What's the mileage deduction for gig drivers?

76 cents per business mile for 2026 (IRS standard rate), covering fuel, maintenance, insurance, and depreciation in one figure. You need a contemporaneous mileage log.

Can I deduct miles waiting for rides?

No — waiting time isn't deductible, only miles driven for business (app on, available for work). Waiting does count in your real hourly-rate math, though.

Standard mileage or actual expenses?

Standard rate for most drivers — simpler and usually better at gig mileage volumes. Actual expenses can win for expensive vehicles but needs detailed records.

How much tax does a deduction of $1,000 actually save?

Roughly $141 in self-employment tax (15.3% of 92.35%) plus your marginal income tax rate — about $261 at a 12% bracket, more in higher brackets or states. A deduction is worth a fraction of its face value, never the full amount.

Do I owe tax on gig income if no 1099 arrived?

Yes. The IRS gig economy tax center states that gig income must be reported on a tax return even when no information return was issued and regardless of whether it was paid in cash, property, or virtual currency.

What can I deduct driving for Uber Eats?

Business mileage at 76 cents per mile — 18,000 miles gives $13,680 — plus the business share of your phone, supplies like bags and mounts, a rideshare insurance rider, platform fees already excluded from your 1099, and self-employed health premiums. Log every trip; waiting time is never deductible.

Uber and DoorDash Tax Deductions: 2026 List

By Maya Ellison · Updated September 2026 · Reviewed against IRS and official sources

A gig driver's largest deduction is business mileage — 20,000 business miles a year is a $15,200 deduction at the standard rate before you count a single phone bill — and after that come phone costs, supplies, insurance riders, and self-employed health premiums. Every platform reports your earnings to the tax office on a 1099 form, but none of them tell you which expenses come off the top before you are taxed. That gap is worth thousands a year for a full-time driver. Here is what is deductible, what the arithmetic actually looks like on a real year, and the records that make the deductions survive an examination.

The big one: mileage (76 cents/mile for 2026)

The IRS standard mileage rate for 2026 business driving is 76 cents per mile — a bundled figure covering fuel, maintenance, repairs, tires, insurance, registration, and depreciation. For a driver logging 20,000 business miles a year, that's a $15,200 deduction before anything else. The alternative is the actual-expense method (total vehicle costs × business-use percentage), which can win for expensive vehicles but requires far more record-keeping. Most drivers should take the standard rate.

What counts: miles while the app is on and you're available for work — driving to pickup, the delivery, driving between hotspots. The commute from home to your first zone generally doesn't; the return home generally doesn't. You cannot deduct the same miles twice: standard rate or actual expenses, never both.

Choosing between them is arithmetic, not preference. The standard rate wins when your total vehicle costs divided by your annual miles are lower than the published rate; actual expenses win when you drive modest mileage in an expensive, fuel-hungry, or newly-financed vehicle — because you get to deduct the business share of depreciation, insurance, and repairs rather than a flat figure. Either way you must be able to prove business use, and the IRS travel and car rules in Publication 463 require records that show date, destination, and mileage.

What else gig drivers can deduct

Phone costs — the business-use share of your bill and the device (the phone is the factory floor for gig work).
Supplies: phone mounts, chargers, insulated bags, water/snacks for passengers, cleaning costs.
Roadside assistance and rideshare insurance riders — the portion attributable to business use.
Commissions and fees the platform takes out of your fares are already excluded from your 1099 income, but check the gross vs. net figures on the form.
Health insurance premiums — potentially, via the self-employed health insurance deduction (US-specific; talk to a tax pro about your situation).

What you cannot deduct: personal miles, commuting to your day job, or "time waiting" — waiting is a cost of gig work, but it's not a tax deduction. It is in your real earnings math, which is why our gig earnings calculator counts unpaid hours while computing your true hourly rate. The IRS gig economy tax center makes the same point from the other direction: gig income is reportable whether or not a form arrives, and business expenses are what stand between gross fares and taxable profit.

Deduction schedule: what, why, and what proves it

Deduction	What qualifies	Record that supports it
Business mileage	Miles driven with the app on while available for work — pickups, deliveries, deadhead between zones	A contemporaneous log: date, starting point, destination, purpose, miles
Phone	Business-use share of service plan and device cost	Carrier bill plus a written basis for the percentage you claim
Supplies	Mounts, chargers, cables, insulated delivery bags, cleaning materials, passenger amenities	Receipts, ideally photographed the day of purchase
Insurance and roadside	The business-attributable portion of a rideshare rider or roadside assistance plan	Policy schedule showing the rider's own line item
Platform fees	Service and commission fees — confirm whether they are already excluded from the 1099 amount	Platform year-end summary plus the 1099, compared line by line
Health premiums	Self-employed health insurance premiums, subject to the rules on that deduction	Invoices or marketplace statements, and Form 1095-A if you used a subsidy

Worked example: one driver's year

A full-time driver earns $42,000 in gross platform fares in 2026. She drives 18,000 business miles, spends $540 on the business share of her phone, $270 on supplies, and $780 on a rideshare insurance rider.

Mileage deduction: 18,000 miles × the standard rate shown above = $13,680.
Other deductions: $540 + $270 + $780 = $1,590.
Total deductions: $13,680 + $1,590 = $15,270.
Net profit: $42,000 − $15,270 = $26,730.
Self-employment tax with deductions: $26,730 × 92.35% = $24,685, then × 15.3% = $3,777.
Self-employment tax with none: $42,000 × 92.35% = $38,787, then × 15.3% = $5,934. Saving from the deduction: $5,934 − $3,777 = $2,157.
Income tax saved at a 12% marginal rate: $15,270 × 0.12 = $1,832.
Total tax saved: $2,157 + $1,832 = $3,989, which is 26% of the $15,270 deducted.

Formula: tax saved ≈ deductions × (14.13% + marginal income tax rate) — because self-employment tax costs 15.3% of 92.35% of net profit, which is 14.13% of every dollar of profit, and income tax adds your bracket on top. Add the qualified business income deduction and any state tax and the figure rises further; the point of the calculation is that a deduction is worth a fraction of itself, not its face value.

Practitioner note: In practice, the $3,989 at the end of the worked example is the number that changes behavior: $15,270 of deductions bought back about 26 cents on the dollar, not the full $15,270. Treat every receipt as a 26%-off coupon on that cost — worth collecting, never worth spending extra to "get the deduction." A deduction trims the tax on money you had to spend anyway; it never turns spending into earning.

The records the IRS actually expects

A mileage log: date, miles, purpose. Apps (Everlance, Stride, and the platforms' own tax summaries) do this automatically — screenshots of the platforms' annual summaries are not enough on their own because they miss between-trip miles.
Receipts for everything else — a folder, a scanning app, anything consistent. The IRS expects supporting documents that identify the payee, the amount, the proof of payment, the date, and enough description to show the expense was business rather than personal.
The 1099 forms: 1099-NEC for driving income (over $600), 1099-K in some cases. The platforms send them by January 31; if your numbers disagree with theirs, resolve it before filing — the platform already told the IRS.
Retention: keep records for at least three years from the date you filed the original return, or two years from the date you paid the tax, whichever is later — longer for carryovers and asset records (IRS retention guidance, with the detail in Publication 583).

Deductions and your quarterly payments

Deductions do not only lower the April bill — they lower the four payments you make along the way. Every quarter, recompute net profit after the mileage and expenses you have actually incurred, and pay estimated tax on that smaller number rather than on gross fares. Underpaying on gross revenue while holding valid deductions is how drivers end up lending the government money for a year at zero interest, then getting it back as a refund. Our quarterly taxes guide covers the deadlines and the safe-harbor figures; the set-aside percentage in our tax set-aside guide should be applied to net profit, not gross.

Where this goes wrong:

You log only app miles. Platform summaries miss repositioning driving between trips — the miles only your own log captures.
You deduct the commute. The first trip from home to your zone and the ride back are personal, unless a qualifying home office makes home your business base.
You claim the rate and the repairs on the same miles. One method per vehicle per year — the 76-cent rate already bundles fuel, maintenance, and depreciation.
You skip quarterly vouchers because deductions "cover it." The $3,989 shrinks the April bill, but penalties still accrue per missed deadline on whatever remains.

How deductions change your real earnings

Deductions reduce taxable income, not take-home: a $15,200 mileage deduction at a 22% bracket with SE tax saves roughly $4,300–5,500 in tax — real money, but far less than $15,200. Drivers who conflate the two overestimate their earnings, which is exactly the pattern our gig earnings data guide documents: the truth is net, not gross, and the deduction is a partial rebate, not income. The other half of the same discipline is subtracting the waiting time, the unpaid miles, and the depreciation you are absorbing between trips — all of which live in the earnings calculation, not the tax return.