Notary Signing Agent Mileage and Taxes (2026)

You print a 150-page refinance package at your desk, drive 14 miles to a borrower's kitchen table, sit through an hour of signatures, then detour to the FedEx drop box before the 6 p.m. cutoff. The signing service pays you $125 for the whole thing. This is your first year as a signing agent, the first 1099s arrive in January, and you want to know two things: which of those miles you can write off, and whether it's true that notaries don't pay self-employment tax.

Which drives count

IRS Publication 463 lets you deduct the cost of getting from one workplace to another. For a mobile signing business that covers nearly every drive you make for work:

• Signings. The borrower's home, a hospital room, a jail, a coffee shop. Including the ones where the borrower cancels at the door or the lender pulls the loan; a wasted trip is still a business trip.
• Drop-offs. FedEx, UPS or a courier counter to return signed documents, and the title or escrow office when they want the originals by hand. If the drop box is on your way home, only the extra miles of the detour are new; the rest is the drive home.
• Supplies. Paper, toner, envelopes and ink pads from an office supply store, on a workday.
• Commission errands. The county clerk's office to file your oath or bond, a fingerprinting appointment for a background check, a live notary class or exam.

The one that needs thought is the first drive of the day. Pub. 463 treats driving from home to a temporary work site inside your metro area as "nondeductible commuting expenses" unless your home is your principal place of business. Signing agents often meet that test honestly: the loan packages are downloaded, printed, checked and scanned back at home, and there's no other fixed office where that work happens. The space has to be used regularly and only for the business. Our home office and commuting guide walks through the test; a dining table that's also dinner doesn't pass.

The fee split: what's exempt from self-employment tax

This is the part specific to notaries, and the part most forums get half right. The Schedule SE instructions list "fees received for services performed as a notary public" among the income that is not net earnings from self-employment. That saves the 15.3% self-employment tax on that money. It doesn't make it tax-free: notary fees still go on Schedule C and are subject to income tax.

A loan signing fee is mostly not a notary fee, though. Printing the package, walking the borrower through it, waiting, driving, and getting the documents to FedEx aren't notarial acts. The notarial part is the acknowledgments and jurats themselves, and your state's fee schedule sets the most a notary may charge for each one. A common, conservative approach treats no more than that statutory amount per notarized signature as the exempt part, and the rest of the fee as ordinary self-employment income. Your notary journal, if your state requires one, is the record of how many acts you performed, which is what the split is based on.

How to claim it, from the same instructions:

• Notary fees were your only self-employment income: don't file Schedule SE. Check box 3 on Schedule 2 (Form 1040), line 4, and enter "Exempt—Notary."
• You had other self-employment earnings of $400 or more (your signing-agent income counts): file Schedule SE, write "Exempt—Notary" and your net notary profit on the dotted line to the left of line 3, and subtract it there.

The exempt amount is a net profit, so any expenses that belong to the notarial side come off it. Settle the method with whoever prepares your return, then use it every year. Self-employment tax for gig workers explains how the rest of the SE calculation works.

What a busy month looks like: a worked example

Dana prints and scans every package at a spare-room desk she uses for nothing else, so her home is her principal place of business and the trips from home count. Her November:

If her desk didn't qualify, the home legs would be commuting and much of that total would disappear, so it's worth settling before tax season rather than in April. The mileage calculator runs your own numbers.

Everything besides the car

On the standard mileage rate, the cents per mile already cover gas, insurance, repairs and depreciation, so you don't deduct those separately. Parking and tolls on business trips are still deductible (parking and tolls on the standard rate), and so are the costs of the business itself: the commission application and state fees, your bond, errors-and-omissions insurance, the stamp and journal, background checks and certifications that signing services require, a dual-tray laser printer, paper, toner, a scanner, signing-platform subscriptions, and the business share of your phone. Our list of write-offs that stack with the mileage deduction covers the general rules.

One vehicle rule: to use the standard mileage rate for a car, you generally have to choose it in the first year that car is used for business. Standard mileage vs. actual expenses explains the choice.

1099s and the January 15 payment

Signing services, title companies and lenders may send you a Form 1099-NEC in January. The reporting threshold changed for payments made in 2026, so you might not get one from a company that paid you little; the income is reportable either way, along with fees borrowers paid you directly. Add your own totals from your records rather than waiting for the forms.

Estimated tax for September through December 2026 is due January 15, 2027. Signing work comes in waves with mortgage rates, so a strong fall can leave a bigger bill than the rest of the year suggested. How much to set aside has the percentages, and if you also have a W-2 job, extra W-4 withholding can cover it from the paychecks left this year.

What the log needs to show

For each business drive: date, miles, where and why. "Refi signing, Elm St." or "FedEx drop, 2 packages" is enough; you don't need the borrower's name in your mileage log, and with loan documents it's better not to put it there. The IRS wants records made at or near the time of the trip, and mileage log requirements covers what holds up.

Who this isn't for

• Notaries who are employees. If a bank, law firm or title company pays you on a W-2 to notarize, unreimbursed car costs aren't deductible on your federal return, and the SE exemption doesn't come into it. Ask your employer about mileage reimbursement.
• Remote online notarization only. No driving means no miles; the fee rules above still apply.
• Owners of an S corporation. The company reimburses you instead; see S-corp mileage reimbursement.
• Anyone outside the US. This is US federal tax only. State notary fee schedules differ, and your state may tax things differently.

Where TaxMiles fits, and where it doesn't

We make TaxMiles, so weigh this accordingly.

• It logs each drive without you starting anything. Drives are detected automatically and you sort them into Business, Personal or Commute, so signings and drop-offs go to Business and the home legs to Business or Commute depending on your home office.
• Purposes you can name. The built-in list includes Client Meeting, Supply Pickup and Delivery, and Settings → Auto-Classify → Trip Purposes lets you add your own, like "Loan Signing" or "FedEx Drop."
• The rate follows the date. Trips before July 1, 2026 are valued at 72.5¢ and later ones at 76¢. The 2027 rate isn't in the app yet; the IRS usually announces it in December.
• What it can't do. There's no notary line of work in its settings, it doesn't keep a notary journal, it doesn't split notarial from non-notarial fees, and it doesn't prepare Schedule SE or decide whether your home office qualifies. It's a mileage log and estimate tool, not tax advice.
• The free plan covers your first 40 business trips in total, which a busy signing agent can pass in a few weeks. Pro is $7.99 a month or $59.99 a year.

Frequently asked questions

Can a notary signing agent deduct mileage?

Yes, if you work for yourself and report the income on Schedule C. Drives to signings, to drop off signed loan packages at FedEx or UPS, to a title or escrow office, and to buy paper and toner are business miles. The drive from home to the first signing and back from the last also counts if your home is your principal place of business, which it often is for agents who print and scan packages at a home desk used only for that. For 2026 the rate is 72.5 cents a mile through June 30 and 76 cents from July 1.

Is my whole signing fee exempt from self-employment tax?

No. The Schedule SE instructions exclude fees received for services performed as a notary public. Printing the package, presenting the loan documents, travel and courier work are not notarial acts, so most preparers treat that part of a signing fee as ordinary self-employment income. All of it is still income for income tax, reported on Schedule C.

How do I report the notary fee exemption?

Per the Schedule SE instructions: if notary fees were your only self-employment income, check box 3 on Schedule 2 (Form 1040), line 4, and enter Exempt-Notary; you don't file Schedule SE. If you had other self-employment earnings of 400 dollars or more, file Schedule SE, write Exempt-Notary and your net notary profit on the dotted line next to line 3, and subtract it there.

Do remote online notarizations have any mileage?

Usually not, because you never leave your desk. The mileage deduction only covers miles you actually drive for the business, so a remote online notarization adds income but no miles.

Sources: IRS Instructions for Schedule SE (2025) (notary public fees not included in net earnings from self-employment; "Exempt—Notary" reporting on Schedule 2 line 4 or next to Schedule SE line 3); IRS Publication 463 (travel between work locations; temporary work sites in your metro area as commuting; home as principal place of business); IRS Publication 587 (regular and exclusive use, administrative activities); IRS standard mileage rates (72.5¢ January 1–June 30, 2026; 76¢ July 1–December 31, 2026; no 2027 rate posted as of this date). Checked October 31, 2026.

This article is general information for US federal income tax, not tax or legal advice. The worked example is hypothetical: made-up distances, one car, the standard mileage rate. How much of a signing fee counts as notary fees depends on your state's fee schedule and your records; ask a tax preparer before you file. TaxMiles is published by Gigabyte LLC, the company that wrote this article.