Instacart tax documents: what a shopper brings to the preparer
By Arthur Teboul, DokuTrak · Published
In brief
Instacart tax documents depend on how you shopped. A shopper paid as a contractor gets a Form 1099-NEC once pay passes the payer’s line and keeps records of batches, tips and miles; a shopper on payroll gets a Form W-2 instead.
The checklist: Instacart shopper checklist: batch pay, tips and miles
Use one copy per shopper and year. First mark whether the shopper worked as a contractor, an employee or both, since the employee lines and the contractor lines rarely overlap.
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Build your own list: Answer 10 yes-or-no questions and the tax document checklist generator combines the lists that apply into one checklist.
Pay forms and earnings
- Form 1099-NEC for contractor shoppingShopper app tax or earnings area; check the year
- Form W-2 for payroll shoppingOnly if you worked shifts as an employee
- Final pay stub of the year, for payroll shoppersMatches the W-2 totals and shows tips paid through payroll
- Batch earnings history for the full yearBatch pay, tips, bonuses and adjustments
- Bank statements with shopper payouts and instant cashoutsAll months; not the order card
Batch miles and car
- Mileage log by batchStore, drop-off area, miles; 2026 split at July 1
- Odometer readings at the start and end of the yearAnd the date the car was first used for batches
- Store parking, garage and toll receiptsPaid during batches; tickets do not count
- Car loan year-end statementInterest paid during the year
- Gas, repair and insurance receiptsOnly for actual costs instead of the rate
Shopping gear
- Cooler and thermal bag receiptsDate and price
- Folding cart or hand truck receiptBought for heavy orders
- Phone mount, charger and phone plan shareReceipts and the yearly plan cost
Taxes paid and other income
- Estimated tax payment confirmationsContractor shoppers only; dates and amounts, federal and state
- Forms from other apps in the same yearDoorDash, Spark, Amazon Flex; one log for all miles
- Form 1095-A, if insured through the marketplaceFor the premium tax credit and health insurance deduction
- Last year’s tax returnCarryovers and the car’s history
First question: were you a contractor or an employee?
Grocery apps can pay shoppers in two ways, and the tax papers follow from that. A full-service shopper is one who takes batches in the app, shops the store and drives the order to the customer. If you did that as an independent contractor, nothing was withheld and you may owe estimated tax (IRS, Manage taxes for your gig work).
If you shopped as an employee instead, your employer withholds tax from each paycheck and sends a Form W-2 (IRS, Manage taxes for your gig work). Check your pay stubs: if tax was taken out, you were on payroll.
In short, a Form W-2 is the wage statement an employer sends for pay it ran through payroll, with the tax it withheld. A Form 1099-NEC, by contrast, reports pay with nothing withheld, so the shopper owes the tax and keeps the cost records.
| How you shopped | Year-end form | Where the pay goes | Can you deduct miles? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Batches in the app, as a contractor | Form 1099-NEC, above the threshold | Schedule C | Yes, as a business cost (IRS Publication 463) |
| Shifts, as an employee | Form W-2 | Wages line of Form 1040 | No, for any year after 2017 (26 U.S.C. 67) |
| Both in the same year | Both forms | Split between the two | Only the contractor miles |
When a 1099 arrives, and when it does not
For 2025 batches, a payer files Form 1099-NEC once it paid a contractor at least $600 (2025 Form 1099-NEC instructions). For 2026 batches, the floor is $2,000 (Form 1099-NEC instructions (12/2026)). A shopper who took a few batches a month may see no form for 2026. The contractor 1099 checklist sets out who must send what.
Look for the form in the Shopper app’s account or earnings area, and download the PDF for the right year. If it is missing, or you need an older year, ask shopper support for a copy. A missing form never ends the matter, since gig income is reported even when no 1099 arrives (IRS, Manage taxes for your gig work).
Your batch earnings history then becomes the main income record. It lists batch pay, tips, bonuses and adjustments, so export it for the whole year.
Customer grocery money is not your income
A full-service shopper pays for the customer’s groceries with a card the app loads for each order. That money is never yours. It is not income, and the groceries are not your expense.
Problems start when a shopper copies card charges into a spending list or a bookkeeping app. For example, a full cart for a family of five is not a business cost, however large the charge. Keep the order card statements out of the totals you send the preparer, and send only your own costs.
Batch miles and the costs of shopping work
Each batch has three legs: the drive to the store, the shop, and one or more drop-offs. Only the driving legs are miles; log them per batch, and keep the car’s yearly total beside them, as Publication 463 asks (IRS Publication 463). Batch history shows the store and the time; your log adds the miles.
Each 2025 batch mile is worth 70 cents at the standard rate (IRS standard mileage rates). A 2026 log needs two subtotals, before and after the July rate change, as the mileage log checklist explains. Store parking and tolls paid during a batch go on top of the rate (IRS Publication 463).
Other costs need to be ordinary and necessary for the work (IRS Publication 334). Shoppers often buy the items below, so keep a receipt for each:
- Cooler bags and thermal bags that keep frozen food cold on the drive.
- A folding cart or hand truck for cases of water and heavy orders.
- A phone mount and charger, and the share of the phone plan used for batches.
- Car loan interest for the business share, even on the standard rate (IRS Publication 463).
Customer tips on batches
Tips are a large part of shopper pay, and they may now be deductible. Qualified tips are what customers choose to pay on top of an order, in cash or by card (IRS, Working Families Tax Cuts for workers). The final rule lists grocery delivery drivers by name under Goods Delivery People, code 804 (Final tipped occupations rule). A contractor shopper may deduct up to $25,000 of qualified tips for 2025 through 2028 (IRS FS-2026-07).
For contractors, the tips must be inside a 1099 total, and the deduction cannot exceed net income from shopping (IRS FS-2026-07). For every shopper, the deduction shrinks once modified AGI tops $150,000 ($300,000 for a married couple filing jointly) (IRS, Working Families Tax Cuts for workers). Pull the yearly tip total from the batch history.
Tips on a W-2 can qualify too. The exception is an employee whose employer is in a specified service trade or business, who cannot claim it (IRS, Working Families Tax Cuts for workers).
Putting the shopper file together
Contractor shoppers have no tax withheld, so payments during the year may be due; the self-employed checklist has the quarterly dates. Payroll shoppers can skip that step.
- Download the 1099-NEC, or the W-2 if you were on payroll.
- Export the batch earnings history and note the tip total.
- Finish the mileage log from batch history and odometer readings.
- Gather receipts for gear such as bags, a cart, a phone mount and parking.
- Leave out the grocery card statements for customer orders.
Questions people ask
Does Instacart send a W-2 or a 1099?
It depends on how you were paid. Contractor pay above the threshold is reported on Form 1099-NEC, and payroll pay on a Form W-2 with tax withheld (IRS, Manage taxes for your gig work). Some people work both ways in one year and get both forms.
Do I have to file Instacart taxes if I made less than $600?
You report all gig income, whether or not a form arrives, and a return is required if your net self-employment earnings are $400 or more (IRS, Manage taxes for your gig work). Use the batch earnings history as your income record.
Are the groceries I buy for customers a tax deduction?
No. The order card pays with the customer’s money, so it is neither your income nor your cost. Leave those charges out of your expense list.
Can in-store shoppers deduct their mileage?
Not on the federal return. Employee driving costs fall under the miscellaneous itemized deductions that the tax code bars for every year after 2017 (26 U.S.C. 67). Ask your employer about mileage pay instead.
Sources
- IRS, Manage taxes for your gig work: Gig workers file once net self-employment earnings reach $400, report all income even without a Form 1099, may owe quarterly estimated tax or raise W-2 withholding instead, and file Schedule C and Schedule SE.
- 2025 Form 1099-NEC instructions: For 2025, a payer files Form 1099-NEC for a contractor paid at least $600 for services.
- Form 1099-NEC instructions (12/2026): For tax years beginning after 2025 the 1099-NEC threshold is $2,000, indexed from 2027; the December 2026 revision adds box 1b for cash tips and box 1c for the tipped occupation code.
- IRS Publication 463: Car records show each business use and total miles; a regular route can be recorded once with the date of each trip; sampling is allowed; home-to-regular-workplace trips are commuting; the self-employed deduct the business share of car loan interest; a leased car on the standard rate stays on it for the whole lease.
- IRS standard mileage rates: Business rate: 70 cents a mile for 2025, 72.5 cents for January 1 to June 30, 2026, and 76 cents for July 1 to December 31, 2026.
- IRS Publication 334: A business expense must be ordinary and necessary; inventory includes merchandise, raw materials, work in process, finished products and supplies that become part of the item; beginning inventory is the cost of stock on hand at the start of the year.
- Final tipped occupations rule: The final list names app-based delivery and grocery delivery drivers under Goods Delivery People (code 804) and app-based rideshare under Taxi and Rideshare Drivers (code 802).
- IRS FS-2026-07: Gig workers may deduct up to $25,000 of qualified tips for 2025 through 2028, capped at net business income, only if the tips are inside a 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC or 1099-K total; QBI is permanent; the 1099-K line is over $20,000 and over 200 transactions.
- IRS, Working Families Tax Cuts for workers: Qualified tips are voluntary cash or charged tips; the deduction phases out above $150,000 of modified AGI ($300,000 joint), needs an SSN, and excludes the self-employed in an SSTB and employees of an SSTB employer.
- 26 U.S.C. 67: No miscellaneous itemized deduction is allowed for any taxable year beginning after December 31, 2017.
About the author
Arthur Teboul (Founder, DokuTrak) is building DokuTrak after watching professionals lose hours chasing clients for documents over email. Arthur Teboul.
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How this page was made (methodology): it is built from the primary sources listed under Sources, and every rule and figure on it links to the source it comes from. Last updated October 25, 2026. Spotted an error or a rule that changed? Contact us.
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