You charged $175 for a refinance signing, the title company paid you $150, and the signer paid $25. The platform reports $175 as income, your state caps the notary fee at $15, and you drove 42 miles. If you book that $175 as one line, you will overstate income, misstate self-employment tax, and lose part of the mileage deduction.
Mobile notary and loan signing agent (LSA) work combines a statutory office — the notary public — with a private contracting business — the signing service. The fees, the deductions, and the tax treatment split on that line, and the IRS and your state both check it.
Two Fees, Two Rules
Statutory notary fee: The amount state law allows you to charge for the notarial act itself — often $5–$25 per signature, stamp, or acknowledgment. That fee is fixed by statute and, crucially, may be excluded from self-employment tax under Section 1402(c)(2) if you are a notary commissioned by the state, even though it is still income tax. You must allocate it.
Signing / service fee: Everything else — the travel, printing, wait time, and coordination for the loan closing. It is market-rate business income, fully subject to income and self-employment tax, reported on Schedule C.
Example: A refinance package with six notarizations at $15 each = $90 in notary fees (potentially SE-tax exempt) + $85 in service fees (travel, print, time) = $175 total. Booking $175 as one service fee overpays SE tax by $90 × 15.3% ≈ $13.77 per signing — $1,400 over 100 signings.
Book it split: When you invoice, split the line: Notary Fees $90 and Signing Service Fees $85. In your ledger, tag notary fees with a separate account Revenue — Notary Fees (SE Exempt) and service fees as Revenue — Signing Service. Your tax preparer needs that split to complete Schedule SE correctly.
What Counts as the Notary Fee
Only the fee directly for the notarial act qualifies for the potential SE-tax exclusion. Travel, printing, and administrative charges do not, even if you bundle them as "notary travel." If your state doesn't cap the travel fee, you still must separate it.
Keep a fee log per signing: date, borrower, number of notarizations, notary fee per statute, service fee, and miles. That log is the evidence for the SE schedule and for a state notary audit, which often tests whether you exceeded the statutory maximum.
Mileage, Supplies, and the Home Office
Mileage: Track every signing mile from your tax home (usually your office or, if you have no office, your residence) to the signing and back, or to the next signing if you chain appointments. Log date, starting address, destination, business purpose, and miles. A 42-mile round trip at the 2026 rate (≈$0.72) is $30.24 in deduction that comes off the service-fee income, not the notary-fee line.
Supplies: Toner, paper (often 100 pages per package), pens, and the notary stamp. Supplies that are consumed per signing are COGS or direct expense; the printer and scanner are equipment depreciated or expensed under the de minimis safe harbor.
Background and certification: NNA certification, background check, and E&O insurance renewals are annual overhead, allocated across signings. A $300 annual package over 200 signings is $1.50 per signing — small, but it belongs in the cost base for pricing.
Health and self-employment tax nuance: Your notary-fee SE exemption reduces SE tax but does not reduce income tax, and it does not exempt you from the need to pay quarterly estimates on the combined income.
Keep Your Finances Organized From Day One
A signing business that looks at bank deposits sees one number and misses the split that saves SE tax and proves compliance with the state cap. Track notary fees and service fees as separate revenue, and mileage as a substantiated deduction, and the business that pays $150 per signing well actually keeps it.
Beancount.io keeps the split as two revenue accounts with a fee log that ties to mileage and to Schedule SE — version-controlled, auditable, and ready for the state. Get started for free and make the statutory line work for you instead of against you.
