Correctly Filling Out Your Notary Public Journal

Taxes and Education

2009-12-30T18:40:00.000-08:00

This is a great time to become a Certified Loan Signing Agent. Take advantage of the tax deduction.

1NotarySchool.com's Certified Loan Signing Course has the updates for 2010 on the HUD and Good Faith Estimates.

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There are two days left in the year to take advantage of deductible educational expenses.

www.1NotarySchool.com has included IRS Topic 513, with the informational links and guidelines below.

IRS Topic 513 - Educational Expenses (from the IRS.gov Website)

You may be able to deduct work--related educational expenses paid during the year as a itemized deduction on Form 1040, Schedule A (PDF).

To be deductible, your expenses must be for

1. Education that maintains or improves your job performance.

2. Serves the purpose of your employer and is required by the employer or by law to keep your salary, status or job.

3. The education is not part of a program that will qualify you for a new trade or business.

Although the education must relate to your present work, educational expenses incurred during temporary absence from your job may be deductible. However, after your temporary absence, you must return to the same kind of work. Usually, absence from work for one year or less is considered temporary.

If you are an employee, you generally must complete Form 2106 (PDF) or Form 2106-EZ(PDF). Educational expenses are deducted as miscellaneous itemized deductions on Form 1040 Schedule A; they are subject to the 2% of adjusted gross income limit. For more information on the 2% limit, refer to Publication 529and/or Form 1040, Schedule A&B Instructions.

Self--employed individuals include educational expenses on Form 1040, Schedule C (PDF), Form 1040, Schedule C-EZ (PDF) or Form 1040, Schedule F (PDF).

r employer may report the educational assistance payments on your FormW-2 (PDF) in the appropriate box under "other". Taxable reimbursements will be reported by your employer as income to you in the appropriate box of Form W--2.

For more information on educational expenses or Education Tax Credits, refer toChapters 11 & 12 of Publication 970, Tax Benefits for Education.

Take advantage of this great offer and take your education deduction for the year 2009.

To buy a Certified Loan Signing Course go to http://www.shop.1notaryschool.com/main.sc

Happy Holidays and a prosperous New Year.

From the Staff at 1NotarySchool.com

www.1NotarySchool.com

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GOOD PRACTICES AND SHORT CUTS IN FILLING OUT ENTRIES IN YOUR NOTARY JOURNAL:

2009-12-08T12:42:00.000-08:00

The most confusing job as a Notary Public is completing your notary journal. This tool is the best protection for all notaries to prove they took all the steps they possibly could to determine the identity of the document signer.
The Notary Public’s notary journal is a dairy of facts that is invaluable as documentation of those facts when filled out. It is good practice to fill out as much information in your Notary Journal as you possibly can. Your Notary Journal is your own personal Notary Public diary of events that took place while performing your notary act. The State of California has requirements by law for the Notary Journal.

The entries that are REQUIRED per the State of California in your journal of notarial acts are:
•The complete date and time that the notarial act took place.
a.Date and Time – This is the day and time the Notary Public appeared before the principal to perform a notarization. This is a required field.

•The type of notarial act that was performed.
a.Type – The notarial act that was performed (i.e. Acknowledgment, jurat, certified copy of a power of attorney, etc). This is a required field.

•The name of the document being notarized.
a.Type of Document – The name or title of the document that is being notarized (i.e.: deed of trust, limited correction agreement, etc). This is a required field.

•Information regarding the supporting identification documentation of the person who’s signature is being notarized.
a.The type of identifying document, the government agency issuing the document, the serial/identifying number of the document, and the date of the issue or expiration of the document. This is a required field.

•A statement regarding the type of identity (i.e. satisfactory evidence, credible witness, etc).
a.Identification of the Signer – The method used for identification (i.e. passport, driver’s license). If the identity of a person making an acknowledgment or taking the oath or affirmation was based on satisfactory evidence, the journal entry must contain the signature of the credible witness swearing or affirming to the identity of the individual. This is a required field.

•The fee charged for the notary service.
a.NOTE: This is only the per notarization signature fee. No other fees should be calculated into this column (i.e. travel, etc).

•The signature of the person who’s signature is being notarized and who is appearing before the Notary Public.

•A right thumbprint is required by state law on all journal entries of deed of trust, quitclaim deed, grant deed or power of attorney. A trustees deeds relating to a foreclosure or reconveyance deed does not require a right thumbprint.
a.Thumbprint – The right thumbprint or left thumbprint if right is not available or any finger if right or left thumbprint is not available. If the principal does not have any fingers or you used another finger besides the right thumb, you must document this in the additional information column, along with what finger was used or the reason if none were available. Thumbprints are required for deeds of trust, grant deeds and quitclaim deeds.

•Date of Document – The date on the document that is being notarized.
a.The date is usually found on the top portion of the document. If there is no date on the document, you need to write “none” in the date column. This is a required field.

Notary journals come in different formats. All journals must be bound and contain the required information as listed above. The entries in a notary journal run from left to right across the entire journal. A notary journal is usually a landscape format bound book.

1NOTARYSCHOOL.COM is providing you with good practices on filling out your Notary Journal to help you be the best possible Notary Public. These practices will also help you if are ever called into court to testify. By following these suggestions you should be able to rest assure if you are ever called into court, your Notary Public Journal should stand up to the scrutiny of the courts.

The entries that are GOOD PRACTICE per 1NotarySchool.com in your journal of notarial acts are:

•The complete date and time that the notarial act took place.
a.Date and Time – This is the actual day and time the Notary Public appeared before the principal to perform a notarization.

•The type of notarial act that was performed.
a.Type – The notarial act that was performed (i.e. Acknowledgment, jurat, certified copy of a power of attorney, etc).

•The name of the document being notarized.
a.Type of Document – The name or title of the document that is being notarized (i.e.: deed of trust, limited correction agreement, etc). This is a required field.
b.Pages - How many pages did that document consist of?
c.Date of Document – The date on the document that is being notarized.
d.The date is usually found on the top portion of the document. If there is no date on the document, you need to write “none” in the date column.

•Information regarding the supporting identification documentation of the person who’s signature is being notarized.
a.Type Of Identifying Document – What document did you use? An ID card, a passport ect.
b.Government Agency Issuing The Document – What agency and state issued the document?
c.Serial/Identifying Number Of The Document – The unique serial number that identifies the document being used for identification.
d.Other Important Dates - The date of the issue and the date of expiration of the document. The birth date of the principal.

•Name and Address of Signer - This column is completed with the name on the Identification and current address.

•Statement regarding the type of identity (i.e. satisfactory evidence, credible witness, etc).

•Identification of the Signer – The method used for identification (i.e. passport, driver’s license). If the identity of a person making an acknowledgment or taking the oath or affirmation was based on satisfactory evidence, the journal entry must contain the signature of the credible witness swearing or affirming to the identity of the individual.

•Additional Information – Any important additional information you wish to record concerning the notarization that took place. Some additional information items can be a loose certificate used; oath or affirmation given; reason for using a subscribing witness, a person’s signing capacity, if an embosser was used or any fraud deterring methods were used.

•Fee charged for the notary service.
a.NOTE: This is only the per notarization signature fee. No other fees should be calculated into this column (i.e. travel, etc). If you did not charge a fee write down “no fee or $0”.

•Signature Of The Person – This is the signature being notarized of the principal who is appearing before the Notary Public.

•Printed Name – The printed name of the principal signature is which is being notarized. This can be placed below the signed signature.

•Right Thumbprint - A right thumbprint is a requirement of California on all journal entries for a deed of trust, quitclaim deed, grant deed or power of attorney. A trustees deeds relating to a foreclosure or reconveyance deed does not require a right thumbprint.
a. Thumbprint – The right thumb print or left thumbprint is not available, use one of the other fingers. If the principal does not have any fingers or you used another finger besides the right thumb, you must document this in the additional information column, along with what finger was used or the reason if no fingers were available. It is good practice to get a right thumbprint for every document that you notarize.

The following is a sample of the shorts cuts and additional information you can implement in completing your notary journal. These extra steps will enable you to use your journal as a tool if you are ever called into court on a case. You have meet the states minimum requirements they are highlighted in light blue, except for the principal’s signature. Plue you have with the extra infomration added you have protected yourself.

Upside down “T” can be used to bring down information from one entry to the next for the same principal, a diagonal line across all of the places a principal needs to sign in your your notary journal, will enable the principal to sign and print one time vs. many times.

** If you are using abbreviations in your notary journal you need to input them into the front of your journal under additional information so there is no confusion as to what the abbreviations mean.

*Some of the abbreviations you can use are as follows:

Tune back on the 15th of December, 2009 for more helpful information on filling out you notary acknowledgment certificates
Kim
1NotarySchool.com

More on Maintaining Your Notary Journal

2009-09-04T10:23:00.000-07:00

Here are some more recommendations from 1NotarySchool.com on keeping your notary journal accurate so it will stand up in court.

Managing Thumbprints:

When filling out your notary journal, thumbprints are very important. The reason we take thumbprints is to ensure the person signing the document is really who they say they are and is the person appearing before the notary. 1NotarySchool.com states it is a good notary practice to get thumbprints from everyone whom you perform a notarization for. California law (Gov’t code § 8206.) only requires that the notary get thumbprints on notarizations for Deeds, Quitclaim Deeds and Deeds of Trust affecting real property or a Power of Attorney.

Thumbprints are simple to do. There is no need to roll the thumb or even touch the principal’s hand. The principal places their right thumb on the ink pad and then gently places the inked thumb in the required spot in the journal and lifts it straight up.

Presto, nice, clear, thumb print.

The procedure that is followed when the principal is missing the right thumb is to use another digit (finger) and make a note of which digit you used in the journal. If the principal has no digits, you make a note of the principal’s condition in you notary journal.

How do we handle mistakes?

Ok, so mistakes do happen. No matter how conscientious you are about not making mistakes in your notary journal, there will be times a mistake happens and the incorrect information is logged in. Not a big deal, as this is easy to correct. If you are using a paper journal, the best way to correct the error is to draw a line thru the incorrect information and write the correction over it. After you make the correction, you need to initial and date it. When using an electronic journal the corrections are not as easy. You will not be able to go into the program and change the incorrect data, so you will create and add an addendum to the journal entry. In the addendum, you will need to explain the error and record the correct information.

Never use correction tape, film or fluid on journal errors.

We are dealing with real estate transactions and legal documents and using correction products will cause more harm than good. If you end up in court, the authorities will be more than likely to reject the notarization that correction products were used on.

So just use a simple line thru the error. Write in the correct information, initial and date the correction.

So keep it simple. If you make an error, draw one line thru, correct, initial and date it.

Tune back on the 15th of September 2009 for more helpful information on Line Items in your
Notary Public Journal.

Kim

www.1NotarySchool.com

Notary Journal: A Powerful Tool

2009-08-19T18:11:00.000-07:00

Your state may require you as a Notary Public to keep a journal of sequential acts, or it may not. It is a strong recommendation from me as the Senior Notary Adviser for 1NOTARYSCHOOL.COM that every Notary Public keep a journal. This journal will contain details of each notarization.

Your notary journal should not only contain acts you performed a notarization for, but also notarization acts that did not take place. The notary journal service as a check list for the proper performance of notarial acts. To help assure that the requirements for a good notarization are being meet all the blank spaces in your journal should be filled in with information pertaining to that notarization.

Some examples of this are:

type of identification that was presented;
serial number;
issue and expiration date on the identification document.
the type of notarization that was performed.
what kind of document was notarized and how many pages were contained within the document.
Most important is the original signature of the principal (document signer).

The original signature(s) proves beyond the satisfactory evidence, that the principal(s) appeared before the Notary Public. Your journal also has a space for special commits as well as a place for the principal(s) thumbprint.

A Notary Public should also have separate entries for each witness(es) in a credible witness(es) scenario, or an entry for the principal when the principal signs by mark.

Don’t be afraid to use the comment section on each entry. In this section you can note the relationship between the witness(es) and the document or the witness(es) and the principal(s).

The journal should be permanently bound. The reason for this is so pages cannot be permanently removed or pages added. The pages should also be numbered, along with each entry being consecutively numbered. Bond and numbered pages help to reinforce nothing has been tampered with.

Having recorded all of your notarizations and being able to prove each one was correctly performed, can help protect the Notary Public against catastrophic financial damages.

All it takes is just one claim of negligence and a poorly kept journal.

If you are called into court to testify about a document, your correctly kept journal is going to save you.

An example if this would be if an original certificate was removed from a document or was destroyed in some way, the Notary Public has his/her well kept journal to fall back on.

Your Journal helps by:

giving a description of the document that was notarized.
the facts of the notarization.
who presented the document for notarization.
if a loose certificate was used.

This information is instrumental in helping to prevent fraud.

What about if someone has issues with the principal's signature or the signature or the Notary Public?

The journal will contain the information entered by the Notary Public to show that she/he preformed the signing.
The journal will also have the wet ink signature of the document signer along with the information that established beyond doubt that the principal was who they claimed to be.
Most important, it proves the principal appeared before the Notary Public, because of their wet ink signature, which appears in the Notary Journal

So in short, your journal is your Notary Public diary. I can’t remember what I ate for dinner last night, how does someone expect me to remember a notarization I performed five years ago? I can however, rest assure that I have imputed enough information in my notary journal to assist me if I was ever called into court to testify.

So can you?

Tune back on the 1st of September 2009 for more helpful information on maintaining your Notary Public Journal.

Kim

1NotarySchool.com