# I owe IRS $4000. Is this normal?



## yns651 (Mar 15, 2020)

In 2019, I made gross earning for $60,000 in Uber platform and for $4500 in Postmates. I applied 36,886 mileage for business expense.

I am a single. I feel like it is too much. Please give me your advice.


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## SHalester (Aug 25, 2019)

did you have withholdings during the year?


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## mbd (Aug 27, 2018)

yns651 said:


> In 2019, I made gross earning for $60,000 in Uber platform and for $4500 in Postmates.
> 
> I am a single. I feel like it is too much. Please give me your advice.


Cheat on the miles... make it 70,000 miles... You will pay around 2500/2800$
standard deductions will put you at 7000$


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## yns651 (Mar 15, 2020)

SHalester said:


> did you have withholdings during the year?


Not much. I was an part time employee in the last year from Jan to Mar 15. In that time, I only made $4033



mbd said:


> Cheat on the miles... make it 70,000 miles... You will pay around 2500/2800$
> standard deductions will put you at 7000$
> 
> 
> ...





mbd said:


> Cheat on the miles... make it 70,000 miles... You will pay around 2500/2800$
> standard deductions will put you at 7000$


Is this really possible? My accountant checked the tax form I got from Uber.


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## SHalester (Aug 25, 2019)

to reduce the 'shock' of paying taxes in April you can pay estimated pymts during the year..... I don't recommend you cheat on your taxes because if you get audited....uh oh....


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## mbd (Aug 27, 2018)

yns651 said:


> Not much. I was an part time employee in the last year from Jan to Mar 15. In that time, I only made $4033
> 
> 
> 
> ...


How many Uber miles does it show ?


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## yns651 (Mar 15, 2020)

mbd said:


> How many miles does it show ?


36886


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## mbd (Aug 27, 2018)

yns651 said:


> 36886


Are you driving XL or higher ?


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## TemptingFate (May 2, 2019)

yns651 said:


> In 2019, I made gross earning for $60,000 in Uber platform and for $4500 in Postmates. I applied 36,886 mileage for business expense.
> 
> I am a single. I feel like it is too much. Please give me your advice.


You're doing it wrong. 
You should have no or nearly no net taxable earnings from rideshare. Did you subtract Uber's take from your gross earnings? Did you apply the mileage deduction correctly? Go to a CPA if TurboTax is not helping you enough.


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## mbd (Aug 27, 2018)

mbd said:


> Are you driving XL or higher ?


60,000$ on 36,000 miles ?


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## mbd (Aug 27, 2018)

mbd said:


> 60,000$ on 36,000 miles ?


If it is 36,000 miles you should pay close to 6000$
36,000 miles is 20,000$ deduction
Plus additional 15,000$ deduction max ?


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## yns651 (Mar 15, 2020)

TemptingFate said:


> You're doing it wrong.
> You should have no or nearly no net taxable earnings from rideshare. Did you subtract Uber's take from your gross earnings? Did you apply the mileage deduction correctly? Go to a CPA if TurboTax is not helping you enough.


Thank you for your valued advice



mbd said:


> If it is 36,000 miles you should pay close to 6000$


Uber X. I rent a car from both Hertz and Fair for 4 months in 2019


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## mbd (Aug 27, 2018)

60,000 on 36000 miles is really good 👍


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## TemptingFate (May 2, 2019)

mbd said:


> If it is 36,000 miles you should pay close to 6000$


No that's not right! 36,000 miles includes dead miles that are unpaid. Assume half are paid. 18000 miles at LA UberX rates is only $12600 take home pay. 36000 miles at mileage deduction of .58 cents is $20,880. He has no net taxable income, just like most drivers.

Can you check your earnings, bank deposits, and see what the total is? I bet it's not $60,000!


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## mbd (Aug 27, 2018)

yns651 said:


> Thank you for your valued advice
> 
> 
> Uber X. I rent a car from both Hertz and Fair for 4 months in 2019


Ok
So you split 4 months on the rental and 8 months on your own vehicle ?
36,000 miles on your vehicle + rental fee deduction ?



TemptingFate said:


> No that's not right! 36,000 miles includes dead miles that are unpaid. Assume half are paid. 18000 miles at LA UberX rates is only $12600 take home pay. 36000 miles at mileage deduction of .58 cents is $20,880. He has no net taxable income, just like most drivers.


He said he made 60k


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## TemptingFate (May 2, 2019)

mbd said:


> He said he made 60k


Impossible!


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## mbd (Aug 27, 2018)

TemptingFate said:


> Impossible!


Maybe Uber take + his = 60k
Uber charging close to 1.70$ per mile &#128513;


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## 25rides7daysaweek (Nov 20, 2017)

TemptingFate said:


> You're doing it wrong.
> You should have no or nearly no net taxable earnings from rideshare. Did you subtract Uber's take from your gross earnings? Did you apply the mileage deduction correctly? Go to a CPA if TurboTax is not helping you enough.


He said he made 60k.
That's probably what he pocketed
When you deduct the miles you still have to pay SSI and state taxes plus what's left after the deductions.
When you make money you have to pay..


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## mbd (Aug 27, 2018)

$21,000( miles deduction)4000$on rental ( guessing)+ postmate + 12,200$= close to 40k to low 40k deductions
Pay tax on low 20k?


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## 25rides7daysaweek (Nov 20, 2017)

TemptingFate said:


> Impossible!


Nothing impossible about it..


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## TemptingFate (May 2, 2019)

25rides7daysaweek said:


> He said he made 60k.
> That's probably what he pocketed
> When you deduct the miles you still have to pay SSI and state taxes plus what's left after the deductions.
> When you make money you have to pay..


There's no way to make $60K on 36K miles UberX driving at LA rates. It doesn't add up.


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## yns651 (Mar 15, 2020)

25rides7daysaweek said:


> He said he made 60k.
> That's probably what he pocketed
> When you deduct the miles you still have to pay SSI and state taxes plus what's left after the deductions.
> When you make money you have to pay..


60K is gross. I applied around $18,XXX for Uber fee


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## TemptingFate (May 2, 2019)

yns651 said:


> 60K is gross. I applied around $18,XXX for Uber fee


Uber fees are usually closer to 50% than 30%. Are you also deducting car rental expense?


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## yns651 (Mar 15, 2020)

TemptingFate said:


> There's no way to make $60K on 36K miles UberX driving at LA rates. It doesn't add up.


60K is gross. I applied around $18,XXX f


TemptingFate said:


> Uber fees are usually closer to 50% than 30%. Are you also deducting car rental expense?


I think this is the problem. I did not deduct the rental expense.


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## Immoralized (Nov 7, 2017)

yns651 said:


> 60K is gross. I applied around $18,XXX f
> 
> I think this is the problem. I did not deduct the rental expense.


You probably just answered ur own question. You have to spend at least 2-7 days working out all of ur deductions and expenses if you haven't been taking note and doing it every month. Every single dollar in deductions & expenses counts towards how much you end up paying to the tax man.

Don't pad your numbers by adding miles you don't do as you may trigger a full audit.
Not usual for 1st year rideshare drivers taking longer then a week to do taxes or overpaying taxes by thousands.


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## 25rides7daysaweek (Nov 20, 2017)

yns651 said:


> 60K is gross. I applied around $18,XXX for Uber fee


You dont get to deduct miles
when you rent a car.


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## LyftUberFuwabolewa (Feb 7, 2019)

yns651 said:


> In 2019, I made gross earning for $60,000 in Uber platform and for $4500 in Postmates. I applied 36,886 mileage for business expense.
> 
> I am a single. I feel like it is too much. Please give me your advice.


Yes

Did you deduct gas, maintenance, phone bill, phone cost, car payments (if any) and tolls?


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## 197438 (Mar 7, 2020)

yns651 said:


> In 2019, I made gross earning for $60,000 in Uber platform and for $4500 in Postmates. I applied 36,886 mileage for business expense.
> 
> I am a single. I feel like it is too much. Please give me your advice.


That's only 6.25%. Even if you could expense half, it's still less than 15% effective rate. No, that's not normal.


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## backstreets-trans (Aug 16, 2015)

Those numbers look perfectly normal. People don't realize being self employed you pay 15% to FICA instead of the 7.5% on net income. So you grossed $65000 probably had a net around $20000. Fica on the 20k is 3k and 1k in federal taxes so 4k total seems very reasonable. Check your mileage though because Uber's numbers don't include all the dead miles.


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## Howard-Indy (Sep 13, 2019)

yns651 said:


> In 2019, I made gross earning for $60,000 in Uber platform and for $4500 in Postmates. I applied 36,886 mileage for business expense.
> 
> I am a single. I feel like it is too much. Please give me your advice.


Read the Uber paper carefully. $60,000 is "Gross earning" which the Uber charged from riders.
1. Your net payout is what Uber paid you and it should not be over $30,000.00 based on your online miles.
2. Federal standards deductions for Uber is $0.58 per mile, yours is $21,393. (=36886 x 0.58)
3. your taxable Uber income should be$8,000.00 or less, which is "your net payout" you received from Uber, minus $21,393.
4. Minus your rental and other expenses.

Following TurboTax instructions, Federal should send you a check.


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## MajorBummer (Aug 10, 2019)

yns651 said:


> In 2019, I made gross earning for $60,000 in Uber platform and for $4500 in Postmates. I applied 36,886 mileage for business expense.
> 
> I am a single. I feel like it is too much. Please give me your advice.


did you deduct Ubers cut? You didnt have any dead miles?


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## Mtbsrfun (May 25, 2019)

*THIS GUY IS TROLLING YOU GUYS SO HARD.*


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## Immoralized (Nov 7, 2017)

Mtbsrfun said:


> *THIS GUY IS TROLLING YOU GUYS SO HARD.*
> 
> View attachment 430270


9 out of 10 new member post are but still interesting :redface:


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## kingcorey321 (May 20, 2018)

yns651 said:


> In 2019, I made gross earning for $60,000 in Uber platform and for $4500 in Postmates. I applied 36,886 mileage for business expense.
> 
> I am a single. I feel like it is too much. Please give me your advice.


talk to a tax pro. you made 60k but drove more then 60 k miles.
WHY NOT CLAIM 60 K MILES ? meaning you will own zero
and people think your full of shit making 60 k. 13 an hour 12 hours a day 7 days a week 60 k. horrible money.
Im not putting how much i earned last year with every income people would for sure think im full of shit too !
my retirement pension stock market fx trade part time ride share .


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## percy_ardmore (Jun 4, 2019)

No estimated tax payments during the year? Then owe 4000 is probably right.


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## FLKeys (Dec 27, 2018)

yns651 said:


> 36886


If these are the miles on your summary you are doing it wrong. You should have a proper mileage log and use those miles.

Edit: See in a later post you are on a rental program.

Still need a mileage log to record your business miles and personal miles. If personal miles was 20% of total miles than you can only deduct 80% of the expenses of the rental car including gas.


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## ANT 7 (Oct 14, 2018)

I'm in Canada, but on my $60K of Uber earnings for 2019, I paid a total of $825 in taxes for the year. Just had my accountant do it for me. You really need to use an accountant. Cost me $241................well worth it.


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## MissAnne (Aug 9, 2017)

I just had my taxes done, and I owe almost $1500, because I did not pay estimated taxes last year, I only made $17K though... definitely doing estimated tax payments this year


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## Asificarewhatyoudontthink (Jul 6, 2017)

yns651 said:


> In 2019, I made gross earning for $60,000 in Uber platform and for $4500 in Postmates. I applied 36,886 mileage for business expense.
> 
> I am a single. I feel like it is too much. Please give me your advice.


I had negative 7000 in adjusted gross and didn't cheat mileage. 
But, did you enter what Uber said your miles were? 
Because if you do some basic math you will see they don't count all of your miles you drive. 
They count miles to pickup and miles with passenger... But, if you are not driving to a pickup after your drop off what you drove to get to where you waited for your next ride counts.

Just saying.


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## GreatWhiteHope (Sep 18, 2018)

yns651 said:


> In 2019, I made gross earning for $60,000 in Uber platform and for $4500 in Postmates. I applied 36,886 mileage for business expense.
> 
> I am a single. I feel like it is too much. Please give me your advice.


Sounds like you're a Beta Beta mail beta a female @waldowainthrop


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## ubercrashdummy (Mar 5, 2015)

It seems like he is only claiming the miles Uber has reported. We all know that you need to track mileage and not rely on Uber's numbers.


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## Nina2 (Oct 6, 2018)

Has been the norm since Trump was first elected
but the rich get huge tax returns like 1 million dollars due to trump
the poor often have to pay more then they made


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## UberXking (Oct 14, 2014)

Nina2 said:


> Has been the norm since Trump was first elected
> but the rich get huge tax returns like 1 million dollars due to trump
> the poor often have to pay more then they made


Wrong this job requires no tax payments. We are not making money. Uber and Lyft are. We have tons of exposure, no overtime and no benefits. If you're paying taxes you probably love pool, weekend nights 1 2:00 a.m. for regular fare and Sunday at the airport without bonus. You think receiving a request while in the middle of a trip is a godsend and a request immediately when entering airport queue is a result of your great work ethic and seniority. Oh, and ratings aren't adjusted they are the result of customers ratings and always only the last 500 with cancels excluded.


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## Uber's Guber (Oct 22, 2017)

yns651 said:


> I owe IRS $4000. Is this normal? I feel like it is too much.
> Please give me your advice.


Stop voting for Democrats!


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## kdyrpr (Apr 23, 2016)

backstreets-trans said:


> Those numbers look perfectly normal. People don't realize being self employed you pay 15% to FICA instead of the 7.5% on net income. So you grossed $65000 probably had a net around $20000. Fica on the 20k is 3k and 1k in federal taxes so 4k total seems very reasonable. Check your mileage though because Uber's numbers don't include all the dead miles.


Was thinking the same thing. 4K for the year is legit. There were NO withholdings.


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## mrpjfresh (Aug 16, 2016)

His numbers are skewed because he rented a car to drive for Uber for a 1/3 of the year. As mentioned, there is _no way_ he averaged around $1.70/mi in saturated and spread out Los Angeles. His accountant could not deduct those rental miles, so I can buy his numbers on the surface without digging into his information. Another reason renting a car for Uber/Lyft sucks. Nasty surprise waiting for those with their heads in the sand come tax time.


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

TemptingFate said:


> You're doing it wrong.
> You should have no or nearly no net taxable earnings from rideshare. Did you subtract Uber's take from your gross earnings? Did you apply the mileage deduction correctly? Go to a CPA if TurboTax is not helping you enough.


Did you apply cellphone ?
Phone service ?
Uniforms ?
Laundry of uniforms ?
Home office?
Charity ?


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