Understand self-employment tax

Notary income has an unusual federal self-employment tax rule that can make accurate recordkeeping especially important.

The NEST's tax reporting helps you keep the notarial portion of your income distinguishable from the other services you provide.

### Not all of a signing fee is the same thing

A mobile or loan signing appointment may include compensation for several different services.

Depending on the order, your total fee may reflect things such as travel, printing, appointment services, document handling, and the notarial acts themselves.

Those components should not automatically be treated as though the entire signing fee represents payment for notarial acts.

### Why The NEST tracks notarial fees separately

For federal self-employment tax purposes, fees received for services performed as a notary public receive special treatment.

That makes it useful to identify the portion of your business income attributable to the notarial acts separately from the rest of the compensation you earned for providing the appointment.

The NEST uses the information recorded with your orders to help surface that distinction in your tax reporting.

### Your business profit still matters

The self-employment tax treatment of qualifying notarial fees does not mean that the income simply disappears from your business records.

Your Profit & Loss and tax reporting still need to reflect the financial activity of the business.

The distinction matters specifically when working with the self-employment tax calculation.

### Accurate orders produce better tax records

Keep the details of your orders, notarial acts, payments, expenses, and mileage accurate throughout the year.

The more accurately your underlying business activity is recorded, the less information you have to reconstruct when preparing your taxes.

### Use the report as a preparation tool

The NEST is designed to organize the information you may need for tax preparation and to help identify the notarial-fee portion of your business activity.

It does not determine your personal tax liability or replace a tax professional.

Use the reports as organized business records and provide them to your tax preparer, or use them alongside the tax preparation method you choose.