DoorDash doesn't withhold a cent of tax. Neither does Uber Eats, Instacart, Grubhub or Spark. Every dollar that lands in your account — base pay, promotions, tips — arrives untaxed, because to the IRS you aren't an employee. You're a one-person delivery business, and businesses handle their own taxes.
That's worse news and better news than it sounds. Worse: you owe more than employees do on the same income. Better: you get deductions employees can only dream about, and the biggest one is sitting in your odometer.
The Paperwork: What a 1099-NEC Is
If you earned $600 or more from a platform in the year, it sends you (and the IRS) a 1099-NEC in late January showing your gross earnings. Three things trip people up:
- Under $600 is still taxable. No form doesn't mean no tax — all income is reportable from the first dollar.
- Tips are in there. In-app tips are income like everything else.
- The number is GROSS. Nobody has subtracted your expenses. That's your job, on Schedule C — and it's where most new dashers overpay, by reporting the 1099 number and deducting nothing.
The Two Taxes You Owe
- Self-employment tax: 15.3% on 92.35% of your net profit — Social Security and Medicare, both halves, because you're both the employer and the employee. This applies even if your income is low enough to owe no income tax at all (it starts at just $400 of net profit).
- Income tax at your ordinary bracket, on the same profit.
The working rule of thumb is to set aside 25–30% of net profit as you earn. Our set-aside guide runs the full numbers.
Mileage: The Deduction That Usually Beats Everything Else Combined
Delivery is a driving business, and the IRS lets you deduct a flat rate for every business mile. 2026 has two rates because of the mid-year increase:
| Period | Rate | 15,000 miles is worth |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 1 – Jun 30, 2026 | 72.5¢/mile | $10,875 |
| Jul 1 – Dec 31, 2026 | 76¢/mile | $11,400 |
A full-time dasher easily logs 25,000+ business miles a year — at 2026 rates that's roughly an $18,000–19,000 deduction, which for most drivers wipes out more taxable income than every other write-off combined.
Which miles count: driving to a pickup, delivering, and repositioning between orders while you're online all count. Your drive from home to your starting zone is commuting and doesn't — unless you legitimately qualify for a home office as your principal place of business. When the apps are off and you're driving home, the meter's off too.
Multi-apping doesn't complicate anything
Running DoorDash, Uber Eats and Instacart at once is normal now, and the tax answer is simpler than people fear: a business mile is a business mile. Keep one log of total delivery miles; the deduction applies once, against your combined profit. You don't split miles per app, and overlapping "online" time doesn't double-count anything.
Don't rely on the apps' own mile estimates. DoorDash's year-end estimate only covers active deliveries on DoorDash — it misses repositioning miles and every mile you drove for the other apps. Drivers who log everything typically find 30–50% more deductible miles than any single platform reports, and the IRS requires a contemporaneous log of your own anyway (what that log needs).
Every unlogged mile is about 19¢ of tax you gave away
TaxMiles tracks drives automatically in the background, splits business from personal with a swipe, applies the correct IRS rate for each date — including the July increase — and exports an audit-ready log at filing time. Built for drivers running multiple apps.
Download TaxMiles FreeThe Other Write-Offs Worth Taking
- Hot bags and insulated gear — fully deductible business equipment.
- Phone mount, chargers, dash cam — same.
- Your phone plan — the business-use percentage. Dashing four hours a day supports a substantial share; keep the claim honest and consistent.
- Tolls and parking while delivering — deductible ON TOP of the mileage rate. Parking tickets are not.
- Roadside assistance — the business-use share.
- Health insurance premiums — potentially deductible as self-employed health insurance, an above-the-line deduction people miss constantly (see the full deductions list).
What the mileage rate already includes — and you therefore can't double-dip: gas, oil changes, repairs, tires, insurance, registration, depreciation. Taking the standard rate means those are covered. If your car is unusually expensive to run, compare against actual expenses once — but for most delivery vehicles the standard rate wins and requires far less bookkeeping.
Quarterly Payments: Yes, You Probably Owe Them
If you'll owe more than $1,000 for the year, the IRS wants it in four installments — and delivery income with no withholding almost always crosses that line. Miss the payments and you get an interest-style underpayment penalty even if you settle in full at filing.
The remaining 2026 deadline is January 15, 2027 for income earned September through December — and the safe-harbor route (pay 100% of last year's total tax, in quarters) protects you no matter how this year swings. The full mechanics, including the asymmetric quarters everyone gets wrong, are in the estimated-tax guide.
A Dasher's Year in Five Habits
- Track every mile from day one — reconstructed logs melt under audit, and January-you will not remember March's miles.
- Move 25–30% of each payout into a separate account the day it lands.
- Screenshot your earnings summaries monthly — platforms restate numbers and deactivate accounts; your records shouldn't depend on their portal.
- Pay the quarterlies from the set-aside account. The money's already there; the deadline becomes a non-event.
- File Schedule C with your actual expenses — the gap between the 1099 gross and your real profit is where your money lives.
Related: the rideshare (passenger) version of this guide, the July rate increase, and business vs commuting miles.
This article is general tax education, not tax advice. Rules described are for federal taxes in the United States; state rules may differ. Consult a tax professional about your specific situation.