# Question about Claiming Expenses



## Travis Alex (Jan 14, 2018)

So I know you can claim Mileage, Gas, Car Repairs and Maintenance, but I have a few questions.

Is there any hidden things I should know about claiming these things that may not be as upfront/hidden?

Someone mentioned claiming your booking fees for Uber? How does one go about that? 

Last question. I assume you can claim your insurance costs too yes? Does it have to be a partial claim? 

Thanks in advance.


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## oldfart (Dec 22, 2017)

whatever you spend on your uber business is tax deductable..
and whatever you make, incl tips is your starting point or gross income

The irs offers you a choice. You can keep track of every auto expense all the things you mentioned..and the "hidden expense of depreciation,\ or you can use their standard mileage deduction This year its 54.5 cents a mile.. Thats miles driven looking for customers, miles driven after accepting a ride, driving to your customer . I cant speak for everyone but that standard deduction is better for me,

If you use your car for personal use, you cant deduct those miles or the expenses attributed to personal use

about booking fees, If uber reports that money on your 1099 then you deduct it..ie you only pay on monies paid to you


Im no accountant or tax attorney, You really should ask one of them


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## reg barclay (Nov 3, 2015)

Travis Alex said:


> So I know you can claim Mileage, Gas, Car Repairs and Maintenance, but I have a few questions...Last question. I assume you can claim your insurance costs too yes? Does it have to be a partial claim?


Disclaimer: I believe the stuff below is correct, but it is not intended as tax advice, and I am in no way qualified to give such advice.

If you are claiming mileage (i.e, the IRS standard deduction of 54.5 cents per mile), then the main car running expenses, such as maintenance, repairs, insurance, gas, etc, are already included in this figure.

If you choose, you can claim your actual expenses instead of the IRS standard mileage deduction. If you claim actual expenses, then AFAIK you divide it up by the portion of driving that was business/personal related. For example, if you spent $1000 per year on insurance, and 90% of your miles were business related, you would deduct $900 for insurance for that year.

I'd guess that most drivers here opt for the IRS standard mileage deduction.

I think there might be some rules and restrictions about switching methods from one year to the next.

A qualified accountant is probably the best person to ask.


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## Z129 (May 30, 2018)

I stick with the standard deduction as well. It's easy and it erases my tax debt on my meager ride-share earnings quite effectively.

Uber will send you a form called a 1099. This will show all earnings from trips you've done, including the service/booking fees that Uber gets. You simply deduct those amounts using a Schedule C form.

A 1099 and a Schedule C are the two new things in your life as a gig-economy worker. Congrats. You're now a business owner.


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## oldfart (Dec 22, 2017)

What we have talked about in the above 3 posts are your car expenses. There are other expenses too. For example the portion of your cell phone bill attributed to your business. The water and mints you buy for your passengers, business cards. If you hire an accountant to do your taxes I think that expense is deductible


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## UberTaxPro (Oct 3, 2014)

Travis Alex said:


> So I know you can claim Mileage, Gas, Car Repairs and Maintenance, but I have a few questions.
> 
> Is there any hidden things I should know about claiming these things that may not be as upfront/hidden?
> 
> ...


One hidden cost you might consider is the cost of a tax professional!


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## Stevie The magic Unicorn (Apr 3, 2018)

Travis Alex said:


> So I know you can claim Mileage, Gas, Car Repairs and Maintenance, but I have a few questions.
> 
> Is there any hidden things I should know about claiming these things that may not be as upfront/hidden?
> 
> ...


Uber will say that every single cent they collect from passengers was on your benifit and your 1099 could be potentially 10s of thousands higher than what you were paid, you write off the difference (between whatever the heck is actually on your 1099) and what uber paid.


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## El Gato (Mar 5, 2016)

Adding to that: dashcam, phone mount, air fresheners, car chargers for pax, extra USB port adapters for multiple chargers, aux cable, car washes, tax software, tolls, parking fees. Anything for your car nor service related as that would be covered in the standard deduction or actual mileage expenses. I even deducted a portion of my new laptop a couple of years ago as I use it for tracking my business expenses, tax expenses, browsing this forum and facebook pages to discuss matters in improving my business.

If you purchase anything for use in your business and you can actually justify it for use in your business (ie can't say you bought a flatscreen tv for your business as that would not be a reasonable expense for a rideshare driver).

Some people even deduct the home office expense but that one is a little trickier as the rules for that are much more specific and I heard rumors (on this forum) that the home office expense increases your chance at an audit. I personally don't do this simply because I wouldn't be able to justify it based on the exclusivity rule.

Also on miles, don't forget miles driven to visit any Uber greenlight hub since that was a business related trip.

Ultimately this is all on the honor system as it's not like there is some dude in the IRS office monitoring your tax return line by line to see if you dotted every t and every i. However, that said, you should be able to provide documentation for your expenses and be ready to justify them for use in your business(save receipts) in the event that you are audited by the IRS in which case, yeh some dude will be looking at your return line by line.


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