# Audited Taxes



## itendstonight (Feb 10, 2019)

So I’ve been diligent keeping records of dates, start miles, end miles, start location, end location, fare, pax number, so on but it is SO exhausting. Anyone actually ever get audited during tax times?


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## NotanEmployee (Apr 20, 2019)

I use stride tax app on my phone to record miles and deductions. Uber does the rest.

The stride tax app I just start to record miles when I turn on the uber app and stop when I turn uber offline. It automatically records miles based on GPS and shows your route and total business miles driven. At the end of the year you print up the report that has it all. Uber also gives you all of your trip data so no need to double record them. This is a day recorded for me.


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## theMezz (Sep 29, 2018)

I use sherpashare - does the same thing


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## Merc7186 (Jul 8, 2017)

I use my brain and a spreadsheet.


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## 911 Guy (Feb 8, 2018)

Simple spreadsheet. Uber was the easiest part of my taxes. I wouldn't mind an audit though, I think I overpaid for a few years.


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## steveK2016 (Jul 31, 2016)

itendstonight said:


> So I've been diligent keeping records of dates, start miles, end miles, start location, end location, fare, pax number, so on but it is SO exhausting. Anyone actually ever get audited during tax times?


Why are you keeping log of start and end location? Pax number? None if that truly matters to the IRS.

I hear they only have the resources to audit something like 5% of the population. While its some what random, i think they'd rather audit someone that has more potential for a higher return on the investment. Is it worth auditing you to see if they can squeeze another $500 out of you or the multi-millionaire that may own millions?


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## NOXDriver (Aug 12, 2018)

steveK2016 said:


> Why are you keeping log of start and end location? None if that truly matters to the IRS.


You really need to look up the IRS mileage log rules. To the IRS it DEFINITELY DOES MATTER.


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## NotanEmployee (Apr 20, 2019)

Uber gives you the total miles driven for rides. You record all miles driven for business (when uber app is on and you are accepting rides) and if you want to be really thurough your non business miles. Less that.05% of my miles are personal so I don't bother with those


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## NOXDriver (Aug 12, 2018)

itendstonight said:


> So I've been diligent keeping records of dates, start miles, end miles, start location, end location, fare, pax number, so on but it is SO exhausting. Anyone actually ever get audited during tax times?


I don't do anything for Uber/Lyft income. First, the standard deduction is usually enough to offset and business loss. Second, having to give up 30% of what little I DO make from rideshare is not worth any *EXTREMELY MINOR* tax savings you might have.

Business expenses are not that great a tax write off.

I'm not saying do anything illegal (wink wink) but no, the 1099 you get is not gonna set off any audit flags unless you start making stupid deductions like home office or extreme mileage claims.


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## itendstonight (Feb 10, 2019)

NotanEmployee said:


> Uber gives you the total miles driven for rides. You record all miles driven for business (when uber app is on and you are accepting rides) and if you want to be really thurough your non business miles. Less that.05% of my miles are personal so I don't bother with those





NOXDriver said:


> I don't do anything for Uber/Lyft income. First, the standard deduction is usually enough to offset and business loss. Second, having to give up 30% of what little I DO make from rideshare is not worth any *EXTREMELY MINOR* tax savings you might have.
> 
> Business expenses are not that great a tax write off.
> 
> I'm not saying do anything illegal (wink wink) but no, the 1099 you get is not gonna set off any audit flags unless you start making stupid deductions like home office or extreme mileage claims.


How many ride miles to between rides/to and from home to you average? I am getting about 6 miles on rides with pax to 4 miles between rides and from/to home. I'm selective with pax rating and location pickups so I don't just pick up right where I drop off, plus I prefer suburb driving vs city so the miles between pings add up, even though rides usually are longer. And I do tons of destination filters for commuting and many times don't get any rides. Is that too many miles to deduct?


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## DriverMark (Jan 22, 2018)

Never been audited. 

I run approx 50k miles a year on the car and claim close to 40k mileage with U/L. Almost all our miles on this car are for working. The extra write off of car wash subscription, phone, supplies (floor mats, cleaning, dashcam, etc), gives a little boost on the tax sheet. But really the mileage is where you get your write off money from. Mileage write off has covered my Uber/Lyft taxes last 2 years. Different for everyone though considering dependents and other deductions. I try and keep my taxes as simple and clean as I can. Like if I have a write off or something but it does nothing for my return I just leave those things off (talking donations and such). Report what you are required to, and things you do not need to report and make no difference why report it? Cleaner your taxes less chance of an audit.


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## Atom guy (Jul 27, 2016)

You just need to keep a record of your daily miles. Not all the details. They can audit me if they want, but I've got the odometer readings, my mileage spreadsheet, all the gas slips (with odometer reading on them) and the uber statements. It all adds up.



DriverMark said:


> Never been audited.
> 
> I run approx 50k miles a year on the car and claim close to 40k mileage with U/L. Almost all our miles on this car are for working. The extra write off of car wash subscription, phone, supplies (floor mats, cleaning, dashcam, etc), gives a little boost on the tax sheet. But really the mileage is where you get your write off money from. Mileage write off has covered my Uber/Lyft taxes last 2 years. Different for everyone though considering dependents and other deductions. I try and keep my taxes as simple and clean as I can. Like if I have a write off or something but it does nothing for my return I just leave those things off (talking donations and such). Report what you are required to, and things you do not need to report and make no difference why report it? Cleaner your taxes less chance of an audit.


Same here. The mileage deduction is all most full timers should need to wipe out their tax liability. No need to get creative.


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## Gilby (Nov 7, 2017)

steveK2016 said:


> I hear they only have the resources to audit something like 5% of the population


I think it is even less than that.


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## Seamus (Jun 21, 2018)

itendstonight said:


> So I've been diligent keeping records of dates, start miles, end miles, start location, end location, fare, pax number, so on but it is SO exhausting. Anyone actually ever get audited during tax times?


Technically you are required to log each business destination. So if you did 20 rides each of the 20 has to be logged. I find the easiest way to do it is with an app called TripLog. Records each stops mileage and location. Can be set up to record start/stop automatically.

-Most drivers don't even realize its an IRS requirement of the mileage log. Most think daily total mileage is enough.
-Most drivers who use an app use free versions that don't comply because individual business destinations aren't recorded, just daily summaries.
-Many drivers who are aware of it don't comply anyway because they feel the odds of getting audited are slim.

I have been audited 4 times in the last 35 years so I choose to fully comply even if the odds are slim of an audit.

The problem is if you happen to be the 1 in the crowd who does get audited, without that info your mileage log will likely get thrown out and you will lose your biggest income deduction. If you are diligent to do all that on a spreadsheet great. Otherwise, for $40/yr TripLog will do it for you. There might be other apps that record each start/stop for mileage and location.


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## NotanEmployee (Apr 20, 2019)

itendstonight said:


> How many ride miles to between rides/to and from home to you average? I am getting about 6 miles on rides with pax to 4 miles between rides and from/to home. I'm selective with pax rating and location pickups so I don't just pick up right where I drop off, plus I prefer suburb driving vs city so the miles between pings add up, even though rides usually are longer. And I do tons of destination filters for commuting and many times don't get any rides. Is that too many miles to deduct?


My average ride is 20-25 miles. If I get return rides then my in between miles are less that 1 mile. Occasionally I'll have to dead head back hoping for a ping on my way. From my house to the airport is 5 miles and I rarely get to the airport before getting a ping.



Seamus said:


> Technically you are required to log each business destination. So if you did 20 rides each of the 20 has to be logged


Uber does this for you, every trip from start to end. So I have trip miles logged, total in app miles logged and non uber miles are so small it is insignificant.


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## KK2929 (Feb 9, 2017)

NotanEmployee said:


> My average ride is 20-25 miles. If I get return rides then my in between miles are less that 1 mile. Occasionally I'll have to dead head back hoping for a ping on my way. From my house to the airport is 5 miles and I rarely get to the airport before getting a ping.
> 
> Uber does this for you, every trip from start to end. So I have trip miles logged, total in app miles logged and non uber miles are so small it is insignificant.


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Seamus said:


> Technically you are required to log each business destination. So if you did 20 rides each of the 20 has to be logged. I find the easiest way to do it is with an app called TripLog. Records each stops mileage and location. Can be set up to record start/stop automatically.
> 
> -Most drivers don't even realize its an IRS requirement of the mileage log. Most think daily total mileage is enough.
> -Most drivers who use an app use free versions that don't comply because individual business destinations aren't recorded, just daily summaries.
> ...


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How does TripLog handle the logged on time waiting for a ping? You state that it records stops and starts - automatically or you push a button ?? Does it list an address or ??? Thanks for the info


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## Wildgoose (Feb 11, 2019)

itendstonight said:


> So I've been diligent keeping records of dates, start miles, end miles, start location, end location, fare, pax number, so on but it is SO exhausting. Anyone actually ever get audited during tax times?


You may not need to keep records on everything. You just need to have a log which will match up your Online time for each day.
On Line Start time...
Off Line Ends time..
Miles that you have driven...
If you are driving for both Lyft and Uber, then there is one problem. How could you split up the mileage driven for each 1099? 
You may need to make some rules on your own for that and make the logs. IRS will be fine when your total driven miles (Uber + Lyft) match with your ON LINE Driven miles. 
Plus keep the logs and record for 5 years Tax times. I.R.S will not audit each year but they will surely audit you when they get flags on fraud activity which means they have reasons to suspect your tax claimed documents. At that time, they are going to ask you to support your documents for 3 or 5 years of Tax Times.

I have been using Everlance. Using that I can to keep the logs after each trips through out the day.


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## NotanEmployee (Apr 20, 2019)

KK2929 said:


> How does TripLog handle the logged on time waiting for a ping? You state that it records stops and starts - automatically or you push a button ?? Does it list an address or ??? Thanks for the info


I believe trip log is trip based, other poster can answer.

I use stride tax. I start the trip when I go active in the uber app and end the trip when I go offline so uber records my trip miles and stride tax records total business miles. I fear if I ever tried to record every trip and non trip miles I would screw that up to no end. It was fine when I did insurance inspections and had 3 trips per day without passengers but all of these trips? My head would spin...did I Starr this trip, wait, did I end the last one? I know I ended it in uber.......looks to see hasn't recorded last 3 hours of miles. ?


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## Seamus (Jun 21, 2018)

KK2929 said:


> --------------------------
> 
> -----------------------
> 
> How does TripLog handle the logged on time waiting for a ping? You state that it records stops and starts - automatically or you push a button ?? Does it list an address or ??? Thanks for the info


You can do it either way, manually or automatic and yes, it lists the address.

Manual Mode. You push a button to start recording your trip. When you stop you press a button to mark your location and the mileage and address will be recorded for you. When you move press start again.

In auto mode, when the car hits between 3-5 mph it will start recording. When you stop for 3-5 minutes (or whatever you set up) it will auto save the destination mileage and address. If you drop off isn't going to take 3 minutes than you simply manually save the location.

The odometer setting is also adjustable in case you get out of sync. What is saved is the Time of the stop, the odometer mileage at the stop , and the address at the stop. Once you get used to the settings and get set up properly its the easiest way possible to record the information. After getting the hand of it and going on auto mode I barely ever have to adjust it.



NotanEmployee said:


> My average ride is 20-25 miles. If I get return rides then my in between miles are less that 1 mile. Occasionally I'll have to dead head back hoping for a ping on my way. From my house to the airport is 5 miles and I rarely get to the airport before getting a ping.
> 
> Uber does this for you, every trip from start to end. So I have trip miles logged, total in app miles logged and non uber miles are so small it is insignificant.


No they give you a summary of your miles "on app." You would have to go thru and print out each of thousands of individual trips to get each drop off address and even at that they don't record your odometer mileage at the location. You would have to figure out a mileage reading at each drop off along the way. It would be a nightmare to try and reconstruct a mileage log that was IRS compliant that way, but to each their own.


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## NotanEmployee (Apr 20, 2019)

Seamus said:


> No they give you a summary of your miles "on app." You would have to go thru and print out each of thousands of individual trips to get each drop off address and even at that they don't record your odometer mileage at the location. You would have to figure out a mileage reading at each drop off along the way. It would be a nightmare to try and reconstruct a mileage log that was IRS compliant that way, but to each their own.


Even better, this would just confirm the stride app. Unlike doing a singular trip where you need to record each individual trip, (which may be the case if you were say, an insurance inspector who did 2 separate trips in a day) a trip in respect to rideshare business is one long trip from the moment you Hit the GO button and become active and have intention of accepting rides up until you click GO OFFLINE or have no intention of accepting rides. You do NOT need to record each individual ride you give with uber. Stride records the date, time, number of miles, start address, end address and any notes I add. Everything the IRS requires except for one thing which is easy for me to do.....they want your odometer reading at the beginning and end of the year. I can handle that. The old days of odometer readings are gone with GPS tracking software. They only required it back then to prove you weren't pulling a number out of thin air. The only way to get accurate mileage was through odometer readings.

All of this can be confirmed buy your tax professional, which I highly recommend. Unless you really understand how business taxes work, you are probably paying too much in taxes.


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## Asificarewhatyoudontthink (Jul 6, 2017)

itendstonight said:


> So I've been diligent keeping records of dates, start miles, end miles, start location, end location, fare, pax number, so on but it is SO exhausting. Anyone actually ever get audited during tax times?


Assume the following and you will see why a rideshare driver isn't likely to be audited.
First, the IRS rarely audits someone it knows would be due a return.
As the IRS has already received your numbers (dollar amounts) from everyone (unless you do under the table crime) they know what you earned.

If you drive full time and made 35,000.00 GROSS earnings last year and were in a market that pays 0.70 per mile and .10 per minute you were, at average making 0.85 per mile (assuming 30 mph average speed). Add in your empty, but still on duty, miles which, for most people, works out to just about 1/3rd of your total miles driven as part of this job. So, take your total miles paid and multiply that by 1.33. Then, multiply that by .545

35,000.00 gross earnings means you drove 47,156.5 miles paid.
62,718 miles total is not unlikely. 
Which makes your mileage deduction 34,181.00(ish) leaving you a "taxable" income of 819.00.

Don't forget to include your mileage for driving into the area you start in, driving back to service areas from non service areas...pretty much any driving you do that isn't for personal reasons.


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## Juggalo9er (Dec 7, 2017)

I completely lie every year
Have been for almost twenty years
Never had an issue


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## Seamus (Jun 21, 2018)

NotanEmployee said:


> Even better, this would just confirm the stride app. Unlike doing a singular trip where you need to record each individual trip, (which may be the case if you were say, an insurance inspector who did 2 separate trips in a day) a trip in respect to rideshare business is one long trip from the moment you Hit the GO button and become active and have intention of accepting rides up until you click GO OFFLINE or have no intention of accepting rides. You do NOT need to record each individual ride you give with uber. Stride records the date, time, number of miles, start address, end address and any notes I add. Everything the IRS requires except for one thing which is easy for me to do.....they want your odometer reading at the beginning and end of the year. I can handle that. The old days of odometer readings are gone with GPS tracking software. They only required it back then to prove you weren't pulling a number out of thin air. The only way to get accurate mileage was through odometer readings.
> 
> All of this can be confirmed buy your tax professional, which I highly recommend. Unless you really understand how business taxes work, you are probably paying too much in taxes.


LOL


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## NotanEmployee (Apr 20, 2019)

From the irs website...


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## Seamus (Jun 21, 2018)

NotanEmployee said:


> From the irs website...
> 
> View attachment 314205


@UberTaxPro is this information correct. Has something changed that now allows a simple driveway to driveway daily mileage summary to be sufficient? Do you no longer have to record each business destination but can now combine to one single use? I know in the past you cited a court case where the court accepted Uber's mileage summary as acceptable proof. Do you no longer have to keep a detailed mileage log?

Thanks for your help.


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

911 Guy said:


> Simple spreadsheet. Uber was the easiest part of my taxes. I wouldn't mind an audit though, I think I overpaid for a few years.


You can only go back 3 years to reclaim over payments.

The Government can go back much further.


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## UberTaxPro (Oct 3, 2014)

Seamus said:


> @UberTaxPro is this information correct. Has something changed that now allows a simple driveway to driveway daily mileage summary to be sufficient? Do you no longer have to record each business destination but can now combine to one single use? I know in the past you cited a court case where the court accepted Uber's mileage summary as acceptable proof. Do you no longer have to keep a detailed mileage log?
> 
> Thanks for your help.


Nothing has changed, a mileage log is still required to deduct vehicle expenses. The example given in the IRS's verbiage is "route" driver that does the same thing every route. Ride-share driving is generally not a "route". An exception might be making many stops with the same pax. In that case just the initial pick up and drop off location would suffice, you wouldn't have to log each stop with the same pax. Yes, a recent tax court case accepted "online miles" for an Uber driver. The driver did however have a mileage log that wasn't to the judge's liking. The judge accepted the miles on the log up to the "Uber online miles". Would the judge have accepted the online miles if the driver had no log at all? I wouldn't want to be the test case for that one.


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## Ubergaldrivet (Feb 6, 2019)

itendstonight said:


> So I've been diligent keeping records of dates, start miles, end miles, start location, end location, fare, pax number, so on but it is SO exhausting. Anyone actually ever get audited during tax times?


Nope


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## Ubergaldrivet (Feb 6, 2019)

steveK2016 said:


> Why are you keeping log of start and end location? Pax number? None if that truly matters to the IRS.
> 
> I hear they only have the resources to audit something like 5% of the population. While its some what random, i think they'd rather audit someone that has more potential for a higher return on the investment. Is it worth auditing you to see if they can squeeze another $500 out of you or the multi-millionaire that may own millions?


2%


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## itendstonight (Feb 10, 2019)

UberTaxPro said:


> Nothing has changed, a mileage log is still required to deduct vehicle expenses. The example given in the IRS's verbiage is "route" driver that does the same thing every route. Ride-share driving is generally not a "route". An exception might be making many stops with the same pax. In that case just the initial pick up and drop off location would suffice, you wouldn't have to log each stop with the same pax. Yes, a recent tax court case accepted "online miles" for an Uber driver. The driver did however have a mileage log that wasn't to the judge's liking. The judge accepted the miles on the log up to the "Uber online miles". Would the judge have accepted the online miles if the driver had no log at all? I wouldn't want to be the test case for that one.


Have a link? What did the judge not like about the driver's log?


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## UberTaxPro (Oct 3, 2014)

itendstonight said:


> Have a link? What did the judge not like about the driver's log?


It's on this board somewhere



itendstonight said:


> Have a link? What did the judge not like about the driver's log?


Here it is:https://www.ustaxcourt.gov/ustcinop/opinionviewer.aspx?ID=11787 I remembered it wrong, he didn't have any log or records of his own to verify auto expenses other than the Uber records. He just claimed the expenses on his schedule C without any substantiation for anything! The Uber mileage record was the only documentation he had and it was accepted by the court.


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## NotanEmployee (Apr 20, 2019)

UberTaxPro said:


> Here it is:https://www.ustaxcourt.gov/ustcinop/opinionviewer.aspx?ID=11787 I remembered it wrong, he didn't have any log or records of his own to verify auto expenses other than the Uber records. He just claimed the expenses on his schedule C without any substantiation for anything! The Uber mileage record was the only documentation he had and it was accepted by the court.


Then it's safe to say getting odometer readings at beginning and end of year, plus mileage tracker such as stride tax or mile IQ in addition to the miles tracked by uber is a safe bet but no need to track each individual trip while driving uber. If uber tracks all miles while the app is on and you are working, the rest would just be redundant record keeping just in case.


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## FLKeys (Dec 27, 2018)

I can see where having a trip by trip log can get tedious, I average 70 rides a week and still manage to keep a paper log that I enter into excel.

There is more to detailed mileage log than just the IRS requirements. It can be a great tool to identify patterns and hot spots. I am always analyzing my mileage log to help eliminate dead miles. I mentioned in another thread that I am up in revenue 2¢ per mile this year over last year by using my logs to spot trends and busy zones.


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## UberTaxPro (Oct 3, 2014)

NotanEmployee said:


> Then it's safe to say getting odometer readings at beginning and end of year, plus mileage tracker such as stride tax or mile IQ in addition to the miles tracked by uber is a safe bet but no need to track each individual trip while driving uber. If uber tracks all miles while the app is on and you are working, the rest would just be redundant record keeping just in case.


The only 100% sure safe way to proceed is to keep an accurate log that records all your trips and business miles. When you drive to an Uber hub or to the repair shop those are business miles that won't get picked up by the Uber app. You don't want to miss any business miles! Your mileage deduction is worth a lot of money at tax time, do you really want to entrust that much $ to Uber? They never used to give you mileage #'s and they could stop at any time. You could be terminated and loose access to your online account containing the mileage records you'll need (that has happened to a few on here). This might be a bit more than actually required by the IRS but the following CT taxi log has been used for 100 years and is CT and IRS compliant. This is what you want your log to look like no matter how you keep it, electronically with an app or pencil and paper. https://www.ct.gov/dot/lib/dot/taxi.pdf 
I've found using trip log in manual mode enables you to create a perfect log without much effort once you get used to it.


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## FLKeys (Dec 27, 2018)

NotanEmployee said:


> Then it's safe to say getting odometer readings at beginning and end of year, plus mileage tracker such as stride tax or mile IQ in addition to the miles tracked by uber is a safe bet but no need to track each individual trip while driving uber. If uber tracks all miles while the app is on and you are working, the rest would just be redundant record keeping just in case.


That is a risk you take trusting someone will accept the Uber report in every case. Plus many drivers drive for both Uber and Lyft at the same time, you can't add Ubers numbers to Lyfts numbers and take the total.

It all comes to what is your comfort level? Will you ever get audited? Will the auditor accept Ubers numbers? If you run at a loss year after year like most drivers here say they do, having detailed logs and records goes a long way to showing you are acting as a business and not a hobby which could get all your miles dismissed.


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## NotanEmployee (Apr 20, 2019)

UberTaxPro said:


> This is what you want your log to look like no matter how you keep it, electronically with an app or pencil and paper. https://www.ct.gov/dot/lib/dot/taxi.pdf


Yeah, that would be impossible. The stacked rides....I don't even want to go there and "please wait while I record my odometer and address for tax purposes" would go over well with riders. Odometer readings beginning and end....whats the address of this beach or the side of this road and what about miles between runs which ARE business miles. It says one trip can be used for uninterrupted business use. That's how I'll record mileage. Like I said, I will not use the uber miles exclusively. I use stride tax for each instance of work. The two just support one another...its redundancy. I won't claim miles to get my oil changed or car washes. Those may be legitimate business uses or not but I'm not risking those few extra miles. They won't add up to much.


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## Driver_X (Jun 16, 2019)

I have only been doing this for half a year, I just purchased the Intuit QuickBooks through the Lyft App. So far pulling the milage from each drive from history and entering it into the Intuit Online App is a tedious slow task. I received an email from Lyft support saying there is an option to download weekly reports as a PDF? I have found no way or link option to download the PDF. I wish there was a was to download the ride milage and addresses as a excel file or something that could be imported.

Even as a PDF if it give date, mileage and address and milage in PDF, I may be able to devise a way to pull the data from a PDF and create a Microsoft Excel tool to convert the data into a useable format.

With Quarterly Estimated taxes only two days off and I have spent three days adding milage data into QuickBooks and hundreds of rides to go I am getting burned out making no money doing this.There has to be a better way.


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## FLKeys (Dec 27, 2018)

It's called keeping daily records daily and not waiting to the last minute to try and get them together. Neither Uber or Lyft give you the complete address after the trip is over.


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## KK2929 (Feb 9, 2017)

FLKeys said:


> It's called keeping daily records daily and not waiting to the last minute to try and get them together. Neither Uber or Lyft give you the complete address after the trip is over.


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TripLog gives you the addresses plus other information.


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## Ylinks (Apr 22, 2019)

You get paid somewhere around $0.60 per mile. The write off is $0.58. Add in a few dead miles and you zero out your tax liability. The IRS audits people to make a profit. It costs them a couple of grand just to assign and open an audit. They have absolutely no interest in auditing Uber drivers. The only reason you ever hear about taxes is because Stride and TurboTax pay rideshare sites a commission per app install.


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## Trafficat (Dec 19, 2016)

I was recording with Everlance on automatic mode and then I discovered it wasn't even recording half of my miles. 

There is no time to record miles between trips because of stacked pings.... at least not consistently. Lyft will autocancel your ride if you hit an inappropriately timed stoplight, let alone if you are taking a 30-60 second break to enter data in a spreadsheet.


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## FLKeys (Dec 27, 2018)

Trafficat said:


> I was recording with Everlance on automatic mode and then I discovered it wasn't even recording half of my miles.
> 
> There is no time to record miles between trips because of stacked pings.... at least not consistently. Lyft will autocancel your ride if you hit an inappropriately timed stoplight, let alone if you are taking a 30-60 second break to enter data in a spreadsheet.


I have a note pad sitting right next to me. I can record odometer reading and destination as PAX is getting in and out of car. It only takes seconds once you get into a routine. I enter everything into the spreadsheet as time permits or at the end of the day.

I guess I just don't want to rely on technology to keep track of my biggest expense right off. I see many posts on here how people have issues and lost mileage from secondary apps.


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## BobMarley (Feb 12, 2019)

NOXDriver said:


> I don't do anything for Uber/Lyft income. First, the standard deduction is usually enough to offset and business loss. Second, having to give up 30% of what little I DO make from rideshare is not worth any *EXTREMELY MINOR* tax savings you might have.
> 
> Business expenses are not that great a tax write off.
> 
> I'm not saying do anything illegal (wink wink) but no, the 1099 you get is not gonna set off any audit flags unless you start making stupid deductions like home office or extreme mileage claims.


Your situation is different than mine... but its truly not extremely minor. I'm already in the 12% bracket from my day job (after 12,200 standard deduction), 5% state income, and then there is self-employment tax 15% (totals 32%). I drive about 400 miles a week doing rideshare. If I just said, nah mileage deduction isn't worth it, I'd be giving up around $232 a week in tax deductions. That number times .32 is $74 a week or $3848 a year. Worth taking IMO. Although, you are correct in a way, I see lots of people here that think the mileage deduction is worth way more than it is.


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