Updated: 2/10/21

Working in the gig economy means working hard as well as smart. It’s tax season so recently, you may have noticed an influx of apps and tips on tracking your miles from many sources. Tracking miles serves a great purpose as a rideshare and food delivery courier. 

By tracking miles for a gig, you get to write them off as tax deductibles. Think about it, all the miles that you drive, and the fuel that you purchase. Over a year, it can stack up to be quite a number of tax deductions. In my first year filing taxes for all the income, I made through rideshare and food delivery, I paid very little in taxes due to the deductions, the largest of which were mileage deductions.

The Internal Revenue Service has updated the standard mileage rates and tax advantages that you can get for 2020. These rates apply to vans, pickups, and panel trucks as well.

The current 2020 rate is 57.5 cents for every mile driven for business purposes. This is 50 cents less than the 2019 rate. If you are someone who drives over 100 miles every week, you are eligible for around $3,000 in deductions in a year. 

How To Track Business Mileage With A Log

It’s a bummer when tax season is just around the corner, and you realize you did not document the miles for all your rides. 

If you are driving for a courier service, you have to start tracking your mileage from the moment a delivery begins. This starting point depends on the service you drive for. For example, some services start a trip as soon as an order is accepted, others begin once you reach the pickup point. 

The IRS will need documentation to back up your claims on the miles you covered for work. For this, they have initiated something called the IRS mileage Log. 

To track a trip, the mileage log way, fill out four columns at the end of every ride. Document the following information: total miles, the date, the location points from A to B, and the exact purpose of each trip. 

On top of this, the IRS also requires that you state the total miles, that is the miles you covered for personal commutes. Therefore record your car’s starting odometer reading.

Get App To Track Miles

Keeping a manual record of your mileage can be a very simple task following the IRS guidelines. But over time, you will be prone to mistakes or forget to log miles. 

This becomes even more of a hassle if you work multiple platforms in different industries (food delivery, rideshare, grocery, moving, etc). The amount of time keeping track of all that could be used driving and making money.

For these reasons, it’s recommended that you look into a mileage tracking app. It might save you a lot of time in the future when you file for a tax return.

Related Post:

• 5 Best Apps For Tracking Food Delivery and Rideshare Miles
• Why I Stopped Using Spreadsheets To Track Rideshare And Food Delivery Mileages

• How Couriers File Their Taxes: All Your Food Delivery Tax Questions Answered