Mileage Deduction for Gig Drivers: Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart

If you drive for Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, Grubhub or similar platforms as an independent contractor, your car is probably your biggest business expense. The mileage deduction is often the largest single deduction gig drivers can claim, and a lot of drivers lose part of it because their records are incomplete.

Which miles count?

Business miles are the ones you drive to earn money. For gig work that clearly includes driving to a pickup and driving a passenger or order to its destination. Many tax professionals also count miles driven while you're logged in and waiting for or heading toward the next request, as long as you're genuinely working, but how to treat that time depends on your situation. Ask your tax preparer, and log it either way so the decision can be made with real numbers.

Not deductible: personal errands in the middle of a shift, and driving that has nothing to do with the work.

Why the platform's mileage total isn't enough

Most platforms show a yearly mileage figure in your tax summary. It often covers only miles with a passenger or order on board, which can leave out a lot of your real business driving. It also isn't a log: it doesn't show your total miles for the year or your other trips. Keep your own record, and keep the platform summaries alongside it.

What your log needs

• The odometer reading at the start and end of the year (or when you started driving for gig work)
• For each shift or trip: the date, miles driven, where you drove, and the purpose (“DoorDash deliveries, Brooklyn”)
• Receipts for parking and tolls you paid while working

Logging per shift is fine: start odometer, end odometer, platform and area. Do it daily or at least weekly. See the full IRS mileage log requirements.

How much is it worth?

At the 2026 rates, every business mile is worth 72.5 cents of deduction from January through June and 76 cents from July through December. A driver who logs 15,000 business miles, half in each part of the year, would have a deduction of 7,500 × $0.725 + 7,500 × $0.76 = $11,137.50, before parking and tolls.

That deduction reduces both income tax and self-employment tax, which is why missing miles is so expensive for gig drivers. More on the 2026 rates.

Standard rate or actual expenses?

Most gig drivers use the standard mileage rate: it's simpler, and high-mileage driving in an efficient car usually favors it. But if you drive an expensive vehicle or your repair bills are high, compare both. The method you pick in the car's first year of business use affects what you can do later. Here's how the two compare.

Know what you're really earning

Your payout isn't your profit. Subtract your real cost of driving, meaning fuel, maintenance, tires, insurance and depreciation, and some shifts look very different. Work out your cost per mile and compare it with what each platform pays per mile.

Track it on your phone

Milebook lets you log each shift as a trip (business or personal) with the start and end odometer, and record platform payouts as income, so you can see what you actually keep after fuel and expenses. Fuel fill-ups add odometer readings automatically. At tax time, reports total your business miles for the year and the Pro plan estimates the deduction at the right rate for each trip's date. Export it all for your tax preparer. Free for 2 vehicles.

This article is general information, not tax advice. Rules depend on your situation; check with a tax professional.