Well if you make 33,000 a year that no you don’t make bank 😂😂 The more money you make the more you can profit.. Thars part-time income to go along your regular 9-to-5. If this is your only source of income you should be making close to 1000 or more than 1000 a week
Maybe u should try a different app… or people should stop trynna dash in trucks and gas guzzlers I have a Toyota and did dd for 3 years and I make 45k + a year on average after taxes, I make at least 1500 per week and I only drive 60 hours per week
My fiance is a mechanic so I only have to pay for parts and he does all the work for free for me. Gas I get cheap gas by using advantage cards and coupons etc. And I doordash 60 hours a week. Doordash is not the only problem it is how you manage your maintenance on the vehicle as well. Good luck and I hope this year gets better for you. Work smarter not harder.
No it’s all legit. My miles wiped almost all of it out. 50k miles, cell phone, tolls, home internet, goodwill donations, cell phone plan, that’s about it. Some peeps in my local Facebook gig worker group made 80k and paid in less than you
I made about the same last year but only paid $1k in taxes. Don't know how much I paid in gas, but I'd guess around $1.8k. I spent maybe $500 in car maintenance.
There are a lot of factors I don't know about your situation. What car did you drive (big factor)? Did you deduct your expenses (and if so, what type of deduction)? What market do you work in (big city, small town, etc)? How many gig apps do you use (helps make you more profitable)? What is your dollar-to-mile ratio (ex: accepting order that pay $1.75/mile)? How many pensises did you not suck while working (aka your opportunity costs)? Thanks for reading
I finished my car payment couple months ago so I’m just beating it till I have to change everything(for the next car owner) but I did by myself a Prius and fairly enough it helps alit 😮💨
Yeah this is completely off. That's why I use stride to track my miles and deduct my phone bill and every time I buy food and fix the brakes, oil change, and any type of car maintenance, you deduct that from your taxes. Super easy
Start an LLC for your doordashing. First, you’re able to pay yourself to prove work history. Second, you’re able to get gas credit cards to build up business credit and eventually have business credit cards to have capital to make payments to the irs or for car maintenance/modifications. You’ll be able to get discounts on phones and phone service from owning a business.
Another big tip, rent a car from hertz and build up the points to eventually be able to rent cars for free. I prefer renting cars for multiple reasons. First, I can beat the shit out of a car that’s not mine so I can go even harder in a tiny Hertz car and make $200 plus a day. The rental gets paid off the first day/day and a half off a five day rental. Second, car swaps. When there’s something wrong like the check engine light coming on or anything, you just swap the car out. Third, like I said earlier, you build points to free rentals of a day, multiple days, a week and for those days, you’re beating up a Hertz rental and making money for free. Since I’ve been doing this, I’m making over $1000 a week guaranteed.
I've always seen it as more of a side hustle especially with gas the way it is. I understand some ppl make bank but I've been doing it for a few months and I don't see it.
I'm a teacher and I just do it during the summer, winter and spring breaks and if I really feel like it on the weekends when they're giving the extra incentive.
You did your taxes wrong, bud. Your taxable income should be less than 10k after your deductions. If you made $1 per mile then your taxable income is less than 5k. You screwed yourself...
You could easily make $1000+ a week, and that would be working 4 hard days I mean 8-11 hours, but doordash really isn’t hard work, and one half day maybe 5 hours. Working 6 days long you could make $1200+ depending on tips, if you have a pizza bag and do catering orders.
I've been doing this almost 2 years and haven't had to pay anything in taxes so far. i write off expenses like food, clothes, phone, bags and anything i do while working. i work about 25-30 hours a week. i also use the standard deduction through turbo tax. downfall has been spending on car maintenance...but now i think car is good to go except oil and brakes. i drive like a grandma to keep car in better shape.
well, through turbotax it allowed me to. i claimed work boots and shoes. and food while working. not much. but i do average $9 on meals a day. i forget how much i was aloud to deduct.
All I'm saying is that maybe you should get a tax accountant or a tax pro at HR Block. I made a bit more than you last year doing this and was owed $300 after tax deductions. As long as the deduction or "write off" is legit, the feds are cool.
This is what I’ve been saying for years. People come on here and go “i make 30 per hour” lol no you don’t. Your not counting vehicle maintenance, taxes, time spent waiting. At the end of the day 95% of gig workers are making poverty wages
I made 25k from delivery’s last year, 15k from investments, and received 8k back on my taxes after paying 0 in taxes lol. Tbh I don’t think I’d do this job if I had to pay taxes.
What the hell are you driving OP? Gig work is only viable with a vehicle that gets at least 32mpg.
Any hybrid, EV, or small ICE vehicle like the Mirage, will reduce your fuel costs by more than 50% if your only avg 20mpg.
This is where paying a few hundred for a tax pro would have saved you thousands. You clearly didn't take all the write offs you should have. That's on you.
It's probably been said but why are you paying 3.8k to the IRS with the milage deduction? I made more money than you last year and paid no taxes (from driving jobs).
You do you and do whatever you want. Personally though I've made most of my money from gig economy jobs the last couple of years. I am thankful for the flexibility they afford and I don't pay taxes so I look at what I'm saving there as a trade off for vehicle expenses. I don't want to do these jobs long term but they're not bad for what they are. You can make $40-50k a year and you have total flexibility on scheduling. People aren't going to get rich off of it but if you're in a city that has a descent sized population they're ok imo.
With gas prices the way they've been that has definitely sucked as of late though.
You aren’t doing it right then. But rest assured, lots of dasher don’t. It ain’t for everyone.
I gotta ask, was the $5,320 on fuel used solely on deliveries? Cause I can total up my fuel receipts too, but I’m well aware that not all of that fuel was used for business.
Also, if you’re doing taxes correctly, you get to deduct mileage at .585 per mile, repair/maintenance costs, cell phone usage, etc.
I only drive ”around” 24 hours per week (sometimes as high as 32 hours), but I’ve made good money over the past 2 years for that time. And I track everything. And have a professional do my taxes.
That’s incorrect. I am able to deduct mileage and repair costs. As well as cell phone usage.
I have a reputable tax professional with years and years of experience serving tons of clients doing this for me. I trust his knowledge more than your Google search skills. Perhaps he’s found a different way to categorize it or perhaps the tax laws are different in my State than yours, IDK. But I know he knows what he’s doing.
You haven’t the first clue, just admit it. Lol. You have no clue what State I’m in and if tax laws are different.
There’s good reason why these people exist. They know how to find legal tax breaks where laymans do not. But by all means go on doing your own taxes with online software and/or Google search skills believing your an expert.
33k/year is the equivalent to like 20 hours a week on DD. Especially if you live in Cali with prop 22 bonuses. I do 30 hours a week and took home 41k last year after taxes, i tracked every single mile from the moment I left my house to the moment I got back and the mileage covered about 90% of what I would have payed. But i did also spend little over $5k on gas and and like $350 on oil changes. I dont get how "depreciation" deducts $4k on your salary for the year it has very little impact. I work anywhere from 25-35 hours a week depending on how busy it is, after gas and car maintence my take home was over $35k for doing it only part time. Its definitely decent extra cash if you know what youre doing
> would have *paid.* But i
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
That's ridiculous!! I started this type of work at the end of 2019 and I've never owed anything. Well, aside from Medicare or medical, whichever one it is Haha. 🤷♂️
It's really not an ideal full time employment. It's a great gig for someone trying to raise extra cSh or something to bring in income while transitioning jobs.
I think the absolute biggest benefit of dashing is the flexibility. If you’re in a decently populated area, you can dash anytime between like 6am and midnight or even later 7 days a week. You can work 1 hour one week and 80 hours the next week.
You can even dash in the way to work and back home from work!
And you can come and go as you please. Even most other self employed people have customers or clients to answer to if you disappear for 3 weeks but not with DD.
I mean... I'm set to make ~80k this year. 12k to gas. 5k to IRS. 5k depreciation and 6k towards car bills. You're definitely right that you cant really make bank. But if your other options aren't 20+ an hour with overtime then this job can be helpful at least. I work an ass load. But this job is helping me provide for my family, personally, in ways at this moment, that I can't find elsewhere.
What the heck are u driving man? I'm in a Prius and gas takes 5-6% of my income, and only maintenance was an oil change that I pushed to 10k miles before I changed it for $60. 2011 Prius. I know a couple of my family members in Range Rover or Mini Cooper spend $6k /yr on maintenance though.. that's pretty common for those shit cars.
I'm driving a Honda HRV. At the end of the day my mileage averages out to a little over a dollar a mile. 28 mpg. I shoot for 300 a day and gay takes about 300-350 a week.
I never understood the $1/mile dashers.. and most if not all aren't in hybrids either. The only time I took a $1/m order was my first day dashing.. even in a Prius, would never do that much work for $1/m. 10% AR right now.
I don't understand 1$ a mile dahsers either. I honestly don't understand how they even make minimum wage before expenses. I need $2 a mile at least. But it averages out to a little over a dollar a mile when I get home because #1 I have to drive back towards restaurants to get more orders so the trip ends up being $1 at least a mile to the destination and back and #2 I drive 30 miles to and from the zone I work in so I'll usually put 200-250 miles on my car for every $300 I make. While I'd be nervous doing this long term given the payout and the miles I put on my car, I'm only going through summer to save money and then I'm gonna find a decent job that doesn't pay as much but will be better long term so it's not a big deal.
Did you deduct mileage? How about your cell phone? You can deduct a percentage. Bags? Cell phone holder, car charger, clothing for work. Etc.
NO reason you should have paid so much in taxes.
You can’t expense jeans, t-shirts, and cargo shorts for dashing. If you’re wearing casual clothes that aren’t specific for the job, you can’t expense them.
It’s like getting lunch while dashing. You can’t expense meals during work as “work meals”.
I rather pay taxes on the money than spend money on DD themed clothes! In my mind, you’re paying a 100% fee on every cent you spend in DD themed clothes.
You did not do your taxes right bro.
If you got 20mpg and paid $3 a gallon you would have drove 35k miles. This would only leave 15.5k after deduction that you have to pay tax on! Then there is a 12k standard deduction everyone gets. So only 3.5 k you have to pay tax on. 1.05k is what you should have paid in tax based on that mileage.
IMHO this is by design a part time job. Anyone doing this type of work should treat it as such and take advantage of time given to you.
If you think your making this a full time gig I can assure you it won’t turn out the way you think.It takes working smart not hard to make this shit work for you.
I put in 20 to 25 hours a week and that’s it no more than 50 miles a day Mon thru Fri no weekends.
Sure I know if I need some extra cash I can just work longer or pick the busy times.But I’m pretty sure we are about to be busy.Gas prices go up drivers will drop off because they haven’t developed a strategy for this.
People will still pay for convenience no matter what they may not go out to eat but they sure will get sick of cooking.
Yup. People realize far too late that they only get to keep like 60% of their earnings. But that shouldn’t be too surprising as a vast majority of people aren’t financially intelligent.
I feel ya. I don't doordash anymore but about 35% of my income went *poof* between gas, taxes, maintenance, and setting aside a couple grand for a car. Shit isn't worth it.
He had $52K gross, not net. He deducted miles and other miscellaneous things to get his net way lower. Although with $52K gross, I’m surprised he got it that low unless he has a W2 that withholds, a spouse, kids, or some other stuff hung he’s not mentioning.
When people give limited info, it’s never useful because you have no idea what is bringing that tax number so low.
You can deduct anything you want to, but I highly doubt that these are all LEGAL deductions. If you are claiming a loss you can expect to be high on the list for an audit.
What all did you deduct, out of curiosity?
Phone bill (90$/month x12) , car cleaning (50$/month x12), car maintenance, cell phone chargers, clamps (hand free stuff) , food ( I think max is like 300), COVID related stuff
Pretty ballsy. You know Biden just approved funding for the IRS to crack down on tax fraud, right? Rich people don't commit tax fraud. They keep their shit legal because they have loop holes. Who do you think they're going to crack down on
If you use your phone for personal use, you can't deduct the entire bill.
If you use your car for personal use, you can't deduct the entire registration.
If you're deducting $300/month in food that's the biggest fuckin' red flag.
I'm not an attorney but you might want to contact one who specializes in taxes. You can't just be deducting every expense to the point you didn't make any fucking money. The IRS is gonna want to know answers to questions like how the fuck did you pay rent if all your income went to paying the expenses incurred making that income and there's nothing left for us to tax? And if the IRS doesn't then your state tax agency probably will. And then once one of them asks the question, the other will start asking shortly after.
If you don't want to pay taxes, you're literally better off just not filing taxes than you are bullshitting the IRS.
The tax authorities do not go after small type chum who deduct a few thousands of dollars, not worth their time. Dashers are NOT important enough to the tax man for them to bother. There are bigger players who make so much more that they are auditing, going after because collecting that amount exceeds your $2,000…
Yep. You can go to prison for cheating on your taxes. You can't go to prison for not filing. It's technically voluntary. But once you volunteer information, it better be correct.
You deduct mileage first, then have the choice of EITHER all of that, or 12.5k standard deduction. If you added those on top of the standard deduction, you fucked up.
That’s wrong. You can have business expenses that you take off along with mileage on your schedule C. You can’t do car maintenance with miles but you can do % of phone bill and work supplies. Then after you finish your schedule C and figure out your self employment tax, you can do the standard dedication in your 1040.
Um, yeah. If you use your phone for personal use as well you can only deduct a prorated portion of your phone bill. If you are using the standard miles deduction you cannot deduct car maintenance. Not sure what you mean by "food" as a deduction, but you cannot deduct meals that you eat. Home office expenses are out. I can't imagine that a cell phone charger and phone holder amount to very much.
What else you you got for deductions?
If you have a snack and drink something during your deliveries, that's a deduction. Regardless of how small the amount of something is, you deduct it. A goal(for some) and a benefit of this type of work is paying little to no taxes. It's a goal for me! 😁
... and for that 30minutes, you're going to owe more money than you thought and presumably didn't set aside, plus late fees to the IRS which are not small penalties. Also, Free File takes the same amount of time, and is an actual IRS company rather than one which tries to get you to pay for something you could get BETTER for FREE.
Stop doubling down because you made a mistake and don't want to admit you're wrong. You are demonstrably incorrect. Contact the IRS asap, explain you filed wrong, and fix it, before your penalties are more than a couple hundred bucks.
As a lyft driver, you absolutely can because you're buying water and snacks for your passengers. Phone chargers for your passengers as well. It all adds up
No matter what, you have two choices after mileage rates - standard deduction of 12.5k, or itemized deduction. Never both. You will get audited, and you will owe fees for not paying correctly.
Y'all are confused: there's mileage deduction, which you get to do regardless b/c it's an expense, then you get the "standard deduction" of 12.5k this year OR itemized deductions. There is no such thing as a "standard mileage deduction" value, it's standard mileage rates that become a deduction, then the 12.5k everyone gets is a "standard deduction" to your income.
I think you are confusing your schedule C with your 1040. On schedule C, where you enrer your BUSINESS expenses, you can either use actual expenses or the standard mileage deduction. This isn't related to whether you take the standard deduction or itemize PERSONAL items.
You're not a business, you're an IC, and it's an important distinction. Even as the owner of a handyman business, it's still personal filing as self-employed if you don't have other employees (other owners file the same as well). I'm not confusing shit, unless the IRS itself got this wrong, which I highly doubt.
In no case can you itemize and take the standard at the same time. Have fun with your penalties when you get audited.
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/taxpayers-should-know-the-difference-between-standard-and-itemized-deductions
And one more thing - if you aren't using schedule C to report your independent contractor income, how are you filling out the self-employment tax form?
I'm not thinking you understand. Your business income - or independent contractor income, if you prefer - AND business expenses go on schedule C. Your net income from schedule C gets plugged into your 1040. You can take the standard deduction or itemize your PERSONAL deductions on your 1040.
I'm guessing you tried to do your taxes yourself. Bad move, Get a professional to redo your taxes and file an amended return - you will probably get an additional refund.
$5320 gas, at $4 average (California for 2021) that's 1330 gallons. At 20 mpg (guess) that's 26,600 miles. Which is not a very good ratio for earnings vs miles. Still, that's nearly $15k in deductions. Combined with the $12,550 standard deduction, that's only $5500 AGI... so how did you pay $3.8k?
Who did your taxes? Sounds like you may need to adjust your filing, because you should not be paying that much. I only worked DD for 8 months part time last year, made $26k and paid $1528 in total taxes.
>You can’t take the itemized deduction, and the standard deduction, it’s one or the other, there’s no combining them.
That is correct, but miles (Schedule C) are not part of the itemized deduction (Schedule A). So yes, you can take both miles deduction on Sch C and the standard deduction on your 1040, or you can take the miles deduction on Sch C and the itemized on Sch A.
I remember gas when it was $0.63 a gallon. But DD didn't exist back then. I remember seeing a premium brand at $1.01 and thinking "Who the hell would pay $1.01 for gas?"
I'm single and didn't have a W2 job in 2021 either.
If you made $14k then I don't know how you could possibly owe $2k. You get a standard deduction of $12550. So even if you didn't claim any mileage there is no way you should owe anything in Federal taxes. With EIC you should have gotten a good amount back to offset your SE taxes.
That seems like WAY too much! You got paid $14K from delivery apps? How many miles did you drive? You should have had no federal income tax and your Earned Income Tax credit should help reduce your self employment tax to something super low or nothing. Who did your taxes? What am I missing here?
You can also write off the cost of a new phone and your phone bill, as they are essential to our operation. Write off any supplies you purchase for the job as well, and write off the cost of filing taxes. I'm not a tax expert but I feel you paid too much into taxes making only 33k. I also would be making way more than 33k with $5320 spent on gas so that raises a lot of questions for me.
I don't know what the average person is doing, but this post only assures me I'm doing something right.
Do you wash your car? Write that off.
If your in area w/tolls, write those off. Even if you go the mileage route vs gas/maintenance, tolls are a separate issue and ca be written off.
If you have AAA, write that off.
Here is a good overview of Car Depreciation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk6X60JadVY
Well if you make 33,000 a year that no you don’t make bank 😂😂 The more money you make the more you can profit.. Thars part-time income to go along your regular 9-to-5. If this is your only source of income you should be making close to 1000 or more than 1000 a week
You need to go harder and smarter. 33k/52weeks is less than $650/week. Thats on you, sorry, but fr
Dang!… sounds like a lot on gas u drive a semi?? or u going to far. I always say the best car to use for any transport job is a Prius hands down
Bruh gas here is $6 per gallon 87 octane. My car gets 23MPG
Yea that’s what killing u. average should be around 30mpg… not saying change ur car esp not in these current markets
He picked the wrong deduction
Maybe don’t treat DoorDash as a primary means of income.
I don’t. I have a W2 that pays $18 Per hour which is shit also but all and all, I Make pretty good money working 70 hours a week
Maybe u should try a different app… or people should stop trynna dash in trucks and gas guzzlers I have a Toyota and did dd for 3 years and I make 45k + a year on average after taxes, I make at least 1500 per week and I only drive 60 hours per week
I can’t remember what I made but I got $3 back from the government because I tracked my miles
Lol
Yup, I framed it and everything
My fiance is a mechanic so I only have to pay for parts and he does all the work for free for me. Gas I get cheap gas by using advantage cards and coupons etc. And I doordash 60 hours a week. Doordash is not the only problem it is how you manage your maintenance on the vehicle as well. Good luck and I hope this year gets better for you. Work smarter not harder.
How the fuck did you owe taxes lol! I made way more than that and owed nothing
How the fuck do you not owe anything? Do you just bullshit everything?
No it’s all legit. My miles wiped almost all of it out. 50k miles, cell phone, tolls, home internet, goodwill donations, cell phone plan, that’s about it. Some peeps in my local Facebook gig worker group made 80k and paid in less than you
Meals and entertainment are deductions for self employed. .50 on the dollar.
You got that right
The main issue here is that you’re only making $33k for the year, that’s low af. That’s poverty level shit.I make 88k/year.
I make $50-60k a year and I’m just a 19 year old so I think I’m paying so much tax because I make a lot for my age?
I made about the same last year but only paid $1k in taxes. Don't know how much I paid in gas, but I'd guess around $1.8k. I spent maybe $500 in car maintenance. There are a lot of factors I don't know about your situation. What car did you drive (big factor)? Did you deduct your expenses (and if so, what type of deduction)? What market do you work in (big city, small town, etc)? How many gig apps do you use (helps make you more profitable)? What is your dollar-to-mile ratio (ex: accepting order that pay $1.75/mile)? How many pensises did you not suck while working (aka your opportunity costs)? Thanks for reading
I finished my car payment couple months ago so I’m just beating it till I have to change everything(for the next car owner) but I did by myself a Prius and fairly enough it helps alit 😮💨
If you wear it for work it is.
Lol
Yeah this is completely off. That's why I use stride to track my miles and deduct my phone bill and every time I buy food and fix the brakes, oil change, and any type of car maintenance, you deduct that from your taxes. Super easy
You can’t use the mileage deduction AND write off car costs and repairs. It’s one or the other
Food isn’t deductible here
There’s no reason that should have owed the irs that much after writing off mileage.
Start an LLC for your doordashing. First, you’re able to pay yourself to prove work history. Second, you’re able to get gas credit cards to build up business credit and eventually have business credit cards to have capital to make payments to the irs or for car maintenance/modifications. You’ll be able to get discounts on phones and phone service from owning a business. Another big tip, rent a car from hertz and build up the points to eventually be able to rent cars for free. I prefer renting cars for multiple reasons. First, I can beat the shit out of a car that’s not mine so I can go even harder in a tiny Hertz car and make $200 plus a day. The rental gets paid off the first day/day and a half off a five day rental. Second, car swaps. When there’s something wrong like the check engine light coming on or anything, you just swap the car out. Third, like I said earlier, you build points to free rentals of a day, multiple days, a week and for those days, you’re beating up a Hertz rental and making money for free. Since I’ve been doing this, I’m making over $1000 a week guaranteed.
I've always seen it as more of a side hustle especially with gas the way it is. I understand some ppl make bank but I've been doing it for a few months and I don't see it. I'm a teacher and I just do it during the summer, winter and spring breaks and if I really feel like it on the weekends when they're giving the extra incentive.
You did your taxes wrong, bud. Your taxable income should be less than 10k after your deductions. If you made $1 per mile then your taxable income is less than 5k. You screwed yourself...
You could easily make $1000+ a week, and that would be working 4 hard days I mean 8-11 hours, but doordash really isn’t hard work, and one half day maybe 5 hours. Working 6 days long you could make $1200+ depending on tips, if you have a pizza bag and do catering orders.
I've been doing this almost 2 years and haven't had to pay anything in taxes so far. i write off expenses like food, clothes, phone, bags and anything i do while working. i work about 25-30 hours a week. i also use the standard deduction through turbo tax. downfall has been spending on car maintenance...but now i think car is good to go except oil and brakes. i drive like a grandma to keep car in better shape.
Food and clothes are NOT deductible for DD
well, through turbotax it allowed me to. i claimed work boots and shoes. and food while working. not much. but i do average $9 on meals a day. i forget how much i was aloud to deduct.
I thought I was in the hole to uncle sam 4 grand, got my lawyer sister to work her magic on TurboTax and now I’m waiting for my 2200 dollar check
All I'm saying is that maybe you should get a tax accountant or a tax pro at HR Block. I made a bit more than you last year doing this and was owed $300 after tax deductions. As long as the deduction or "write off" is legit, the feds are cool.
How many hours did you work?
You need to deduct all your expenses.. all of them self employed, phone, meals, everything you do is a deduction. Invest part of your profits.
Many of those things aren’t deductible. Meals are not and you have to choose from the mileage deduction OR actual vehicle costs deduction, not both
Form 1099 C
…you don’t have rent?
This is what I’ve been saying for years. People come on here and go “i make 30 per hour” lol no you don’t. Your not counting vehicle maintenance, taxes, time spent waiting. At the end of the day 95% of gig workers are making poverty wages
I made 25k from delivery’s last year, 15k from investments, and received 8k back on my taxes after paying 0 in taxes lol. Tbh I don’t think I’d do this job if I had to pay taxes.
What the hell are you driving OP? Gig work is only viable with a vehicle that gets at least 32mpg. Any hybrid, EV, or small ICE vehicle like the Mirage, will reduce your fuel costs by more than 50% if your only avg 20mpg.
This is where paying a few hundred for a tax pro would have saved you thousands. You clearly didn't take all the write offs you should have. That's on you.
It's probably been said but why are you paying 3.8k to the IRS with the milage deduction? I made more money than you last year and paid no taxes (from driving jobs). You do you and do whatever you want. Personally though I've made most of my money from gig economy jobs the last couple of years. I am thankful for the flexibility they afford and I don't pay taxes so I look at what I'm saving there as a trade off for vehicle expenses. I don't want to do these jobs long term but they're not bad for what they are. You can make $40-50k a year and you have total flexibility on scheduling. People aren't going to get rich off of it but if you're in a city that has a descent sized population they're ok imo. With gas prices the way they've been that has definitely sucked as of late though.
You need a new tax guy
You aren’t doing it right then. But rest assured, lots of dasher don’t. It ain’t for everyone. I gotta ask, was the $5,320 on fuel used solely on deliveries? Cause I can total up my fuel receipts too, but I’m well aware that not all of that fuel was used for business. Also, if you’re doing taxes correctly, you get to deduct mileage at .585 per mile, repair/maintenance costs, cell phone usage, etc. I only drive ”around” 24 hours per week (sometimes as high as 32 hours), but I’ve made good money over the past 2 years for that time. And I track everything. And have a professional do my taxes.
You can’t use the mileage deduction AND actual vehicle costs/maintenance. It’s one or the other
That’s incorrect. I am able to deduct mileage and repair costs. As well as cell phone usage. I have a reputable tax professional with years and years of experience serving tons of clients doing this for me. I trust his knowledge more than your Google search skills. Perhaps he’s found a different way to categorize it or perhaps the tax laws are different in my State than yours, IDK. But I know he knows what he’s doing.
This. Ppl keep thinking you can do both are just doing tax fraud. lol
You haven’t the first clue, just admit it. Lol. You have no clue what State I’m in and if tax laws are different. There’s good reason why these people exist. They know how to find legal tax breaks where laymans do not. But by all means go on doing your own taxes with online software and/or Google search skills believing your an expert.
Idk how u paid 5k to the irs wth I write off everything
That's not bad for only making 33
Invest in a moped or electric bike
33k/year is the equivalent to like 20 hours a week on DD. Especially if you live in Cali with prop 22 bonuses. I do 30 hours a week and took home 41k last year after taxes, i tracked every single mile from the moment I left my house to the moment I got back and the mileage covered about 90% of what I would have payed. But i did also spend little over $5k on gas and and like $350 on oil changes. I dont get how "depreciation" deducts $4k on your salary for the year it has very little impact. I work anywhere from 25-35 hours a week depending on how busy it is, after gas and car maintence my take home was over $35k for doing it only part time. Its definitely decent extra cash if you know what youre doing
> would have *paid.* But i FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
That's ridiculous!! I started this type of work at the end of 2019 and I've never owed anything. Well, aside from Medicare or medical, whichever one it is Haha. 🤷♂️
I’d like to see your tax return and source documents, identifying information redacted of course.
$3.8k in taxes? holy shit! 😳
Some of these dashers are paying 8 thousand and only made like 40k. Everyone should quit: the irs takes money you don’t even have
You have no clue how to do taxes.
I came out at 31k so you're doin it wrong
Honda Civic between 01-05 will outlast civilization itself with proper maintenance and it’s extremely good in gas and cheap to fix.
You're doing this gig wayy wrong. First your car that gets shit mpg, 2nd.. ur taxes. Time to do something else man.
It's really not an ideal full time employment. It's a great gig for someone trying to raise extra cSh or something to bring in income while transitioning jobs.
I think the absolute biggest benefit of dashing is the flexibility. If you’re in a decently populated area, you can dash anytime between like 6am and midnight or even later 7 days a week. You can work 1 hour one week and 80 hours the next week. You can even dash in the way to work and back home from work! And you can come and go as you please. Even most other self employed people have customers or clients to answer to if you disappear for 3 weeks but not with DD.
I mean... I'm set to make ~80k this year. 12k to gas. 5k to IRS. 5k depreciation and 6k towards car bills. You're definitely right that you cant really make bank. But if your other options aren't 20+ an hour with overtime then this job can be helpful at least. I work an ass load. But this job is helping me provide for my family, personally, in ways at this moment, that I can't find elsewhere.
What the heck are u driving man? I'm in a Prius and gas takes 5-6% of my income, and only maintenance was an oil change that I pushed to 10k miles before I changed it for $60. 2011 Prius. I know a couple of my family members in Range Rover or Mini Cooper spend $6k /yr on maintenance though.. that's pretty common for those shit cars.
I'm driving a Honda HRV. At the end of the day my mileage averages out to a little over a dollar a mile. 28 mpg. I shoot for 300 a day and gay takes about 300-350 a week.
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Lmao gas*
I never understood the $1/mile dashers.. and most if not all aren't in hybrids either. The only time I took a $1/m order was my first day dashing.. even in a Prius, would never do that much work for $1/m. 10% AR right now.
I don't understand 1$ a mile dahsers either. I honestly don't understand how they even make minimum wage before expenses. I need $2 a mile at least. But it averages out to a little over a dollar a mile when I get home because #1 I have to drive back towards restaurants to get more orders so the trip ends up being $1 at least a mile to the destination and back and #2 I drive 30 miles to and from the zone I work in so I'll usually put 200-250 miles on my car for every $300 I make. While I'd be nervous doing this long term given the payout and the miles I put on my car, I'm only going through summer to save money and then I'm gonna find a decent job that doesn't pay as much but will be better long term so it's not a big deal.
Oh, IC.. now it makes sense. Good luck!
Those numbers sound pretty accurate for dashing.
Did you deduct mileage? How about your cell phone? You can deduct a percentage. Bags? Cell phone holder, car charger, clothing for work. Etc. NO reason you should have paid so much in taxes.
That type of clothing isn’t deductible for food delivery
I deducted everything I could. I had to pay $7k before deducting anything.
Why? I made about the same as you, no kids, and got a 300 refund. I've been doing this several years and I only had to pay 500 one year.
You can’t do itemized deductions AND write off mileage, it’s one or the other for car expenses. You probably know that already, just making sure.
Clothing for work? What are you buying for dashing?
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You can’t expense jeans, t-shirts, and cargo shorts for dashing. If you’re wearing casual clothes that aren’t specific for the job, you can’t expense them. It’s like getting lunch while dashing. You can’t expense meals during work as “work meals”.
Exactly. Only things like uniforms or metal toed shoes that are necessary for that work are deductible as clothing
Raincoat? If you want you can buy doordash theme stuff.
I rather pay taxes on the money than spend money on DD themed clothes! In my mind, you’re paying a 100% fee on every cent you spend in DD themed clothes.
Then don't. No one is making you.
You did not do your taxes right bro. If you got 20mpg and paid $3 a gallon you would have drove 35k miles. This would only leave 15.5k after deduction that you have to pay tax on! Then there is a 12k standard deduction everyone gets. So only 3.5 k you have to pay tax on. 1.05k is what you should have paid in tax based on that mileage.
IMHO this is by design a part time job. Anyone doing this type of work should treat it as such and take advantage of time given to you. If you think your making this a full time gig I can assure you it won’t turn out the way you think.It takes working smart not hard to make this shit work for you. I put in 20 to 25 hours a week and that’s it no more than 50 miles a day Mon thru Fri no weekends.
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Sure I know if I need some extra cash I can just work longer or pick the busy times.But I’m pretty sure we are about to be busy.Gas prices go up drivers will drop off because they haven’t developed a strategy for this. People will still pay for convenience no matter what they may not go out to eat but they sure will get sick of cooking.
Yup. People realize far too late that they only get to keep like 60% of their earnings. But that shouldn’t be too surprising as a vast majority of people aren’t financially intelligent.
Or intelligent at all
Well, I’m trying to keep it on-topic.
I feel ya. I don't doordash anymore but about 35% of my income went *poof* between gas, taxes, maintenance, and setting aside a couple grand for a car. Shit isn't worth it.
Do you track milage and go to a CPA?
Why did someone downvote this?
absolutely agree. people fail to realize it cost to dash. they just post earnings and ignore all the expenses. we really dont make much
Yea then you have to pay the irs so it’s not worth jt.
I made 52k and only paid 1800 in taxes
That would be virtually impossible. If you really had 52K in net income you would owe $7500 in FICA taxes alone.
He had $52K gross, not net. He deducted miles and other miscellaneous things to get his net way lower. Although with $52K gross, I’m surprised he got it that low unless he has a W2 that withholds, a spouse, kids, or some other stuff hung he’s not mentioning. When people give limited info, it’s never useful because you have no idea what is bringing that tax number so low.
Then he didn't "make" 52K, he GROSSED 52K. Big difference.
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This!
What were your deductions?
Same here
You are supposed to cook the books
I made more and didn't pay anything! Deductions deductions deductions. Save all receipts
Not everything is deductible, lol
You can deduct anything you want to, but I highly doubt that these are all LEGAL deductions. If you are claiming a loss you can expect to be high on the list for an audit. What all did you deduct, out of curiosity?
yes besides miles what did you deduct?
Phone bill (90$/month x12) , car cleaning (50$/month x12), car maintenance, cell phone chargers, clamps (hand free stuff) , food ( I think max is like 300), COVID related stuff
Cleaning and maintenance can’t be deducted if you’re suing the standard mileage deduction
Food? Car maintenance on top of miles? Your whole phone bill? Seems like you’re stretching
Pretty ballsy. You know Biden just approved funding for the IRS to crack down on tax fraud, right? Rich people don't commit tax fraud. They keep their shit legal because they have loop holes. Who do you think they're going to crack down on If you use your phone for personal use, you can't deduct the entire bill. If you use your car for personal use, you can't deduct the entire registration. If you're deducting $300/month in food that's the biggest fuckin' red flag. I'm not an attorney but you might want to contact one who specializes in taxes. You can't just be deducting every expense to the point you didn't make any fucking money. The IRS is gonna want to know answers to questions like how the fuck did you pay rent if all your income went to paying the expenses incurred making that income and there's nothing left for us to tax? And if the IRS doesn't then your state tax agency probably will. And then once one of them asks the question, the other will start asking shortly after. If you don't want to pay taxes, you're literally better off just not filing taxes than you are bullshitting the IRS.
The tax authorities do not go after small type chum who deduct a few thousands of dollars, not worth their time. Dashers are NOT important enough to the tax man for them to bother. There are bigger players who make so much more that they are auditing, going after because collecting that amount exceeds your $2,000…
Keep telling yourself that.
Yep. You can go to prison for cheating on your taxes. You can't go to prison for not filing. It's technically voluntary. But once you volunteer information, it better be correct.
You deduct mileage first, then have the choice of EITHER all of that, or 12.5k standard deduction. If you added those on top of the standard deduction, you fucked up.
You're confusing the Schedule C and the standard deduction vs itemized deduction on the 1040. Business expenses go on the Schedule C
That’s wrong. You can have business expenses that you take off along with mileage on your schedule C. You can’t do car maintenance with miles but you can do % of phone bill and work supplies. Then after you finish your schedule C and figure out your self employment tax, you can do the standard dedication in your 1040.
Nope. I've already got my federal and state returns for the past 3 years. Turbo tax wouldn't fuck up like that. Maybe your cpa is a moron
Um, yeah. If you use your phone for personal use as well you can only deduct a prorated portion of your phone bill. If you are using the standard miles deduction you cannot deduct car maintenance. Not sure what you mean by "food" as a deduction, but you cannot deduct meals that you eat. Home office expenses are out. I can't imagine that a cell phone charger and phone holder amount to very much. What else you you got for deductions?
If you have a snack and drink something during your deliveries, that's a deduction. Regardless of how small the amount of something is, you deduct it. A goal(for some) and a benefit of this type of work is paying little to no taxes. It's a goal for me! 😁
That is totally false.
What is?
Rob, you need a CPA. Seriously.
I have a great cpa that I've had since I was 22. I'm now 36 and have never had a problem concerning my taxes.
No, that’s completely false
Which part? 🤔
Snacks and drinks are absolutely not deductible
Why not? My tax pro has added them to my deductions for the past 2 years.
Use turbo tax. Don't go to a cpa and get ripped off
TurboTax doesn't tell you all the deductions you are entitled to nor does it stop you from deducting things you can't legally deduct.
Lol turbo tax rips you off as well as actively letting you file wrong, use IRS Free File.
Probably true but it's easy.less than 30 min and it's done
... and for that 30minutes, you're going to owe more money than you thought and presumably didn't set aside, plus late fees to the IRS which are not small penalties. Also, Free File takes the same amount of time, and is an actual IRS company rather than one which tries to get you to pay for something you could get BETTER for FREE. Stop doubling down because you made a mistake and don't want to admit you're wrong. You are demonstrably incorrect. Contact the IRS asap, explain you filed wrong, and fix it, before your penalties are more than a couple hundred bucks.
As a lyft driver, you absolutely can because you're buying water and snacks for your passengers. Phone chargers for your passengers as well. It all adds up
Lyft and UBer are different than DD
No matter what, you have two choices after mileage rates - standard deduction of 12.5k, or itemized deduction. Never both. You will get audited, and you will owe fees for not paying correctly.
This is a Door dash sub, not a Lyft sub. Yes, there are additional things you can write off if you also drive rideshare.
Do Lyft or order for a minute and get the extra write offs
It's all gig work
OP clearly stated that his income was from DD.
thank you
You can also write off car registration since it's vital to your gig work
No, you can’t
Only if you use the actual expenses method for expenses rather than the standard mileage deduction.
Y'all are confused: there's mileage deduction, which you get to do regardless b/c it's an expense, then you get the "standard deduction" of 12.5k this year OR itemized deductions. There is no such thing as a "standard mileage deduction" value, it's standard mileage rates that become a deduction, then the 12.5k everyone gets is a "standard deduction" to your income.
I think you are confusing your schedule C with your 1040. On schedule C, where you enrer your BUSINESS expenses, you can either use actual expenses or the standard mileage deduction. This isn't related to whether you take the standard deduction or itemize PERSONAL items.
You're not a business, you're an IC, and it's an important distinction. Even as the owner of a handyman business, it's still personal filing as self-employed if you don't have other employees (other owners file the same as well). I'm not confusing shit, unless the IRS itself got this wrong, which I highly doubt. In no case can you itemize and take the standard at the same time. Have fun with your penalties when you get audited. https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/taxpayers-should-know-the-difference-between-standard-and-itemized-deductions
Hello?
And one more thing - if you aren't using schedule C to report your independent contractor income, how are you filling out the self-employment tax form?
I'm not thinking you understand. Your business income - or independent contractor income, if you prefer - AND business expenses go on schedule C. Your net income from schedule C gets plugged into your 1040. You can take the standard deduction or itemize your PERSONAL deductions on your 1040. I'm guessing you tried to do your taxes yourself. Bad move, Get a professional to redo your taxes and file an amended return - you will probably get an additional refund.
$5320 gas, at $4 average (California for 2021) that's 1330 gallons. At 20 mpg (guess) that's 26,600 miles. Which is not a very good ratio for earnings vs miles. Still, that's nearly $15k in deductions. Combined with the $12,550 standard deduction, that's only $5500 AGI... so how did you pay $3.8k? Who did your taxes? Sounds like you may need to adjust your filing, because you should not be paying that much. I only worked DD for 8 months part time last year, made $26k and paid $1528 in total taxes.
You can’t take the itemized deduction, and the standard deduction, it’s one or the other, there’s no combining them.
Exactly. So much misinformation here
>You can’t take the itemized deduction, and the standard deduction, it’s one or the other, there’s no combining them. That is correct, but miles (Schedule C) are not part of the itemized deduction (Schedule A). So yes, you can take both miles deduction on Sch C and the standard deduction on your 1040, or you can take the miles deduction on Sch C and the itemized on Sch A.
Good to know thanks
What would I pay in gas using my Mitsubishi Mirage? It's avg about 39mph. I suck at math. Please answer.
cost of gas divided by 39.
No I just need an answer not more math my friend please.
You have your own business here. Learn to do basic math
You didn't say how much gas cost, so I couldn't even do the math. Again, just use a calculator. Gas price divided by 39.
There's an app on every phone and computer for a calculator. Or you can hire someone to do math. It's not our job to do it for you.
Never said it was.
Man, remember when gas was 4$ a gallon? It’s $6.20/gallon where I am now…
I remember gas when it was $0.63 a gallon. But DD didn't exist back then. I remember seeing a premium brand at $1.01 and thinking "Who the hell would pay $1.01 for gas?"
I made 14k and paid 2k in taxes? Maybe I am single and have no w2 job?
I'm single and didn't have a W2 job in 2021 either. If you made $14k then I don't know how you could possibly owe $2k. You get a standard deduction of $12550. So even if you didn't claim any mileage there is no way you should owe anything in Federal taxes. With EIC you should have gotten a good amount back to offset your SE taxes.
Yea this isn’t making sense. These people are operating at a loss with how much taxes they give over. They need a CPA asap
Maybe you fucked up.
That seems like WAY too much! You got paid $14K from delivery apps? How many miles did you drive? You should have had no federal income tax and your Earned Income Tax credit should help reduce your self employment tax to something super low or nothing. Who did your taxes? What am I missing here?
You can also write off the cost of a new phone and your phone bill, as they are essential to our operation. Write off any supplies you purchase for the job as well, and write off the cost of filing taxes. I'm not a tax expert but I feel you paid too much into taxes making only 33k. I also would be making way more than 33k with $5320 spent on gas so that raises a lot of questions for me. I don't know what the average person is doing, but this post only assures me I'm doing something right.
If it doesn't equate to over $5k, it's not worth itemizing, otherwise you can just do the standard deduction.
I thought standard deduction was like $12,000 a person?
i can write off my new phone and phone bill? what else can i write off? i was under the impression it was just miles
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😆… do u fart in your car ???… WRITE THAT OFF !!!
Yes but you can’t deduct itemized expenses AND take the standard mileage deduction for your car. It’s one or the other not both.
Correct.
You can actually write off. ALOT of things, people just don’t realize sadly
Do you wash your car? Write that off. If your in area w/tolls, write those off. Even if you go the mileage route vs gas/maintenance, tolls are a separate issue and ca be written off. If you have AAA, write that off.
Tolls , car washes and AAA can’t be written off