# Writing Off Booking Fees



## pateacher1326 (Mar 26, 2017)

I am doing my taxes and I noticed booking fees are included, despite the fact I did not take home the money. Can I still write this off if I write off mileage? It has nothing to do with wear and tear on my car.


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## KevinJohnson (Mar 23, 2020)

The booking fees are a business expense you paid to Uber for matching you with the rider.


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## UberBastid (Oct 1, 2016)

How much time are you willing to invest to write off nickels to save hundreds and hundreds of pennies?
Go fishing.


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## NicFit (Jan 18, 2020)

Don’t write it off, Uber has already figured it out and just go off the 1099 they gave you. If you try to write off different numbers you could get audited as Uber also sends a 1099 to the IRS and they are looking for matching numbers. They have a breakdown and list all that stuff so when Uber files their taxes they pay taxes on it if applicable and you would be double dipping if you wrote the booking fees off again


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## KevinJohnson (Mar 23, 2020)

@UberTaxPro . Please advise.


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## Seamus (Jun 21, 2018)

NicFit said:


> Don't write it off, Uber has already figured it out and just go off the 1099 they gave you. If you try to write off different numbers you could get audited as Uber also sends a 1099 to the IRS and they are looking for matching numbers. They have a breakdown and list all that stuff so when Uber files their taxes they pay taxes on it if applicable and you would be double dipping if you wrote the booking fees off again


Sorry, not to be argumentative but that is completely wrong. The 1099k shows the GROSS amount just like the tax summary. The gross amount with the booking fees _included_ is what the IRS sees. The Booking Fees get written off on Schedule C line 10 (commissions and fees). If you didn't write off the booking fees you really screwed yourself.



UberBastid said:


> How much time are you willing to invest to write off nickels to save hundreds and hundreds of pennies?
> Go fishing.


Booking fees are the second biggest business expense next to the mileage!


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## UberBastid (Oct 1, 2016)

UberBastid said:


> How much time are you willing to invest to write off nickels to save hundreds and hundreds of pennies?
> Go fishing.





Seamus said:


> Booking fees are the second biggest business expense next to the mileage!


Ok, ok. I guess accuracy is important.
I should have said, "How much time are you willing to invest to write off DIMES and save hundreds of nickels."

Still yet -- go fishing.


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## Seamus (Jun 21, 2018)

UberBastid said:


> Ok, ok. I guess accuracy is important.
> I should have said, "How much time are you willing to invest to write off DIMES and save hundreds of nickels."
> 
> Still yet -- go fishing.


A full time driver could easily have 16-20k in booking fees. The tax on that is a whole lot of nickels!!! Still good advice to go fishing &#127907; , just fishing for dollars!:thumbup: Plus, that's Uber's money. Just on principal I wouldn't pay a nickel of tax on THEIR money!


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## NicFit (Jan 18, 2020)

Seamus said:


> Sorry, not to be argumentative but that is completely wrong. The 1099k shows the GROSS amount just like the tax summary. The gross amount with the booking fees _included_ is what the IRS sees. The Booking Fees get written off on Schedule C line 10 (commissions and fees). If you didn't write off the booking fees you really screwed yourself.
> 
> 
> Booking fees are the second biggest business expense next to the mileage!


Ok, so your wrong, the booking fees are not paid to you, they are paid to Uber. You don't ever get that money, that's not you income and your not allow to write it off. The transaction even says paid to Uber, it's a separate item on the riders bill. You are not the only one getting paid in that transaction, the rider pays Uber and Uber pays taxes on their part too. Your expenses have already been figured out by Uber on the 1099, when you go claiming more and they audit you they will say you double dipped and make you pay the taxes on it


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## Seamus (Jun 21, 2018)

NicFit said:


> Ok, so your wrong, the booking fees are not paid to you, they are paid to Uber. You don't ever get that money, that's not you income and your not allow to write it off. The transaction even says paid to Uber, it's a separate item on the riders bill. You are not the only one getting paid in that transaction, the rider pays Uber and Uber pays taxes on their part too. Your expenses have already been figured out by Uber on the 1099, when you go claiming more and they audit you they will say you double dipped and make you pay the taxes on it


Yes it's Uber's money added to your gross and taken as a fee. Not even debatable, you clearly have no idea how to account for it and every experienced driver who'se filed taxes for years is reading this and shaking their head. Do it your way but I hope newer people don't listen to you. I've tried to help you by explain it to you but you don't want to listen so go ahead and do it wrong. No skin off my nose.


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

NicFit said:


> Ok, so your wrong, the booking fees are not paid to you, they are paid to Uber. You don't ever get that money, that's not you income and your not allow to write it off. The transaction even says paid to Uber, it's a separate item on the riders bill. You are not the only one getting paid in that transaction, the rider pays Uber and Uber pays taxes on their part too. Your expenses have already been figured out by Uber on the 1099, when you go claiming more and they audit you they will say you double dipped and make you pay the taxes on it


Feel free to pay taxes on the uber fees that you never saw. When your 1099 shows 3 times as much as you were paid and wondered why we can mock you come february.


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## NicFit (Jan 18, 2020)

Seamus said:


> Yes it's Uber's money added to your gross and taken as a fee. Not even debatable, you clearly have no idea how to account for it and every experienced driver who'se filed taxes for years is reading this and shaking their head. Do it your way but I hope newer people don't listen to you. I've tried to help you by explain it to you but you don't want to listen so go ahead and do it wrong. No skin off my nose.


Booking fees are either not a write of because they are included in the expenses or they were never paid to you, not sure which, you'll have to consult a CPA, if your not a CPA then you could be giving wrong advice



Stevie The magic Unicorn said:


> Feel free to pay taxes on the uber fees that you never saw. When your 1099 shows 3 times as much as you were paid and wondered why we can mock you come february.


What? You've never checked the 1099? I don't every year but I do sometimes and it's close, I could off because I don't break down the last week and first week to the day but it's always close enough to where the taxes would be off by pennies on it so I don't bother investigating further

Oh and you can mock me all you want because I only pay less then 3% of my income to taxes all you want. Another reason I wanted independent contractor, I pay sooo little in taxes


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

NicFit said:


> Booking fees are either not a write of because they are included in the expenses or they were never paid to you, not sure which, you'll have to consult a CPA, if your not a CPA then you could be giving wrong advice
> 
> What? You've never checked the 1099? I don't every year but I do sometimes and it's close, I could off because I don't break down the last week and first week to the day but it's always close enough to where the taxes would be off by pennies on it so I don't bother investigating further
> 
> Oh and you can mock me all you want because I only pay less then 3% of my income to taxes all you want. Another reason I wanted independent contractor, I pay sooo little in taxes


I set aside $40 for taxes Monday/Tuesday for the $285 in _taxable profit_ I pocketed. $143 in expenses I'm going to write off. (and have receipts for)

Cleared $425ish for my hours I put in for Monday afternoon and evening and Tuesday morning. $140 in expenses (including $112.50 for my taxi rental) $25 something in gasoline and the remainder in tolls. 398 miles driven, so 38c a mile.
I'm not getting screwed too terribly for taxi rental now am I?

Sure... write off your expenses, i'd rather have $285 in taxable expenses after paying 1/3 to the cab company than barely break even doing uber.

But what do i know... i've been driving professionally for a decade.

Sucks to have to pay $40 in taxes, but for the $285 in profit I earned in 2 days I'm ok with that. And i only drove my personal car a handful of miles to the shop and it sat parked at the not burning gas, accumulating taxi stink, or wear and tear.

Just kidding, i actually set up my day job to deduct a crap load extra to the IRS, so i can save myself the fee when using a card to pay your quarterly payments to the IRS.

And in case you were wondering, it was about 16 hours worked to make $285 profit.


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## Daisey77 (Jan 13, 2016)




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## Diamondraider (Mar 13, 2017)

NicFit said:


> Booking fees are either not a write of because they are included in the expenses or they were never paid to you, not sure which, you'll have to consult a CPA, if your not a CPA then you could be giving wrong advice
> 
> What? You've never checked the 1099? I don't every year but I do sometimes and it's close, I could off because I don't break down the last week and first week to the day but it's always close enough to where the taxes would be off by pennies on it so I don't bother investigating further
> 
> Oh and you can mock me all you want because I only pay less then 3% of my income to taxes all you want. Another reason I wanted independent contractor, I pay sooo little in taxes


GROSS = ALL monies collected
Gross includes "booking fees" collected. 
It is up to the individual to "deduct" the "booking fees" when taxes are filed.

***DO NOT FAIL TO DEDUCT THESE FEES FROM YOUR GROSS RECEIPTS.***


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## Boca Ratman (Jun 6, 2018)

NicFit said:


> Ok, so your wrong, the booking fees are not paid to you, they are paid to Uber.





NicFit said:


> Booking fees are either not a write of because they are included in the expenses or they were never paid to you, not sure which, you'll have to consult a CPA, if your not a CPA then you could be giving wrong advice


Lol, you're wrong. You should go back and amend your taxes for the years you paid taxes on the booking fees, if you did.

What you can not claim if you use mileage is pretty clearly explained in an English, no cpa needed to decipher. Things like gas, car repairs, car payments, maintenance costs, tires, < all that is nullified if you use the standard mileage deduction.

Booking fees, while never paid to us physically are credited to us in gross bookings. They get treated like a commission. We used to pay a commission, we never actually received that money, it was deducted before we were paid.


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## NicFit (Jan 18, 2020)

Boca Ratman said:


> Lol, you're wrong. You should go back and amend your taxes for the years you paid taxes on the booking fees, if you did.
> 
> What you can not claim if you use mileage is pretty clearly explained in an English, no cpa needed to decipher. Things like gas, car repairs, car payments, maintenance costs, tires, < all that is nullified if you use the standard mileage deduction.
> 
> Booking fees, while never paid to us physically are credited to us in gross bookings. They get treated like a commission. We used to pay a commission, we never actually received that money, it was deducted before we were paid.


So you just said it was deducted before we got paid. This means it's not in our gross earnings so you would have to add it there too. So if you add to both income and deductions the same amount it just cancels it out. I won't write it off alone because that's not how it works. The rider paid Uber the booking fee, not the driver. It was just done in the same transaction as the rest of the payment. Like I said it's double dipping if your not claiming it in the income side but even so that is too because Uber is claiming it and paying the applicable taxes on it. You know what, as of about a year ago they stopped even including the booking fee on our transactions, it's an entirely separate transaction from our payment now. They must of done that to less confuse people like you, it's not payed to the driver at all so we can't claim it


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## Seamus (Jun 21, 2018)




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## UberTaxPro (Oct 3, 2014)

KevinJohnson said:


> @UberTaxPro . Please advise.


Deductible unless it was reimbursed


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## SHalester (Aug 25, 2019)

it's really not that hard. If you compare all your RS bank deposits to your 1099 reported gross income there should be a HUGE difference. The majority of that difference is the booking fee NEVER paid to you. You add it to you income, and then deduct it; net effect zero. Or net it out from your gross income, same effect. Just keep in mind IRS knows what was reported to it: the gross.


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## Amsoil Uber Connect (Jan 14, 2015)

Yes you can. And why wouldn't one since it is roughly the same as the mileage. 

It goes on the back of Schedule C.


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## Boca Ratman (Jun 6, 2018)

NicFit said:


> So you just said it was deducted before we got paid. This means it's not in our gross earnings so you would have to add it there too. So if you add to both income and deductions the same amount it just cancels it out. I won't write it off alone because that's not how it works. The rider paid Uber the booking fee, not the driver. It was just done in the same transaction as the rest of the payment. Like I said it's double dipping if your not claiming it in the income side but even so that is too because Uber is claiming it and paying the applicable taxes on it. You know what, as of about a year ago they stopped even including the booking fee on our transactions, it's an entirely separate transaction from our payment now. They must of done that to less confuse people like you, it's not payed to the driver at all so we can't claim it


You're wrong.

I dont care if you want to pay unnecessary taxes, go ahead.

There is a limit to amending your taxes, you might want to look into it of you've really not deducted your booking fees and or commissions.


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## Amsoil Uber Connect (Jan 14, 2015)

You can go back 3 years to Amend a Return.


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## NicFit (Jan 18, 2020)

Boca Ratman said:


> You're wrong.
> 
> I dont care if you want to pay unnecessary taxes, go ahead.
> 
> There is a limit to amending your taxes, you might want to look into it of you've really not deducted your booking fees and or commissions.


If it's included in your income then you can write it off, if it wasn't then you can't. I don't have a break down of my 1099 handy and I don't feel like looking for it. I don't really feel like arguing about this anymore. If it's on the 1099 then I wrote it off, if it's not then I didn't. Also it cost money to amend a tax form, and not worth it unless it's a significant amount because you also have to pay penalties because technically you filed late I think


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## Amsoil Uber Connect (Jan 14, 2015)

It wouldn't cost anything but your time if one new how to do your own Return on there own.
And that is why the Service gives 3 years to amend, probably no penalties unless one owes more. And penalty would be based on that extra amount owed, which would not be very much.

How many does one think would Amend there Return if they knew they were going to owe more ? So... Course that depends on level of Knowledge and there level of fear because of lack of the knowledge. 🤷‍♂️


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## NicFit (Jan 18, 2020)

Amsoil Uber Connect said:


> It wouldn't cost anything but your time if one new how to do your own Return on there own.
> And that is why the Service gives 3 years to amend, probably no penalties unless one owes more. And penalty would be based on that extra amount owed, which would not be very much.
> 
> How many does one think would Amend there Return if they knew they were going to owe more ? So... Course that depends on level of Knowledge and there level of fear because of lack of the knowledge. &#129335;‍♂


It isn't free to amend, there is penalties from the time it was due, unless you refilled before the due date it's like not filing at all up until the amendment


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## Diamondraider (Mar 13, 2017)

NicFit said:


> If it's included in your income then you can write it off, if it wasn't then you can't. I don't have a break down of my 1099 handy and I don't feel like looking for it. I don't really feel like arguing about this anymore. If it's on the 1099 then I wrote it off, if it's not then I didn't. Also it cost money to amend a tax form, and not worth it unless it's a significant amount because you also have to pay penalties because technically you filed late I think


Filing an amendment does not make your taxes "late."



NicFit said:


> It isn't free to amend, there is penalties from the time it was due, unless you refilled before the due date it's like not filing at all up until the amendment


You are unbelievable.

People are trying to teach you a financially beneficial lesson and you continue to push back with false and convoluted responses.

FILE AND AMMENDMENT IF THE IRS OWES YOU MORE MONEY. Otherwise, DONT FILE AN AMMENDMENT.


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## NicFit (Jan 18, 2020)

Diamondraider said:


> Filing an amendment does not make your taxes "late."
> 
> 
> You are unbelievable.
> ...


I'm not filing an amendment, if the booking fees were included on my 1099 then I already wrote it off, if they weren't then I'm not amending over it, I already wrote off a ton of stuff and they probably won't get me much more as most of my deductions already off set my income substantially. And yes if you did owe more taxes they would charge interest and penalties if they wanted. I'm sick of this entire conversation and will not reply back to anyone here. You can get audited if you want, I have my taxes figured out where I only pay 2-3% of my income anyway so I'm done here


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

Boca Ratman said:


> Lol, you're wrong. You should go back and amend your taxes for the years you paid taxes on the booking fees, if you did.
> 
> What you can not claim if you use mileage is pretty clearly explained in an English, no cpa needed to decipher. Things like gas, car repairs, car payments, maintenance costs, tires, < all that is nullified if you use the standard mileage deduction.
> 
> Booking fees, while never paid to us physically are credited to us in gross bookings. They get treated like a commission. We used to pay a commission, we never actually received that money, it was deducted before we were paid.


Almost correct, if an insane taxi driver slashes your tires for stealing his fares that falls under "vandalism" rather than "wear and tear".

Vandalism is tax deductible as a business expense.

Same with some A-hole poking holes in the back of your seat with a pen or something.

Repairing damage to vandalism is the only exception to the per mile rate, as it's not wear and tear.


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## Daisey77 (Jan 13, 2016)

NicFit said:


> So you just said it was deducted before we got paid. This means it's not in our gross earnings


All of their commissions and fees are deducted before we get paid. yet we have to claim those as earnings at tax time. Gross earnings include every penny paid by the passenger to Uber and Lyft . Those gross earnings are on our tax forms which we have to claim . We then deduct those commissions and fees that we "paid out" to them. are you not deducting any of these things? From your gross earnings number, are you only deducting mileage, car washes, Rideshare insurance, etc and not deducting any Uber and Lyft fees?


NicFit said:


> Like I said it's double dipping if your not claiming it in the income side


It's included in their gross earnings that we have to claim! If we don't obviously the IRS would be auditing all of us because none of the numbers would match up with what Uber and Lyft are reporting.


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## NicFit (Jan 18, 2020)

Daisey77 said:


> All of their commissions and fees are deducted before we get paid. yet we have to claim those as earnings at tax time. Gross earnings include every penny paid by the passenger to Uber and Lyft . Those gross earnings are on our tax forms which we have to claim . We then deduct those commissions and fees that we "paid out" to them. are you not deducting any of these things? From your gross earnings number, are you only deducting mileage, car washes, Rideshare insurance, etc and not deducting any Uber and Lyft fees?
> 
> It's included in their gross earnings that we have to claim! If we don't obviously the IRS would be auditing all of us because none of the numbers would match up with what Uber and Lyft are reporting.


If it's on the 1099 then I obviously deducted it. If its not then I didn't because then it didn't get included in my income either. People here are being weird about it and I'm sick of this conversation like I already had said:



NicFit said:


> I'm sick of this entire conversation and will not reply back to anyone here


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