# If I Uber to/from my regular job, what miles can I deduct?



## R James (Apr 25, 2017)

Example: I leave home with destination filter set for the city I work in. and stay Online until arriving at work.

Part 1 of trip: Leaving home, Online, no ping yet
Part 2 of trip: Receive ping, driving to pax location (mostly still on my way to work)
Part 3 of trip: Pax in car, driving to pax destination (mostly on my way to work)
Part 4 of trip: Have dropped Pax off, still Online, completing trip to work

Which parts of the trip can I deduct miles for? What if I'm online the entire way to work (35 miles) and don't even get a single ping? Can I still deduct some miles.

Note that on a typical day I will drive 35 miles to work and get 1-2 rides that account for probably 20 or more miles.


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## JimS (Aug 18, 2015)

I'd say all miles you're online AND WILLING to take a ride. In other words, don't be a schmuck and deduct your whole mileage to work if you're going to not accept any pings within 10 minutes of getting to work.


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## Larkridgeguy (Feb 28, 2017)

My understanding is that all your miles are deductible I the scenario you described. The key is having the app on. It can be proven that you were at least "willing" to accept rides. Not sure about an argument being made about drivers that may use this strategy and then ignore the requests. Either way make sure you talk to a professional.


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## UberTaxPro (Oct 3, 2014)

R James said:


> Example: I leave home with destination filter set for the city I work in. and stay Online until arriving at work.
> 
> Part 1 of trip: Leaving home, Online, no ping yet
> Part 2 of trip: Receive ping, driving to pax location (mostly still on my way to work)
> ...


The key is to be able to prove that the deducted miles are "business miles". Sounds like you would like to deduct 100% of your miles! Be careful of deducting 100% of your miles. Deducting 100% is a "red flag" because everyone has some personal mileage at least occasionally. With that in mind I would say about 90% of the miles you listed could be proved out to be "business miles". Maybe you could list the miles from the last drop off to work as commuting miles on the days you don't have time to take another trip. If you have to be at work 9:00 am and your last drop off was at 8:50 am it might be hard to prove you were looking for another ride when you only have 10 minutes to get to your job!


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## birkenstock (Jul 5, 2017)

I work 230p-10p at my FT job. I also have a 45 min / 20 mile commute to/from. I drive UBer Eats only, it keeps distances more "predictable" (i.e., it's likely most deliveries won't deviate more than 5 miles from my ordinary commute route.).

Lucky for me, usually many ping opportunities between point Home/work/home. 

I turn on my app and go online immediately when I leave home/work. I allow about an hour of dedicated time to UE, before I know I have to be heading to work. IOW, I leave home at 1245-1pm, turn off my app at 2pm, or after my last delivery, whichever comes later, so I can allow 30 mins for the remainder of my commute. Same thing in reverse, on my way home. 

Usually I get pings immediately in either situation. Boom- I can write off every mile as long as I have the app open/online. If I don't get pings, I won't write those miles off and just chalk it up to slow night. That way, not all my miles are 100% write off and no flags are raised. 

And i have a spreadsheet on a clipboard where I track everything. 

Date
Time app start online
Location of start online
Mileage at start online
Miles to 1st eats pickup location
Location of 1st eats pickup location
How many deliveries during online
Address of last delivery
Time went offline
Mileage at offline
Total miles driven between online/offline status


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## R James (Apr 25, 2017)

What I'm doing now is keeping careful track of when I go online (leave home), when I get first ping, when last pax exits vehicle, when I get back onto my normal commuting route after that, when I go offline.

I figure I'll only deduct the miles from going online to when the last pax is out of the vehicle and I've returned to my normal commuting route. And if I don't get any pings, I won't deduct any miles. 

So far it ends up that my "tax miles" are running just over 2x my "online miles".


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## UberSelect07 (May 17, 2016)

IMHO: If you are active on the way to work, your miles are deductible. I use an app called MyRideTrac to track my miles. As long as Uber is active on my phone, I am deducting my miles. I keep the log in MyRideTrac. It has a Personal button and a RIDER and NORIDER buttons so I can also prorate my other expenses.


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## Prius Mike (Jul 6, 2017)

Here's how I do it. My miles to my day job are not deductible - they are personal miles. If I go online to or from work, I might deviate from my normal commuting route to "fish" in areas with a higher chance of a ping. Or, if I get a ping I might end up closer to or further from work. I just take the total mileage of the whole drive and subtract from that the mileage of my normal commute. This removes the miles that are not actually deductible but instead are personal conveyance to my normal place of work. And it leaves in all of the miles, including deadhead, that truly are business expenses for me. I take SD on those miles. So far, I'm not taxable for my Ubering.


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## UberMensch2015 (Jan 29, 2015)

This is a new area for the service to deal with. Until we see a private letter ruling I would feel comfortable deducting miles to and from your job provided you have the app on. Not getting any rides doesn't really negate their deductibility in my opinion.

I would imagine eventually the service will offer a ruling because this does create a bit of a conflict with the established rule that commuting to a job is not deductible. 

Note, if you drive for work normally (like to see a client or make a delivery) and are reimbursed for those miles by your company I would not try and double dip by going online and trying to work two jobs at the same time, so to speak.

Not tax advice, just observations and opinions.


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## UberTaxPro (Oct 3, 2014)

UberMensch2015 said:


> This is a new area for the service to deal with. Until we see a private letter ruling I would feel comfortable deducting miles to and from your job provided you have the app on. Not getting any rides doesn't really negate their deductibility in my opinion.
> 
> I would imagine eventually the service will offer a ruling because this does create a bit of a conflict with the established rule that commuting to a job is not deductible.
> 
> ...


The miles have to be be "business miles" to be deductible under the code. The argument would have to center around whether or not those miles with the app on are business miles or not. One way to justify business miles would be to show that these "app on" miles were used to produce income. If you drove to work everyday with the app on and produced little to 0 income, it would be a tough sell to the service.
You're absolutely right about the reimbursed miles. Under the code you're not allowed to deduct anything that you're reimbursed for.


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## UberMensch2015 (Jan 29, 2015)

Agreed 100%. But if I drive all night and end up 30 miles from home and use the destination filter while driving home and don't get any rides those miles are clearly deductible. It's a tough conundrum. The problem is the destination filter rarely ever produces a ride.

Uber could help us out by providing an accounting of:

1. Miles driven with app on and no rider (including miles driven to get a rider when pinged)
2. Miles driven with app on and destination filter on.
3. Miles driven with a rider

Would help all our accounting but they don't have to do this. Would help us defeat any audits for people who show a loss though.


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## UberTaxPro (Oct 3, 2014)

UberMensch2015 said:


> Agreed 100%. But if I drive all night and end up 30 miles from home and use the destination filter while driving home and don't get any rides those miles are clearly deductible. It's a tough conundrum. The problem is the destination filter rarely ever produces a ride.


If your home is your principal place of business, and you made money driving all night, the miles home are deductible whether the app is on or not!



UberMensch2015 said:


> Agreed 100%. But if I drive all night and end up 30 miles from home and use the destination filter while driving home and don't get any rides those miles are clearly deductible. It's a tough conundrum. The problem is the destination filter rarely ever produces a ride.
> 
> Uber could help us out by providing an accounting of:
> 
> ...


Drivers should keep their own records for audit purposes. I've already heard of people counting on using records kept by Uber only to find out they can no longer access them when needed. Business miles are what the IRS cares about, not whether the app is on or not. A mileage log and money coming in are what you need according to the tax code. The word "App" is nowhere to be found in the code.


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## RynoHawk (Mar 15, 2017)

No tax professional here either but IMO, if you are online and *available to take rides* then the miles are deductible. If you leave your house everyday with just enough time to get to work and you ignore those occasional (or frequent depending on your area and time of day) pings, then that may be iffy. Will that get the IRS's attention? Probably unlikely unless you're deducting an ungodly amount, but still.

My recommendation is to leave the house a little earlier (maybe 10 minutes) than usual so if you do get a ping, you have time to take that rider (and make you a little gas money). For the ride home, as you are likely not in a time crunch to get home as you are to work, maybe troll around for a bit and see if you can get a ride on the way home, but this is entirely optional. Again, as long as you're online and available and take the pings as they come, you should be square with Uncle Sam.


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## dubering342 (Aug 10, 2017)

For personal tracking purposes (hourly rate, gas) if I use the destination filter to go home after my full-time job and I get home 30 minutes later and 5 more miles( than if I were to go straight home), I should only use as "my time online" as 30 minutes and 5 miles right??? I'm basically subsidizing my trips by picking up people from work and dropping them off by my house. 

This is just for personal recording. I would like to see what my hourly rate is, net of expenses.


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## LoveTheBlues (Jun 2, 2016)

So I want to be aggressive and expense the mileage of my daily commute to and from my day job in addition to the time I spend dedicated to Uber and / or Lyft. I have DF on (both Uber & Lyft) and will get rides about 40% of the time but since the app was on I want to declare all the miles (even when I didn't get a ping). Here is the problem. The IRS also asks in my return - Do I own any other cars for personal use? How long is my daily commute? and what is your total commuting and total personal miles? I have no other car and if I'm honest, my daily commute (Round trip) is 26 miles. If I claim those 6,500 miles as rideshare, do I just no longer list commuting miles? Won't that raise questions since my day job is the same and I've listed 6,000 + commuter miles every year. I don't want to trigger an audit. Has anyone had a similar conundrum?


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## Mars Troll Number 4 (Oct 30, 2015)

UberTaxPro said:


> The key is to be able to prove that the deducted miles are "business miles".





LoveTheBlues said:


> So I want to be aggressive and expense the mileage of my daily commute to and from my day job in addition to the time I spend dedicated to Uber and / or Lyft. I have DF on (both Uber & Lyft) and will get rides about 40% of the time but since the app was on I want to declare all the miles (even when I didn't get a ping). Here is the problem. The IRS also asks in my return - Do I own any other cars for personal use? How long is my daily commute? and what is your total commuting and total personal miles? I have no other car and if I'm honest, my daily commute (Round trip) is 26 miles. If I claim those 6,500 miles as rideshare, do I just no longer list commuting miles? Won't that raise questions since my day job is the same and I've listed 6,000 + commuter miles every year. I don't want to trigger an audit. Has anyone had a similar conundrum?


Having 100% of your miles being deductible is a HUGE red flag. I *Have* had it be the case with a single vehicle, however that was a marked taxi (and i considered every single mile i drove as having a business purpose) BUT I have other vehicles as well.

In the audit the IRS agent inspected my Odometer and looked through my log, and of course asked a bunch of questions about whether or not i ever used the vehicle for personal business... (the *correct* answer is of course no)

HOWEVER...

If you have a customer in your car, it is OF COURSE business miles...

The fact that you are making a few bucks on your way to work is a happy coincidence as far as i'm concerned...

The vitally important things are

1. You are in fact making money
2. you are using your personal vehicle to do so...
3. Using your vehicle for business is a tax deduction.


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## Trafficat (Dec 19, 2016)

LoveTheBlues said:


> So I want to be aggressive and expense the mileage of my daily commute to and from my day job in addition to the time I spend dedicated to Uber and / or Lyft. I have DF on (both Uber & Lyft) and will get rides about 40% of the time but since the app was on I want to declare all the miles (even when I didn't get a ping). Here is the problem. The IRS also asks in my return - Do I own any other cars for personal use? How long is my daily commute? and what is your total commuting and total personal miles? I have no other car and if I'm honest, my daily commute (Round trip) is 26 miles. If I claim those 6,500 miles as rideshare, do I just no longer list commuting miles? Won't that raise questions since my day job is the same and I've listed 6,000 + commuter miles every year. I don't want to trigger an audit. Has anyone had a similar conundrum?


I have not noticed questions asking about daily commute distance in any IRS forms I'm doing. I am filling out the forms directly.

Are you using a tax filing program? It is probably using the information to fill out the forms, but I don't think the IRS cares about how long your commute is, because your commute is not deductible.


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## LoveTheBlues (Jun 2, 2016)

Trafficat said:


> I have not noticed questions asking about daily commute distance in any IRS forms I'm doing. I am filling out the forms directly.
> 
> Are you using a tax filing program? It is probably using the information to fill out the forms, but I don't think the IRS cares about how long your commute is, because your commute is not deductible.


Interesting; and I'm glad you posted this - thank you. I do believe it was part of the interview questions in Turbo Tax but I will now look at the actual forms for what the IRS really looks at. If those 6,500 commuting miles are not looked at separately from personal and business miles, that gives me a whole lot more flexibility in what I can claim without triggering a red flag with auditors.


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## UberTaxPro (Oct 3, 2014)

LoveTheBlues said:


> Interesting; and I'm glad you posted this - thank you. I do believe it was part of the interview questions in Turbo Tax but I will now look at the actual forms for what the IRS really looks at. If those 6,500 commuting miles are not looked at separately from personal and business miles, that gives me a whole lot more flexibility in what I can claim without triggering a red flag with auditors.


There is only one relevant document when it comes to the mileage deduction! *THE MILEAGE LOG* . An IRS compliant mileage log serves 2 important purposes:
1. to keep track of business miles so you can deduct miles using the SMD
2. to keep track of the business/personal % use of the vehicle. (also needed if you're claiming actual expenses instead of SMD)

A mileage log should have an entry for the *beginning and ending odometer* reading for the YEAR. At the year end you calculate TOTAL mileage for your vehicle by subtracting starting mileage from ending mileage. Next, you subtract all the business miles that you've diligently kept track of during the year from the total. That leaves you with three numbers:
1. Total Miles Driven
2. Total Business Miles Driven 
3. Total Personal Miles (Total Miles - Business Miles)
Next, you do a little math and calculate the % of business miles vs personal miles (https://www.helpingwithmath.com/by_subject/percentages/per_calculating.htm)
*Now you'll have the correct information to answer those turbo tax questions or give to your taxpro.* You could also have additional deductible miles like charity and medical for example...they would be handled the same way.


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## ShinyAndChrome (Aug 18, 2017)

I don't know much about taxes. So that caveat past us:

IRS is clear you cannot deduct commute miles. It has to be business. If you regularly commute 10 miles each way and you keep deducting 20 miles/day that you did not generate income, IRS will know these are commute miles. I don't buy that having the app on alone is an acceptable way to deduct commute miles. Reason: I leave house at 8:30. it's a 30 mile drive and I get there at 9:00. I set "destination mode" to 9:00 at work and I leave at 8:28. Now, despite having the app on, uber is going to only give me riders who are basically on my exact street and drop off at my work location. This is basically impossible, and I'm knowingly cheating despite the app being on. I have it on, but I've given it an essentially impossible task.

IMO the best approach in the above is any miles additional to my ten in the service of the app are deductible. If I pick somebody up and my drive to work is now 12 miles instead of 10, I can confidently deduct 2. Even if many of the 12 were on the same route I normally take. Only 2 miles were business miles, the rest were commute.

I'm pretty sure IRS doesn't want people turning in the app on and trying to use it to cheat their way around the "don't deduct to work" rule.



UberTaxPro said:


> There is only one relevant document when it comes to the mileage deduction! *THE MILEAGE LOG* . An IRS compliant mileage log serves 2 important purposes:
> 1. to keep track of business miles so you can deduct miles using the SMD
> 2. to keep track of the business/personal % use of the vehicle. (also needed if you're claiming actual expenses instead of SMD)
> 
> ...


Thanks. Why does IRS care about the percentage, BTW, if I'm using standard mileage deduction? I ran simulations through turbotax and it asked my total miles for the year and my business miles and since I was specifying standard deduction it didn't seem to care what percentage were actual business, since I was giving it a hard and fast specific mile number.


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## jester121 (Sep 6, 2016)

You're spending way too much time worrying about this. Just document *something*, be consistent about it, and be reasonable. No one is going to get audited for this kind of penny ante shit.


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## UberTaxPro (Oct 3, 2014)

ShinyAndChrome said:


> Thanks. Why does IRS care about the percentage, BTW, if I'm using standard mileage deduction? I ran simulations through turbotax and it asked my total miles for the year and my business miles and since I was specifying standard deduction it didn't seem to care what percentage were actual business, since I was giving it a hard and fast specific mile number.


The IRA cares about the % because you have other deductions that must be prorated based on business use. For example the following items can be deducted in addition to the SMD but have to be prorated by business %. 

*Parking fees and tolls for business*
*Personal property tax *
*Interest on a car loan*


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## Mars Troll Number 4 (Oct 30, 2015)

UberTaxPro said:


> The IRA cares about the % because you have other deductions that must be prorated based on business use. For example the following items can be deducted in addition to the SMD but have to be prorated by business %.
> 
> *Parking fees and tolls for business*
> *Personal property tax *
> *Interest on a car loan*


You don't pro-rate tolls you write off all the tolls used for business.

I write off ALL of my "On the job" tolls ALL the time.

So if you have $10.00 in tolls for a day on the job, you write it all off, but if you have some tolls for personal use, you don't write that off. You don't just write off 65% of your tolls because you use a car 65% for business and 35% for transporting yourself.


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## UberTaxPro (Oct 3, 2014)

Mears Troll Number 4 said:


> You don't pro-rate tolls you write off all the tolls used for business.
> 
> I write off ALL of my "On the job" tolls ALL the time.
> 
> So if you have $10.00 in tolls for a day on the job, you write it all off, but if you have some tolls for personal use, you don't write that off. You don't just write off 65% of your tolls because you use a car 65% for business and 35% for transporting yourself.


Personal Property tax and interest on car loan would need to be prorated. Tolls would be prorated 100% business in your case! Be careful with the tolls, I know Uber reimburses for some tolls. Reimbursed tolls would be prorated to 0% business! Reimbursed expenses can not be deducted on a tax return.


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## Mars Troll Number 4 (Oct 30, 2015)

UberTaxPro said:


> Personal Property tax and interest on car loan would need to be prorated. Tolls would be prorated 100% business in your case! Be careful with the tolls, I know Uber reimburses for some tolls. Reimbursed tolls would be prorated to 0% business! Reimbursed expenses can not be deducted on a tax return.


Well... yes and no..

If you report the reimbursement as revenue/income you can still write off the toll as an expense, thereby a deduction.

reimbursed tolls from an employer.. that reimbursement isn't added to your taxable income so you don't deduct it.

It might SEEM like your adding another step, however it's a lot EASIER to write up ALL payments to you as _*revenue*_, then deducting all your tolls off as expenses.. There is no difference, BUT, it's easier to count.

Also it's easier to account for tolls that get lost or not properly written up. I know how much i'm paying in tolls but if for instance i'm too lazy/I forget to push the "+toll button" I'll just tell the customer that the price is $1.00 more or whatever..

I'll also hit the "+toll button" to add bottled water to a cab fare for a credit card payment... so it's a mess..

Or I selectively DON'T charge tolls in order to get a bigger tip... that toll is still deductible.

With uber it's a little more official BUT...

You're not individually totaling both un-reimbursed and reimbursed tolls desperately then deducting off un-reimbursed tolls, while also Keeping a separate tab of toll payments.. AND Keeping track of adjustments, including removing un-reimbursed tolls off your totals..

10/3/17
$1.00 in unreimbursed tolls
$84 in payments
$3.00 in toll reimbursements

10/4/17
$+1.00 in toll reimbursements (10/3/17)
-$1.00 in un-reimbursed tolls

Then after fighting with uber, you may or may not get MORE reimbursements back, and you have to put negative values in or go back and edit lines on your accounting..

So two days later you add another $.50 in tolls)

It's easier to just count all your payments to you as revenue, then writing off all tolls.

$4.00 in tolls
$87 in revenue

Then if you have adjustments you're just adding revenue, while your toll write offs are constant and consistent.


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## R James (Apr 25, 2017)

jester121 said:


> You're spending way too much time worrying about this. Just document *something*, be consistent about it, and be reasonable. No one is going to get audited for this kind of penny ante shit.


Yeah - ultimately I just decided to document everything and write off what I consider to be reasonable miles, thus:

When I leave home and go online and am on my way to work, I write off all of those miles UNTIL the last Uber passenger is out of my car. Then even if I'm still online I won't write off the remaining miles that I was on my way to work without a ping/passenger. Maybe I "could" write those off, too, but realistically if I have my destination filter set I'm highly unlikely to get a ping those last 5 miles anyway - or in my case the last 15 or so because once I leave downtown seattle going south on I-5 I think I've only got another ping ONCE in 4 months.

Likewise heading home.

And from my meticulous records it turns out that for every mile that I have a passenger in the car I'll be writing off a about 2.1 miles. If I were to write off ALL of my online miles I would basically be writing off all of my commuting miles and the ratio would probably be more like 3 miles for every 1 mile with a passenger in the car. But I've heard the 2-to-1 ratio is inline with what many rideshare drivers do and I don't want to give the IRS any reason to dig into my sh*t since I just don't want the hassle. And it seems like it would look weird if I had $10,000 in Uber revenue and $0 in taxable income.


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