# Same Miles for Uber/Lyft?



## Coyotex (Feb 10, 2019)

I got the 1099 from both Uber and Lyft. Of course, it lists the income and stuff like that, and also (duh) the miles driven. BUT, if you use both apps at the same time, a lot of times the miles for both apps are the same. In other words, the miles overlap. Do you just claim one set of miles driven for tax purposes or do you claim each as their own? 

For example (and I'll use round numbers): Uber 1099 says you drove 5000 miles and made $1000. Lyft app says you drove 4000 miles and made $800. Do you claim you made a total of $1800 and drove 9000 miles? Or just take the highest mileage of the two. So, you'd claim $1800 and drove 5000.


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## TemptingFate (May 2, 2019)

You don't use the miles driven provided by U/L because that's just the miles driven with pax in car. You use the total miles driven from your mileage log. You do keep a mileage log, don't you?


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## peteyvavs (Nov 18, 2015)

Coyotex said:


> I got the 1099 from both Uber and Lyft. Of course, it lists the income and stuff like that, and also (duh) the miles driven. BUT, if you use both apps at the same time, a lot of times the miles for both apps are the same. In other words, the miles overlap. Do you just claim one set of miles driven for tax purposes or do you claim each as their own?
> 
> For example (and I'll use round numbers): Uber 1099 says you drove 5000 miles and made $1000. Lyft app says you drove 4000 miles and made $800. Do you claim you made a total of $1800 and drove 9000 miles? Or just take the highest mileage of the two. So, you'd claim $1800 and drove 5000.


I would claim both, my position is if the rich can cheat then we all can cheat.


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## Dekero (Sep 24, 2019)

Coyotex said:


> I got the 1099 from both Uber and Lyft. Of course, it lists the income and stuff like that, and also (duh) the miles driven. BUT, if you use both apps at the same time, a lot of times the miles for both apps are the same. In other words, the miles overlap. Do you just claim one set of miles driven for tax purposes or do you claim each as their own?
> 
> For example (and I'll use round numbers): Uber 1099 says you drove 5000 miles and made $1000. Lyft app says you drove 4000 miles and made $800. Do you claim you made a total of $1800 and drove 9000 miles? Or just take the highest mileage of the two. So, you'd claim $1800 and drove 5000.


If you don't have records... Do what I did my first year.. add them together, multiply by 2 and move on with your refund... Your odds of being audited the first year are super slim and I'd bet that calculation is closer to reality than you'd think... But Get TRIPLOG or another app and track your miles going forward....


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## Coyotex (Feb 10, 2019)

TemptingFate said:


> You don't use the miles driven provided by U/L because that's just the miles driven with pax in car. You use the total miles driven from your mileage log. You do keep a mileage log, don't you?


Well, according the the Uber tax summary, "Driving totals: Online miles shows all the miles you drove while online, including off trip miles". To me, that means all miles while the app was on, not just with pax in the car. But, I could be reading this wrong.


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## TemptingFate (May 2, 2019)

Coyotex said:


> Well, according the the Uber tax summary, "Driving totals: Online miles shows all the miles you drove while online, including off trip miles". To me, that means all miles while the app was on, not just with pax in the car. But, I could be reading this wrong.


I didn't realize Uber provides all miles with app on. Nevertheless, IRS requires a trip log (not annual total), a trip log would cover Lyft miles not covered by Uber, and a trip log would be more accurate than adding Lyft and Uber mileage.


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## Coyotex (Feb 10, 2019)

So, no one has an answer for the original question?


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## losiglow (Dec 4, 2018)

Coyotex said:


> Well, according the the Uber tax summary, "Driving totals: Online miles shows all the miles you drove while online, including off trip miles". To me, that means all miles while the app was on, not just with pax in the car. But, I could be reading this wrong.


I believe that's correct because the miles reported by Uber closely resemble my total miles put on my car last year.



Coyotex said:


> So, no one has an answer for the original question?


Since miles will overlap with the two, I would do exactly what Dekero said - add them up and divide by 2. _Technically_, you could claim the full from both but if you got audited, and the IRS went as far as to look at your registration from last year to this year, they would see that the total number of miles you claimed was higher than the miles between registrations. That could get you in deep


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## WAHN (May 6, 2019)

Coyotex said:


> So, no one has an answer for the original question?


You should be keeing track of your own miles. I just use the notepad on my phone or as some mentioned you can use various apps.

I set a trip meter when I start my day and note the beginning and ending odometer readings. I put the info in a Google doc sheet at the end of every day.


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## losiglow (Dec 4, 2018)

WAHN said:


> I set a trip meter when I start my day and note the beginning and ending odometer readings. I put the info in a Google doc sheet at the end of every day.


That's exactly what I do.


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## WAHN (May 6, 2019)

losiglow said:


> That's exactly what I do.


I also have a paper tablet where I jot down the mileage of each active trip, resetting the second trip meter when I accept a ride/delivery. But that's just for my own anal retentive love of time wasting stats.


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## FLKeys (Dec 27, 2018)

Coyotex said:


> So, no one has an answer for the original question?


The correct answer is you use the miles from your mileage log that you kept. Anything else would just be guessing. Even if you never ran both apps at the same time you can still have deductible mileage that does not show on the summaries from Uber/Lyft.


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## Trafficat (Dec 19, 2016)

Coyotex said:


> So, no one has an answer for the original question?


If you run ONLY one app, you could probably get away with the Uber totals or the Lyft totals since they store your trip history for each day , but you would lose the ability to track deadhead miles you make with the apps off. Do you drive towards surge clouds with app off? That's deductible.

To satisfy the IRS you might still need to download the addresses that Uber or Lyft has in their database and put it in your mile log for each day rather than referencing their database directly.

If you run more than one app, at best you could use the miles from one app because if you are online on both Uber and Lyft at the same time, they will both be adding the miles when you are off trip. Not to mention, if you do other gigs like Postmates that might not track your miles at all, then it gets really screwy. The Uber and Lyft totals could be more than you drive and the food delivery will be hard to track, especially the distance to the resturuant or the time spent "fishing".

What I am doing this year is taking a screen shot of EVERY request I get on every app and making some notes so I can make a mileage log.

The IRS required mileage log wants begin and end addresses for every trip. When fishing we go in somewhat random directions at times and may follow routes that are "best for fishing" rather than "best for minimizing distance". So I think if I write in my mileage log that I went from address A to address B and the shortest distance is only 3 miles, I can justly right off 10 miles for taking the longer route. You don't want to take the direct highway routes when fishing. You want to take the route that brings you through the hotspots (near restaurants for delivery apps and near population centers, concert halls, etc. for rideshare).

So my end address for one trip might be someone's house, and my beginning address for the next trip might be a building downtown. But if I swung through midtown on the way over in hopes of getting a request in Midtown, I might have a large L shaped route rather than a nearly "as the bird flies route" so I will claim the whole L shape as deductible.

But you need your own mileage log so that your trips and your odometer match. If you use a conservative method like going with only one companies numbers and just their trip log, you will not be deducting all the miles you can. If you try to merge their data, it will be nearly impossible to keep track of times when both apps are on at the same time (false added miles) or when both apps are off (claimable mile loss), especially if you multi-app at the same time.

I report multiple schedule C each year. I consider driving for Uber and Lyft to be the SAME business, just different customer streams, so I report the miles for both together.

On the other hand, I am also a gun instructor. I report those miles on the schedule C for that business. I generally can't do destination mode rides because my vehicle is too packed with equipment to accommodate passengers. If I can manage to do a destination trip, I will make a special note to count those miles towards my rideshare total and to make sure not to deduct them for the other business schedule C.

I personally lump my food delivery miles with Uber and Lyft because sometimes I will stack a food delivery and a rideshare ride at the same time. I consider them part of the same business. If I claimed them on separate schedule C it would be hard to keep my mileage log correct.

So basically, how you report your miles depends on how many schedule C's you do. I don't think there is any specific rule that you have to use a separate schedule C for each app, but you probably if you wanted to. But then it would be really hard, when you are between rides and multi-apping, to justifiable say the miles deducted belong to one business versus the other.


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