (that fee not the notarization but the travel/time/service fee). And #3 and #4 better equal #2
Aloha noon fellow-notaries from Sacramento County, CA–, I just started using Notary Assist this year. So far-So good…It really helped detailing all my signings and numbers. I printed and took it to my tax man. (Not customers infor) He just wanted to see how much I made in the past years. Hey, I DID Not know, a notary had to make at least 13,000. a year in order to claim expenses etc. “Sheesh” My filing went well. I like it better than Notary Gadget.
Ummm…seriously???
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I did find out it’s per notary stamp. You stamp 6 times you record in the software the same. It’s similar to QuickBooks (and less expensive) as it prints out your statements such as profit & loss as well as many others. I can keep track of all expenses for supplies, mileage, training, etc. I can print out everything I need for my accountant that she needs. Now I just have to update the notarizations now that I found the answer. I am an LLC set up as a disregarded entity, sole proprietor so my income is pass through. Schedule C.
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Perhaps Notary Assist instructs you to count how many times you used your notary stamp in an appointment. I don’t think that would tell you much about the maximum fee PA allows. Imagine an appointment where you take acknowledgements on 6 documents, that’s 6 stamps. Each document contains 2 signatures, so each document is $5 for the first name and $2 for the second name, so $ 7 per document and $42 for the total. But if for some reason each person’s name was in a separate certificate (2 certificates per document) it would be 12 stamps but the same total maximum fee for the appointment.
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Hi all! I’ve been using NotaryGadget. Very user friendly and offers alot! Add signings to calendar, expenses (can scan receipts), enter mileage and how many notarial acts (calculates for round trip and cost per stamp), you can run reports: P&L, Sales, Unpaid Invoices, Mileage and 1099s to be issued. There is a monthly fee of $9.95 - that can be used as an expense - totally worth it!
Can be used for non loan signings too. $ per stamp based on state limits
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Just a point on tax law.
The floor (minimum amount of revenue required) for ANY business is $0, as would be the case if one is starting a venture and has not yet achieved revenue. Expenses can be claimed against the 0 revenue, yielding a business loss.
You run into trouble when this goes on for a period of time; if the IRS sees continuous losses or 0 profit, they can assert that there is no profit objective, and that the venture is a hobby, not a business. While hobby profits must be reported and are taxable, hobby losses are only deductible to the amount they offset profits from the hobby.
HWB.
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Thank you HWB - appreciate your input
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