Uber tax documents: what a driver gathers before filing

Uber posts its year-end papers by January 31 on drivers.uber.com and in the Driver app, under Account, then Tax Info (Uber, Tax season guide for drivers). You get an email when they are ready. Only two of them are IRS forms, and each covers a different kind of pay.

A Form 1099-K is the IRS form a payment network uses to report the gross amount it processed for you. Uber uses it for on-trip gross earnings, meaning what riders and Uber Eats customers paid (Uber, Tax season guide for drivers). Uber sends one at $20,000 or more of customer payments, and some states set a lower line (Uber, Tax season guide for drivers).

The Form 1099-NEC covers promotions, referrals and other pay. For 2025, Uber issues it at $600 or more of that pay (Uber, Tax season guide for drivers); for payments made after 2025, the federal line is $2,000 (Form 1099-NEC instructions (12/2026)). The annual tax summary is Uber’s own breakdown of earnings, fees, tips and online miles, and Uber says it is not an official tax document (Uber, Tax season guide for drivers).

Two account details change what arrives. If you drive and deliver under one email, Uber adds both to test the thresholds and sends one summary (Uber, Tax season guide for drivers). If backup withholding applied during the year, a 1099-K comes whatever you earned (Uber, Tax season guide for drivers).

Drivers often panic at the 1099-K total, for example when it shows more than ever reached the bank. Uber explains that deposits are net of its fees and insurance costs, while the 1099-K shows gross payments (Uber, Tax season guide for drivers). The IRS confirms that the 1099-K gross is not reduced for fees, credits or refunds, and that you can subtract them (IRS, What to do with Form 1099-K).

So the preparer needs the form and the summary side by side. The 1099-K sets gross receipts on Schedule C, and the summary’s expense, fees and tax section lists what comes back off. Your bank statements then show the net payouts, Instant Pay transfers included.

With no 1099-K at all, the return looks the same: gig income is reported whether or not a form arrives (IRS, Manage taxes for your gig work). The tax summary then becomes the main income record.

Uber’s online miles are the miles it records while you are active in the Driver app: waiting or moving to a busier area, driving to the pickup, and the trip itself (Uber, Tax season guide for drivers). In Uber’s own example, 10 miles of repositioning, 5 to the pickup and 10 on the trip give 25 online miles (Uber, Tax season guide for drivers). The count stops when the app goes off.

Any other business drive you claim needs your own log. For car expenses, Publication 463 lists three things to record: each business use with its miles, the year’s total miles, and the date the car went into business use (IRS Publication 463). Uber miles from 2025 are worth 70 cents each (IRS standard mileage rates); 2026 has two rates, set out on the mileage log checklist.

With the standard rate, you do not also deduct depreciation, lease payments or gas (Schedule C instructions). Gas receipts still help prove the miles, and you need them all if you use actual costs.

• Car loan: the business share of the interest is deductible, even on the mileage rate (IRS Publication 463).
• Leased car: payments count only under actual costs (Schedule C instructions), and a lease started on the mileage rate stays on it for the whole lease (IRS Publication 463).
• Tolls and parking paid during trips go on top of the rate (Schedule C instructions).

Rideshare work has costs a delivery job does not, such as car washes, water and mints for riders, a dash cam, and city or airport fees. An expense must be ordinary and necessary for your business to be deductible (IRS Publication 334). Keep each receipt, and note that it was for driving.

Tips sit inside the gross earnings on Uber’s tax documents, and the summary shows the year’s tip total (Uber, Tax season guide for drivers). App-based rideshare is on the tipped-jobs list under Taxi and Rideshare Drivers, code 802 (Final tipped occupations rule). Uber drivers can take off as much as $25,000 in tips each year from 2025 to 2028, but never more than their net driving profit (IRS FS-2026-07).

The catch for a contractor: a tip counts only when it is part of the amount on a 1099-K, 1099-NEC or 1099-MISC (IRS FS-2026-07). A driver under the 1099-K line can opt in to receive the forms in Tax Settings (Uber, Tax season guide for drivers). Above $150,000 of modified AGI ($300,000 joint), the tip deduction is reduced (IRS, Working Families Tax Cuts for workers).

A landlord or lender who asks for proof of Uber income wants papers a third party made, not a screenshot of the earnings screen. Bring the annual tax summary, any 1099s, and the filed return with Schedule C. Uber also points tax advisers to the weekly earnings statements on the driver dashboard (Uber, Tax season guide for drivers).

During the year, Uber suggests the monthly tax summary for quarterly payments (Uber, Tax season guide for drivers). How much to send, and by when, is covered on the self-employed checklist.

• Uber, Tax season guide for drivers: Uber posts a 1099-K ($20,000 or more of customer payments, lower in some states, any amount with backup withholding), a 1099-NEC ($600 or more of promotions and referrals) and tax summaries by January 31; drivers under the line can opt in to 1099s for the tips deduction.
• 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, What to do with Form 1099-K: The 1099-K gross is not reduced for fees, credits, refunds or shipping; personal items sold at a loss can be zeroed out; items sold at a gain go on Form 8949 and Schedule D; sellers in business report on Schedule C.
• 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.
• 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.
• Schedule C instructions: With the standard mileage rate, add parking and tolls and do not deduct depreciation, lease payments or operating costs; Part III covers cost of goods sold and inventory valuation.
• 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.