You can make money as a notary in Florida by charging up to $10 for each standard notarial act, up to $25 for each remote online notarization, up to $30 for solemnizing a marriage, and flat fees of roughly $75 to $200 per loan signing appointment. Travel and convenience fees for mobile visits are not capped by statute, which is where a Florida notary’s hourly earnings actually take shape.
What You Can Charge for a Standard Notarization
Florida caps the fee at $10 for any single notarial act. That includes acknowledgments, oaths, jurats, and copy certifications.1The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 0117.05 – Use of Notary Commission, Notary Fee, Seal, Notarial Acts The cap is per act, not per page or per document. If a document has three signatures that each require a separate notarization, that is three acts at up to $10 each. Charging over the statutory maximum can lead to disciplinary action or the loss of your commission.
One act you cannot charge for: witnessing a vote-by-mail ballot. Florida law requires you to perform that service free upon request from any voter.1The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 0117.05 – Use of Notary Commission, Notary Fee, Seal, Notarial Acts
At $10 a signature, the ceiling on office-based notarizations is low. The way to build real income is to go to the client.
Mobile Notary Work Is Where the Money Is
Mobile notaries travel to homes, hospitals, offices, and nursing homes to perform acts on site. Florida law does not cap the travel or convenience fee for these visits, so you set your own rates based on distance, time of day, and urgency.
Two rules govern how you bill it. The travel charge must be negotiated and agreed to before the appointment, and it has to be billed separately from the $10 statutory notarization fee. Most mobile notaries in Florida charge somewhere between $25 and $75 for a standard trip, with higher rates for after-hours or same-day requests. Reliability and fast turnaround are what separate the notaries who get repeat referrals from the ones who sit idle.
Solemnizing Marriages
Florida is one of only three states that authorize notaries to perform marriage ceremonies. South Carolina and Maine are the other two.2Florida Department of State, Division of Notaries Public. Marriage Ceremony – Notary Public: Marriage Ceremony That makes wedding officiating a real niche for Florida notaries, particularly for couples who want something simple without going to the courthouse.
The fee for the ceremony itself is capped at what a clerk of the circuit court charges for the same service, which is $30.3The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 0117.045 – Marriages4The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 0028.24 – Service Charges by Clerk of the Circuit Court The $30 covers only the ceremony. Travel, preparation time, and weekend availability are separate charges with no statutory cap, which is where this work becomes profitable. Before performing any ceremony, verify that the couple holds a valid marriage license from a Florida clerk of the circuit court and that the ceremony date falls within the license’s effective dates.
Working as a Loan Signing Agent
Loan signing is where most notaries earn their highest per-appointment income. Signing agents guide borrowers through mortgage closing packages, which can run past 100 pages on a home purchase or refinance. Instead of billing $10 per notarial act, you negotiate a flat fee for the whole appointment. Fees typically run $75 to $200 per signing, with complex closings paying more.
Florida does not require a separate license for this work, but the industry has its own gatekeepers. Title companies and signing services generally require a background screening that meets the standards set by the Signing Professionals Workgroup. Those screenings cover criminal history, driving records, financial security databases, and sex offender registries, and most companies expect an annual renewal. Errors and omissions insurance is another common prerequisite before any title company will send you an assignment.
Certification through a private organization, the background screening, and the insurance are upfront costs, but they pay for themselves after a handful of signings. The agents who stay busy return documents quickly and without errors. A single mistake on a closing package can delay funding for the borrower and the lender, and that is how you lose future business.
Remote Online Notarization
Registering as a remote online notary lets you perform notarial acts over a live audio-video connection, so you no longer need to travel and your client base opens up to anyone in Florida. The fee for a remote online notarization is capped at $25 per act, compared with $10 for in-person work.1The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 0117.05 – Use of Notary Commission, Notary Fee, Seal, Notarial Acts
The registration requirements go beyond what you needed for your traditional commission. You must complete a separate two-hour education course focused on digital security and identity verification. Your surety bond has to be increased to $25,000 total, replacing your existing $7,500 bond rather than stacking on top of it. You’ll also need errors and omissions insurance, a copy of your existing notary commission certificate, and a $10 filing fee submitted to the Department of State.5The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 0117.295 – Online Notarization Requirements and Rulemaking
Once registered, you choose a state-approved technology platform that handles the audio-video session, identity proofing, and digital seal application. The platform typically verifies a signer’s identity through knowledge-based authentication, where the signer answers personal questions drawn from public and private databases. You’re also required to maintain a secure electronic journal for every online notarization, recording the date, time, type of act, the signer’s name and address, and how their identity was verified.6Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 0117.245 – Electronic Journal of Online Notarizations
The Tax Break on Notary Income
Notary fees are taxable income reported on Schedule C, like any other self-employment earnings. But notary income gets an unusual break: it is exempt from self-employment tax, so you do not owe the 15.3% Social Security and Medicare tax that most independent contractors pay on their profits.7Internal Revenue Service. Publication 525 – Taxable and Nontaxable Income
How you report it depends on whether notary work is your only self-employment income:
- If notary fees are your only self-employment income, report the earnings on Schedule C, then write “Exempt—Notary” on Schedule 2 (Form 1040), line 4. Do not file Schedule SE.
- If you have notary fees plus other self-employment income, file Schedule SE, and write “Exempt—Notary” along with your notary net profit on the dotted line to the left of Schedule SE, line 3. Subtract that amount before calculating your self-employment tax.
The exemption applies only to the notarial act fees themselves. Loan signing agent income is generally treated as separate from your notary commission and is subject to self-employment tax like any other independent contractor income.8Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Schedule SE (Form 1040) Keep your notary journal and your signing agent records separate so you can distinguish the two income streams at tax time.
Staying Out of Trouble
The fastest way to lose the income you’re building is to answer a legal question. When a signer asks which document they need, how to fill in a blank, or what a clause means, answering crosses into the unauthorized practice of law. As a notary, you verify identity and witness signatures. You do not draft documents, recommend which type of notarization is needed, or explain the legal effect of what’s being signed. The safe response is to tell the client you’re not permitted to advise on that and suggest they consult an attorney.
Florida is strict about this boundary in advertising too. Non-attorney notaries who advertise in a language other than English must include a prominent notice in both English and the advertised language stating: “I am not an attorney licensed to practice law in the State of Florida, and I may not give legal advice or accept fees for legal advice.” Translating the phrase “Notary Public” literally into another language is prohibited in advertisements.1The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 0117.05 – Use of Notary Commission, Notary Fee, Seal, Notarial Acts
Keep a journal even for in-person acts. Florida only requires an electronic journal for online notarizations, but a well-kept paper journal is the best defense you have if someone later challenges a notarization. Record the date, the type of act, a description of the document, the signer’s name, the method of identification, and the fee charged. It also gives you a clean record of every dollar earned when tax time arrives.
Finally, the $7,500 surety bond you carry protects the public, not you. If a claim is paid on your bond, the bonding company can come after you for reimbursement. Errors and omissions insurance is what protects your personal assets if you’re sued over a notarization error, and it can cover attorney fees even when the claim is baseless. Annual premiums for basic coverage typically run about $20 to $35. For anyone doing loan signings or remote online work, E&O coverage is effectively mandatory because title companies and signing services require it before sending you assignments.