Tax tips for Uber, Lyft, Juno and other car sharing drivers

You're the boss AND the employee

Tax deductions for your car

• Deduct the actual expenses of operating the vehicle for business, including gas, oil, repairs, insurance, maintenance and depreciation or lease payments.
• Take the standard IRS mileage deduction. As of 2019, the rate is 58 cents per mile driven for business use.

• Receipts
• Mileage logs
• Any other documentation

Other tax deductions for ride-share drivers

• Water, gum or snacks for passengers
• Tolls and parking fees

• The portion of your mobile phone expenses attributable to your ride-share work can be used to reduce your self-employment income.
• For simplicity's sake, it may make sense to have a dedicated phone for work.

Making sense of your 1099 forms

• Payments for processing you customers' payments are reported on Form 1099-K. The amount shown in Box 1a of this form is all the money that the ride-share operator collected from customers for rides that you provided.
  • This likely will be more than you actually received in payment, since it includes the ride-share company's commissions and other expenses. Your ride-share operator will provide you a tax summary you can use to translate the 1099-K information into some of the income and expenses to report on Schedule C.
• Payments for other activities, such as referrals or non-driving-related bonuses, are reported on Form 1099-MISC. This money is income to report on Schedule C.

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