Uber and Lyft Driver Taxes: 1099s, Mileage, and Schedule C

The moment you accept your first ride, the IRS sees you as running a small business. Uber and Lyft are not your employer. In tax terms they are closer to your customer. That means no W-2, no tax withheld from each payout, and no employer paying half of your Social Security and Medicare for you.

The upside is that a business gets to deduct its costs. The catch is that you are responsible for the whole tax bill yourself, and for sending it in on time. Once you think of your driving as a business, the rest of this page is just the details.

At tax time the apps send you tax forms based on how you earned:

• 1099-K reports the money riders paid you through the platform. For the 2025 tax year the platforms are only required to send one if you took in more than $20,000 and had more than 200 rides. Many part-time drivers fall under that and never get a 1099-K.
• 1099-NEC reports other payments from the platform, like promotions, bonuses, and referral pay. For the 2025 tax year the trigger is $600 or more. For 2026 that threshold rises to $2,000, so smaller bonus and referral totals stop generating a form. The income is reportable either way.

Here is the rule that matters more than either form: all of your driving income is taxable whether or not a form shows up. Not getting a 1099-K does not mean the income is tax-free. It just means the paperwork did not land in your inbox. Keep your own record of what you earned so you are never guessing.

For most drivers, miles are the largest deduction by far, and there are two ways to claim your car costs. You pick one.

• The standard mileage rate. You track your business miles and multiply by the IRS rate. For 2026 that rate is 72.5 cents a mile for the first half of the year and 76 cents a mile from July on. That single rate already covers gas, wear, maintenance, and depreciation, so you do not add those separately.
• Actual expenses. You add up the real business share of your gas, insurance, repairs, maintenance, registration, and depreciation, and deduct that instead.

Most rideshare drivers come out ahead with the standard mileage rate because they drive a lot of miles in an ordinary car. Whichever method you use, the deduction only works if you kept records, so log your miles and your car costs as you go, not from memory in April. There is more on choosing a tracker in do rideshare drivers need a mileage tracker.

Everything above ends up on one page of paperwork: Schedule C, "Profit or Loss From Business." It is the form that turns your driving into a business on your tax return, and it gets filed with your regular 1040. If you drive for Uber or Lyft, this is your form. There is no separate rideshare return.

Four lines carry most of the work:

• Line 1, gross receipts. Everything the business took in, across every platform you drove for, plus anything a private client paid you. This is the gross fare, not what landed in your bank account after the app took its cut.
• Line 9, car and truck expenses. Your mileage deduction goes here if you use the standard rate.
• Line 28, total expenses. Every business expense added up, Line 9 included. This is the whole deduction column, not the leftovers.
• Line 31, net profit. Line 1 minus Line 28. This is the number that matters, because your self-employment tax and your quarterly estimates are both figured from it.

That is the whole shape of it. Keep the first three numbers current through the year and the fourth one calculates itself. Reconstruct them in April and you are guessing. There is a fuller walkthrough of keeping those numbers in Schedule C for Uber and Lyft drivers.

Because nothing is withheld, the IRS wants self-employed people to pay as they earn, in four estimated payments across the year. The deadlines land around April 15, June 15, September 15, and the following January 15. If you expect to owe $1,000 or more for the year, skipping these can add a penalty on top of the tax.

The simple habit that keeps this painless: set aside a slice of every payout the week you earn it, before it feels like spending money. A common starting point is 25 to 30 percent, put in a separate account you do not touch. Your real rate depends on your other income and your deductions, so treat that as a floor to adjust, not a promise.

Self-employment tax is the part that surprises new drivers. On a regular job your employer quietly pays half of your Social Security and Medicare. When you are self-employed, you pay both halves. That is a 15.3 percent rate, made of 12.4 percent for Social Security and 2.9 percent for Medicare. It is figured on 92.35 percent of your net profit rather than the whole of it, so the rate you actually feel is closer to 14.1 percent of what is left after your deductions.

This is on top of ordinary income tax, and it is exactly why the mileage deduction matters so much. Every mile you correctly deduct lowers the profit that both taxes are figured on.

There is a whole field of tools built to get you ready to file. Stride, Everlance, and MileIQ track your miles. QuickBooks Solopreneur and Hurdlr track income and expenses and sort them toward a Schedule C. They are good at that job, and if you use one, keep using it.

SOLODRIVE.PRO works alongside those tools. It is your own booking page, so riders can book you directly instead of only through the apps. Because your direct earnings run through it, you can track those earnings and stay tax-ready in the same place, and you can log the earnings from your other platforms yourself so your numbers live together rather than scattered across screenshots. On the Pro plan, that becomes a Schedule C ready breakdown. You can also log your maintenance and upkeep costs, which is exactly the kind of record the actual-expense method depends on.

The bigger point is what a direct booking gives you that a tracker cannot. A tracker shows you the gross the apps paid. Your own riders are the part you keep, on your terms, and they come back. More on that number in gross vs net for rideshare drivers. SOLODRIVE.PRO works alongside the apps you already drive, and it starts free, for a fraction of what the apps take.

Do Uber and Lyft take taxes out of my pay?

No. Uber and Lyft do not withhold taxes from your payouts. The IRS treats you as self-employed, so setting money aside and paying the tax yourself is on you. Most drivers save a slice of every payout and pay the IRS in quarterly estimated payments.

What tax forms do I get as a rideshare driver?

You may get a 1099-K for the fares riders paid through the platform and a 1099-NEC for things like bonuses and referral pay. For the 2025 tax year, a 1099-K is only required if you earned more than $20,000 across more than 200 rides, so many drivers never receive one. All of your driving income is still taxable even if no form arrives.

What is Schedule C and do Uber and Lyft drivers have to file one?

Schedule C is the form where your driving gets reported as a business, and it is filed with your regular 1040. If you drove for Uber or Lyft, you file one. Your gross fares go on Line 1, your mileage deduction on Line 9, your other expenses on Line 28, and what is left is your net profit on Line 31. That net profit is what your self-employment tax and your quarterly estimates are figured from.

Can I deduct my mileage as an Uber or Lyft driver?

Yes, and it is usually your biggest deduction. You either use the IRS standard mileage rate on your business miles or deduct your actual car expenses. You cannot use both for the same car in the same year. Either way you need a record of the miles or the costs, so track them as you drive.

What is self-employment tax and why do I owe it?

Self-employment tax covers Social Security and Medicare for people who work for themselves. It is 15.3 percent, because you pay both the employee and the employer halves that a regular job would split. It is charged on 92.35 percent of your net profit, not all of it, which works out to about 14.1 percent of your profit. It is separate from, and on top of, your regular income tax.

When do I have to pay taxes if I drive part time?

If you expect to owe $1,000 or more for the year, the IRS wants estimated payments four times a year, roughly in April, June, September, and January. Part-time drivers who owe less than that can often settle up once when they file, but setting money aside each week is the safe habit regardless.

Does SOLODRIVE.PRO do my taxes?

Your tax pro files your taxes. SOLODRIVE.PRO is your own booking page for taking riders directly, and it lets you track your earnings and stay tax-ready in one place, log your other-platform earnings and your car upkeep, and on the Pro plan see a Schedule C ready breakdown. It works alongside the apps and tools you already use.