An unsworn declaration under penalty of perjury is a signed written statement that federal law treats as the equivalent of a notarized affidavit. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1746, you can skip the notary entirely: write out your statement, add a short certification that what you have written is true under penalty of perjury, date it, and sign it. The document then carries the same “like force and effect” as a sworn affidavit in almost any federal matter.
The Exact Language to Use
Section 1746 gives you a template, and your declaration should follow it closely. There are two versions, and which one you use depends on where you are physically standing when you sign.
If You Sign Inside the United States
For a declaration executed anywhere in the United States, its territories, possessions, or commonwealths, the statutory form is:
“I declare (or certify, verify, or state) under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on (date). (Signature).”
If You Sign Outside the United States
For a declaration executed anywhere else, add one phrase that ties the certification to American law:
“I declare (or certify, verify, or state) under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on (date). (Signature).”
The addition of “under the laws of the United States of America” removes any doubt about which country’s perjury laws you are subject to. Without it, a declaration signed abroad is vulnerable to a challenge that the signer never accepted U.S. penalties in the first place.
Three Elements That Cannot Be Left Out
Whichever version applies, three things are non-negotiable: the penalty-of-perjury certification, the date of execution, and your signature. Congress used the word “substantially,” meaning minor variations in phrasing are generally acceptable as long as the core meaning is preserved. Courts have rejected declarations that omit the perjury language entirely or leave off the date, so the safe move is to copy the template and fill in the blanks.
Place the certification and signature at the end of the document, below all your factual statements. That layout ensures the perjury language clearly covers everything above it.
Where You Can Use a Declaration, and Where You Cannot
The statute’s reach is broad. Whenever a federal law, regulation, or rule calls for a sworn written statement, you can substitute a § 1746 declaration. That covers affidavits, verifications, certificates, and sworn statements across federal court filings, agency applications, regulatory submissions, and administrative proceedings.
Three situations sit outside the statute:
- Depositions. Deposition testimony must still be given under oath before an authorized officer, typically a court reporter.
- Oaths of office. A person taking a federal oath of office cannot substitute a written declaration.
- Oaths before a specified official. When a law requires you to swear before a particular official other than a notary public, a written declaration will not satisfy that requirement.
There is one more boundary worth naming. Section 1746 is federal. It does not force a state court to accept your declaration. Many states have their own unsworn-declaration statutes with their own required wording, and roughly two dozen states, including California, Texas, Florida, New York, and Illinois, allow penalty-of-perjury declarations in state proceedings. If you are filing in state court, check that state’s rules; the federal template alone will not carry you.
Common Federal Uses
Federal Court Litigation
Declarations under § 1746 are used constantly in federal court because they avoid getting witnesses in front of a notary at every procedural turn. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56 expressly allows unsworn declarations in place of affidavits when supporting or opposing summary judgment, but the declaration must be based on personal knowledge, set out facts that would be admissible at trial, and show the signer is competent to testify. A declaration built on hearsay or legal conclusions will get struck no matter how clean the perjury language is.
Section 1746 declarations also work to authenticate business records under Federal Rule of Evidence 902(11). A qualified person certifies that the record was kept in the ordinary course of business, and with reasonable notice to the other side, the record comes in as self-authenticating.
Tax Returns and Agency Filings
The IRS runs on penalty-of-perjury declarations. Under 26 U.S.C. § 6065, every return, declaration, and statement filed under the internal revenue laws must be verified by a written declaration made under penalties of perjury. That is what the jurat line at the bottom of a Form 1040 is doing. A false return carries the same perjury exposure as a lie in a court filing.
Other federal agencies accept declarations too. Filings with the Social Security Administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Patent and Trademark Office frequently use penalty-of-perjury statements instead of notarized submissions. Any federal rule or regulation that calls for a sworn written statement is fair game.
Electronic Signing
Section 1746 was written before electronic filing was standard, and its “in writing” and “subscribed” language predates the shift. The federal E-SIGN Act at 15 U.S.C. § 7001 closes the gap: a signature or record cannot be denied legal effect solely because it is electronic, and that principle applies to documents required to be verified or made under oath. In practice, when an attorney files a declaration through CM/ECF, the login credentials plus a “/s/” typed signature block generally count as a valid signature, and many courts require the filer to keep the wet-ink original for a set period. Non-attorney filers should check the local rules of the specific court, because requirements vary.
What Happens If You Lie
A false declaration under § 1746 is perjury. Two federal criminal statutes can apply.
Under 18 U.S.C. § 1621, the general perjury statute, willfully declaring something material that you do not believe to be true carries a fine, up to five years in federal prison, or both. The government has to prove you knew the statement was false when you signed. An honest mistake is not perjury, but “I didn’t read it carefully” is a poor defense with your signature sitting directly below a perjury warning.
Under 18 U.S.C. § 1623, false declarations made in a court or grand jury proceeding carry the same five-year maximum. This statute includes a limited recantation defense: admitting the falsehood during the same continuous proceeding, before the lie has substantially affected the case and before it is about to be exposed anyway, bars prosecution under this section.
Civil consequences run in parallel. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 requires factual contentions in filings, including declarations, to have evidentiary support, and a court finding a violation can order non-monetary directives, a penalty paid to the court, or reimbursement of the opposing side’s attorney’s fees. A court can also strike a defective or dishonest declaration. In summary judgment practice, losing your declaration often means losing the motion, and that practical hit can be worse than any fine.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
The mistakes that trip people up are the avoidable ones:
- Using the domestic form when signing abroad, or the international form when signing at home. The only difference is one phrase; use the one that fits your location.
- Leaving off the date. The date establishes when you certified the facts as true, and an undated declaration invites a challenge.
- Skipping the perjury language or paraphrasing it too loosely. “Substantially” gives you some room, but there is no upside to freelancing.
- Putting the signature above the factual statements instead of below the certification. The perjury language needs to sit over the facts it covers.
- Filling the declaration with hearsay or legal conclusions in litigation, where personal knowledge is required.
The tradeoff for skipping the notary is that you carry sole responsibility for the document’s accuracy. No third party verifies your identity or witnesses your signature, so any dispute about authenticity is yours to resolve. Copy the statutory form, fill in the blanks carefully, and the declaration does the same job as an affidavit at a fraction of the effort.