# Uber 2014 Tax Summary and On-Trip vs On-Line mileage.



## Tom Madison (Aug 11, 2014)

gman said:


> Seems a little harsh. Highly doubt some Uber driver with piddly ass earnings is going to "get audited in a heartbeat", lol. Just make sure your "guesstimate", if you have to do one, is reasonable. And of course if you are going to continue to Uber this year now would be a good time to start a mileage log.


If you file a Schedule C and the IRS notices that the 1099-K is from a service like Uber and you are taking expenses equal to 60% or more of your earnings that might be an audit flag. This is not professional advice, but a reasonable rule of thumb. My gross Uber earnings are $2700, commissions and fees are $600 and mileage deduction is $1100 which leaves a net profit of $1000. However, this represents about 1.5% of my gross income and the rest of my deductions are pretty straightforward. Am I concerned about an audit? Not especially, but I have a contemporaneous log that shows the start and end mileage for every time that I went online.


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## StephenJBlue (Sep 23, 2014)

SCdave said:


> If you didn't keep good records (Date, Start/Stop Odometer mileage, & locations traveled), you could recreate this on a spreadsheet. Cut and paste all trips from the Uber Dashboard (I find this easier to cut and paste into spreadsheet over the weekly pay statement). The Dash Board gives you this:
> 
> *Time* *Duration*  *Mileage* *Fare* *Status*
> 
> ...


You don't need to show where you drove. Just starting and ending odometers readings for the day or time you were working.


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## Fauxknight (Aug 12, 2014)

49matrix said:


> I have an issue with Commuting mileage. In this business there is no commuting, once your on line you're 'At Work' is my credo. I also believe the mileage driven to pick up the rider is part of the deductible mileage not just once their ass in your car. We've all driven 8/10 miles to get a $3 minimum. Right?
> Once I'm on line I can sit in the driveway and wait, it's not long before I get a request.


Correct, your home is effectively your office with this job so you don't have to worry about non-deductible commuting miles. All miles driven with the app on, rider or not...assuming intent to work, as well as app off miles moving to/from your home to start or stop work are deductible.


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## Fuzzyelvis (Dec 7, 2014)

painfreepc said:


> Where in the it's tax law does it say you can't show a loss,
> 
> For many companies a loss is just another form of advertising, like uber paying a rate guarantee or paying $500 to a lyft driver and a $500 finder fee to the uber driver.


You can. But if you can't PROVE the loss because you really were a complete idiot and didn't keep a mileage log then he's saying it's probably better to lose some of the deduction in order to not get audited because if you do get audited without a log you're very likely screwed.


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## PTB (Feb 3, 2015)

Did anyone go to the Uber Anaheim meeting today with H&R Block/Uber and ask

CAN UBER PLEASE PROVIDE on-line MILES !!!!!!

I signed up for Metromile Insurance, but no way to track ON-LINE miles from last year 2015


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## Fauxknight (Aug 12, 2014)

PTB said:


> I signed up for Metromile Insurance, but no way to track ON-LINE miles from last year 2015


Get out your notebook where you wrote your mileage in daily, and presto, you have your online miles.


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## PTB (Feb 3, 2015)

presto, wrong answer


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## afrojoe824 (Oct 21, 2015)

or subscribe to an app that tracks all your miles for you. easy.


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## PTB (Feb 3, 2015)

this affects every single Uber driver

Lyft provides ON-LINE mileage totals
Uber provides ON-TRIP mileage only

so basically, only if it benefits UBER will Uber do it, if driver benefits, screw it


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## Ben Doerr (Jan 18, 2016)

PTB said:


> this affects every single Uber driver
> 
> Lyft provides ON-LINE mileage totals
> Uber provides ON-TRIP mileage only
> ...


Thanks for being a valued partner


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## Fauxknight (Aug 12, 2014)

Well then, you have a problem.

If you run Uber and Lyft simultaneously then having full numbers from both Uber and Lyft wouldn't help anyways...you'd be showing a lot of doubled up mileage.

The way to have it right is to keep track of your mileage yourself. It's in pretty much every newbie help thread and is one of the first things suggested to any new driver.


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## Nick781 (Dec 7, 2014)

StephenJBlue said:


> You don't need to show where you drove. Just starting and ending odometers readings for the day or time you were working.


You need to write where you drove... its what the IRS requires.


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## Body Politic (Jan 1, 2016)

Fauxknight said:


> Well then, you have a problem.
> 
> If you run Uber and Lyft simultaneously then having full numbers from both Uber and Lyft wouldn't help anyways...you'd be showing a lot of doubled up mileage.
> 
> The way to have it right is to keep track of your mileage yourself. It's in pretty much every newbie help thread and is one of the first things suggested to any new driver.


Because Uber only reports passenger miles, you'd only be showing doubled-up mileage if you keep Lyft in driver mode while you have Uber passengers in your car. If anything you'd be UNDER-reporting your miles because there would be no log of your miles from when you accept an Uber request (and presumably turn driver mode off on Lyft) and when you arrive at the pickup spot.


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## Fauxknight (Aug 12, 2014)

I said if you had full reporting, that's live and dead miles, from both apps you'd have doubled up miles.

The only way to have full correct miles is to have kept track of them oneself.


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## uberbostonguy8 (Mar 10, 2015)

StephenJBlue said:


> You don't need to show where you drove. Just starting and ending odometers readings for the day or time you were working.


Sorry but wrong. You may only need this to enter your mileage for taxes, but good luck with that if you get audited. IRS will ask for trip by trip log and when you don't have it you'll get slammed.


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## UberTaxPro (Oct 3, 2014)

uberbostonguy8 said:


> Sorry but wrong. You may only need this to enter your mileage for taxes, but good luck with that if you get audited. IRS will ask for trip by trip log and when you don't have it you'll get slammed.


Fortunately Uber does keep records of actual trip pickups and destinations(even includes map). Those records in addition to a daily mileage log that includes your dead miles would I think suffice. The problem might be will those Uber kept records be available to you when you need them. It's a good idea to keep copies of your own of those trip records(maps). "right click and save as"


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## Fauxknight (Aug 12, 2014)

UberTaxPro said:


> Fortunately Uber does keep records of actual trip pickups and destinations(even includes map).


For anyone who didn't track their exact mileage you can at least find some of it here. You have your last drop off location and you'd next pick up spot, at bare minimum the distance from one to the next are dead miles...yes, going through thousands of tripswould be avpain, but it would work.


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## Dback2004 (Nov 7, 2015)

I don't track mileage in real-time, but I have an Excel spreadsheet that I go back and look at my trip history and fill in the mileage and use this for tax purposes. I don't know if it'd stand up to an audit or not.... it's a full trip log it just doesn't have any odometer readings.

Essentially I copy the log information I get from the partner's portal (Date/Time, Trip ID, Mileage, and Fare). Then enter the pickup location and drop off from the map, and calculate the mileage I drove to the pickup with Google Maps, and after when applicable. This also allows me to remove any "commuter mileage" from my tax deduction. I keep the Trip ID in case I need to go back to Uber for something, but I'm not sure how long they keep the history in their databases.

The downside to this is it's a manual process to copy/paste the data from Uber, then look up each map to calculate mileage. I rarely drive from one location to another looking for fares, so I miss a few of those miles each year.


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## UberTaxPro (Oct 3, 2014)

Dback2004 said:


> I don't track mileage in real-time, but I have an Excel spreadsheet that I go back and look at my trip history and fill in the mileage and use this for tax purposes. I don't know if it'd stand up to an audit or not.... it's a full trip log it just doesn't have any odometer readings.
> 
> Essentially I copy the log information I get from the partner's portal (Date/Time, Trip ID, Mileage, and Fare). Then enter the pickup location and drop off from the map, and calculate the mileage I drove to the pickup with Google Maps, and after when applicable. This also allows me to remove any "commuter mileage" from my tax deduction. I keep the Trip ID in case I need to go back to Uber for something, but I'm not sure how long they keep the history in their databases.
> 
> The downside to this is it's a manual process to copy/paste the data from Uber, then look up each map to calculate mileage. I rarely drive from one location to another looking for fares, so I miss a few of those miles each year.


Why not just add daily odometer beginning and ending?


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## Older Chauffeur (Oct 16, 2014)

^^^


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