# Social Security recipient needs advice



## jim_1109 (2 mo ago)

I am a 71 year young social security recipient. My wife works part time as a caregiver. I am signed up to become an Uber driver and will start next week. Can anyone give me advice as to how to handle the income stream from Uber and my social security account? How will my taxes be handled? Any special considerations to look @? Any advice would be appreciated. I did not expect to be working after I retired but due to the economy, inflation and taxes I am obligated to do something to assist our income stream!


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

Anything I suggest must be verified by a real tax advisor, because I’m not a professional, nor do I know your full financial situation to even know what the hell I’m talking about. My thought is, the write-offs that are allowed under your business expenses such as the vehicle mileage deduction might negate any earnings you bring in from Ubering. Thus, it becomes a wash, and the taxes you end up owing on Uber earnings will possibly be negligible. That being said, you could ask your wife to increase the amount of taxes being deducted from her weekly salary, or you can instruct the social security office to increase the amount of taxes being taken from your monthly benefit check to make sure your household doesn’t end up owing taxes at the end of the year. But again, anything I say shouldn’t be taken as professional advice. I know there are plenty of boomers & geezers who use this forum, so maybe they can steer you in a better direction than me. 
Inflation is a serious problem. I hear you’re getting an 8% social security raise to “stay even.” What a joke, anybody buying fuel or paying for groceries knows that an 8% “cost of living” increase will do little to combat the out of control economic woes Joe Biden’s policies have created on the country. I wish you luck.


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## jim_1109 (2 mo ago)

Thank you for your response guber. All thoughts to consider. Have a blessed day!


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## mikes424 (May 22, 2016)

Keep a record of your miles. They are deductible.


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## jim_1109 (2 mo ago)

mikes424 said:


> Keep a record of your miles. They are deductible.


Do you just start your mileage tracking @ the start of your driving day and end the tracking @ the end of your "shift". You don't have to track each customer do you?


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## forqalso (Jun 1, 2015)

jim_1109 said:


> Do you just start your mileage tracking @ the start of your driving day and end the tracking @ the end of your "shift". You don't have to track each customer do you?


I always noted the odometer reading at the very start of the day when I first got in my car and again at the end, when I got home. Any miles driven with the app online should be considered deductible.


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## mikes424 (May 22, 2016)

forqalso said:


> I always noted the odometer reading at the very start of the day when I first got in my car and again at the end, when I got home. Any miles driven with the app online should be considered deductible.


Same as I do.


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## NotMe (Sep 5, 2017)

jim_1109 said:


> I am a 71 year young social security recipient. My wife works part time as a caregiver. I am signed up to become an Uber driver and will start next week. Can anyone give me advice as to how to handle the income stream from Uber and my social security account? How will my taxes be handled? Any special considerations to look @? Any advice would be appreciated. I did not expect to be working after I retired but due to the economy, inflation and taxes I am obligated to do something to assist our income stream!


I’m doing uber part time so as an example last year I make $20k with $22k online miles (according to uber paperwork) so it is not exactly true that you will pay ~0 tax on uber income.


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## Christinebitg (Jun 29, 2018)

jim_1109 said:


> Can anyone give me advice as to how to handle the income stream from Uber and my social security account? How will my taxes be handled?


The stuff you do for Uber will be reported on Schedule C. You will deduct the cost of your vehicle using mileage, so you need to know the number of miles you put on your vehicle for Uber, and the number of miles total in the year. If you have to pay any tolls, record them too.

If you're only doing Uber X, you probably will have some income from it, but not a lot.

Also, follow the income tax instructions regarding whether you need to pay self-employment tax.

I find it helps if you've already been doing your taxes manually, but that's not a requirement.

I don't know what state you're in. There could be a state tax return affected. I live in Texas, which doesn't have a state income tax.


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## Toocutetofail (Sep 14, 2018)

Do the right thing and delete uber or lyft app right now!


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## Launchpad McQuack (Jan 8, 2019)

jim_1109 said:


> Do you just start your mileage tracking @ the start of your driving day and end the tracking @ the end of your "shift". You don't have to track each customer do you?


This is a topic that has been fiercely debated on this forum. There are two schools of thought, and there are posters in each school that will tell you that their version is the definitive right answer.

Version #1: Recording your odometer reading at the start and end of each day is sufficient documentation.

Version #2: To satisfy the IRS during an audit, you need a detailed mileage log that includes an entry (date, time, address, odometer reading, business purpose of the trip) for each stop that you make.

I can't tell you which version is the right answer. I have not found anything from an authoritative source that puts the question to rest. The answer even seems to vary depending on which professional tax advisor that you ask. Given the uncertainty, I go with Version #2. My reason is that if I were ever to be audited and my mileage deductions were to be disallowed for insufficient documentation, it would cost me thousands of dollars. If I knew for sure that Version #1 would satisfy the IRS in an audit, I would do that because it is less work. Given the potential cost, though, I am not willing to take the risk.


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

jim_1109 said:


> I am a 71 year young social security recipient. My wife works part time as a caregiver. I am signed up to become an Uber driver and will start next week. Can anyone give me advice as to how to handle the income stream from Uber and my social security account? How will my taxes be handled? Any special considerations to look @? Any advice would be appreciated. I did not expect to be working after I retired but due to the economy, inflation and taxes I am obligated to do something to assist our income stream!


What market are you in?

Because what city you are working in has a bigger impact on your federal/state taxes than any other detail, including how much you make. Yes, what city you are in matters more than how much money you make.

I don't know EVERYTHING but I know some things.



Next up is social security benifits.


Assuming you are full retirement age (which if you are 71 i think this would be the case, but don't quote me on it)

If you are over full retirement age earnings do not impact your social security payments.

So you won't have your income reduced by working... _I don't think_. It might have some tax implications in terms of state taxes. (I have no idea)


Next comes the tax situation, depending on where you are located and what kind of car you are operating the tax situation will vary.

For instance, in Orlando an X driver will virtually never owe anything for taxes

And in Orlando an ubertaxi driver _*will Owe*_ taxes for uber earnings.

Other high pay cities such as NYC and Seattle will generate a tax bill with any vehicle type,
Areas like Orlando never will on lower services, but on higher services like Select and Black you can generate a tax bill.



As an orlando uberX driver I wouldn't need to set aside anything for taxes. If you are amarried and jointly filing it can actually result in your spouses tax bill going down.


Once you start working you need to calculate whether or not you have any IRS taxable profit. So this is a situation where you will know very fast whether or not you will owe taxes and roughly how much.


From day 1 start a log.
Column 1.
Odometer start

Column 2
Odo end

Column 3
Tolls

Column 4
Total deposited by app companies

Column 5
Cash tips

Column 6 total revenue

Column 7 Column 2 minus Column 1 multiplied by .625
Column 8

So for 11/9/22
Start 105,655
End 105,855
$4.15
deposts $215
cash tips $12
Total revenue $217
Mileage ded ($125)
Taxable profit $87.85

So for 11/9/22 I would consider $87.85 as "income" as per the IRS. Take note that my "income" in this example is only a small portion of the total revenue. (40% in my example).

the portion of your deposits that is considering "income" can reach as low as NEGATIVE 30%. Meaning the IRS thinks you are losing money on paper.

And gasoline receipts don't matter, what matters is your odometer readings.


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## Ribak (Jun 30, 2017)

jim_1109 said:


> I am a 71 year young social security recipient. My wife works part time as a caregiver. I am signed up to become an Uber driver and will start next week. Can anyone give me advice as to how to handle the income stream from Uber and my social security account? How will my taxes be handled? Any special considerations to look @? Any advice would be appreciated. I did not expect to be working after I retired but due to the economy, inflation and taxes I am obligated to do something to assist our income stream!


First of all...71 is old...very old. You are not 71 years young....but 71 years ancient.
At 71, you are well above the "full retirement age", thus there is no limit on how much you can earn. This will not limit your SS payments in any manner. 
If you were under the retirement age (and still claiming SS), your max annual earning are limited to $19,560. Anything beyond that will decrease you SS payment.


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## Christinebitg (Jun 29, 2018)

Ribak said:


> First of all...71 is old...very old. You are not 71 years young....but 71 years ancient.


And you know this HOW??


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## Ribak (Jun 30, 2017)

Christinebitg said:


> And you know this HOW??


At 17, you were 5' 9"...but would eventually be above 6 foot.
At 71, you are closer to being 6 feet under.


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## Christinebitg (Jun 29, 2018)

Ribak said:


> At 17, you were 5' 9"...but would eventually be above 6 foot.
> At 71, you are closer to being 6 feet under.


Well, aren't you just a dazzling ray of sunshine today.


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## Civicdriver (3 mo ago)

jim_1109 said:


> Do you just start your mileage tracking @ the start of your driving day and end the tracking @ the end of your "shift". You don't have to track each customer do you?


Dont you have a trip odometer in your car?
Set it to zero before you start,at end of work day write down your miles in a ledger with the date.
Done!!
No separating trips,just total miles for the day !


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