Estimated quarterly taxes?

[Seamus]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Terrible advice^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1- You are writing down miles with no odometer reading will get your miles disallowed.
2- You did this for 20 years and the IRS had no problem? Bogus! You were probably getting a mileage reimbursement from an employer which has no bearing to the IRS. We are talking about schedule C deductions which are totally different and just your total miles without odometer readings won't fly.
3- You must be new to rideshare and don't understand the 1099 issuance that is relevant. If you get bonus or incentive money over $600 you will get a 1099 misc. If you get rideshare money from driving pax you get a 1099k if over $20,000, less than that you get no 1099K.

The only thing you said that makes any sense is "ask a professional accountant." I bet you have never filed a schedule C with rideshare revenue included yet.

 

[MajorBummer]

Wasnt giving advice,just told you how i do it.And the 20 years i was talking about were in selfemployment ,no re-embursements.
Clarification>> by saying 1099 i meant your income will be reported and you get some form of 1099.i did rideshare last year and there is a reason i have an accountant.
i was not giving advise . btw , my wife and i have been self employed for 33 years in separate businesses and have always used an accountant. so there MR terrible advice.

 

[Seamus]

Wasnt giving advice,just told you how i do it.And the 20 years i was talking about were in selfemployment ,no re-embursements.
Clarification>> by saying 1099 i meant your income will be reported and you get some form of 1099.i did rideshare last year and there is a reason i have an accountant.
i was not giving advise . btw , my wife and i have been self employed for 33 years in separate businesses and have always used an accountant. so there MR terrible advice.

Thanks for clarifying you were providing misinformation and not advice.

 

[MajorBummer]

Yikes,the love in this forum.roflmao

 

[FLKeys]

It's a good investment. 90% of drivers don't maintain an IRS compliant log. To be IRS compliant the mileage log must contain the address of each stop. You will hear a bunch of people saying that's not required but they don't know what they are talking about. It would be cumbersome to do manually, like an old taxi log. Apps are the way to go but very few track each point address. I use an app called Triplog. Mileage is your biggest deduction by far so if on the rare chance you got audited you want to protect your deduction by having a compliant log.

I'm still keeping a detailed manual log, I finally quit using the apps that track this information as I routinely had a 3-5% variance from my written logs. 3-5% of the total miles driven over a year is too much for me to give up. Plus I have put in for numerous fare adjustments where the Uber and or Lyft app also did not record the proper miles on some trips. Since I keep detailed records I can easily pick these out.

For the record I am in a market that is slower than most so I do have time while waiting on pings to keep my records up to date.

 

[Seamus]

I'm still keeping a detailed manual log, I finally quit using the apps that track this information as I routinely had a 3-5% variance from my written logs. 3-5% of the total miles driven over a year is too much for me to give up. Plus I have put in for numerous fare adjustments where the Uber and or Lyft app also did not record the proper miles on some trips. Since I keep detailed records I can easily pick these out.

For the record I am in a market that is slower than most so I do have time while waiting on pings to keep my records up to date.

The GPS method of tracking miles isn't perfect that's for sure. I can easily adjust my odometer miles though when I save a location. I have to do that once or twice a shift usually because it accumulates a mile difference over time between the GPS tracked miles and the actual odometer reading.

 

[Disgusted Driver]

uber and lyft will give you a summary of how many miles you drove. when you get this i suggest you talk to your tax pro about doubling the miles it says you actually drove its called claiming dead miles . use turbo tax they help you .
also keep in mind you will NOT get a 1099 so the ira will NOT get a 1099 meaning your earning under less then 20000 from uber or lyft
the irs is not informed your working for lyft or uber. meaning you may be using the standard deduction it may benefit you more then claiming your miles . i am not a tax pro but i always done my own taxes for the past 25 years . i have to think if you filed 1/4 taxes your just throwing money a way doing it i would wait to the end of the year again no need to track your miles its automatically recorded no need to stress out spend money crap to track it . if i had to bet 10k i would wager you will benefit from using the standard deduction over claiming your lyft uber driving . you only earned 2500 so will say your going to make less then 5k this year .
personally i would keep my driving a secret from everybody never claim it

You are overstating your mileage. Last years mileage on both Uber and Lyft was for all miles that you had the app on, whether with pax or not. Plus, if you have both apps on you are claiming double your mileage. Someone already posted something about standard deduction, has nothing to do with your Uber expenses.

 

[Older Chauffeur]

If you earn more than $600 in a year you will get a 1099 from Uber and Lyft and a copy goes to the IRS.

IIRC, Uber (and maybe Lyft?) issues a 1099misc for incentives, i.e.- money THEY pay you directly, with a reporting threshold of $600. Your regular trip earnings that they process have a reporting threshold of $20,000.

My usual disclaimer

 

[UberTaxPro]

IIRC, Uber (and maybe Lyft?) issues a 1099misc for incentives, i.e.- money THEY pay you directly, with a reporting threshold of $600. Your regular trip earnings that they process have a reporting threshold of $20,000.

My usual disclaimer

Yes you RC correctly! 1099M for incentives and 1099K for credit card (trip earnings).

 

[Angel16]

The most important single thing you can do for your business (yes it is a business) is keep a detailed mileage log.

Can you do hand written mileage logs?

 

[UberTaxPro]

Can you do hand written mileage logs?

Absolutely, not to long ago it was the only accepted way!

 

[Tarvus]

Multiply your total miles driven by $0.58. Subtract that from your gross revenue. If you are lucky enough to be in positive territory, multiply the difference by the sum of 0.155 (for self-employment tax) plus your federal and state income tax rate from the previous year. That should get you close. If, as is likely, you show a negative number, you will not owe tax.

 

[Stevie The magic Unicorn]

Best way to log it is to hand write your odometer readings.

 

[NorCalPhil]

For those of you using apps to track mileage, i'd suggest writing down your odometer readings for a while and test the accuracy of the app you use. I found them very inaccurate.

 

[Trafficat]

Pay quarterly taxes, or pay a penalty.

 

[Older Chauffeur]

Pay quarterly taxes, or pay a penalty.

Not necessarily. IIRC, as long as at filing time you have paid in at least an amount equal to 100% of your preceding year’s taxes, or 90%of the current year’s tax liability, or you owe no more than $1000 there’s no penalty. You can pay through regular employment where taxes are withheld as some part timers do, or if you have taxable pension income or investments that withhold taxes from withdrawals as retirees might. I think I wound up paying quarterly for one year back when I first started as an Independent contractor 16 years ago, and have never had a problem.

Disclaimer: I’m not a tax professional.

 

[FLKeys]

For those of you using apps to track mileage, i'd suggest writing down your odometer readings for a while and test the accuracy of the app you use. I found them very inaccurate.

Agree, I found on average a 5% discrepancy, always tracking less miles than my odometer.

 

[percy_ardmore]

Pay quarterly taxes, or pay a penalty.

The IRS doesn't know when you started receiving SE income, only that you did because Uber/Lyft/DD/GH/PM etc sent them the same form they sent you. It's a good practice to send something to poor IRS quarterly to avoid shock tax in the spring. It's rare to incur lack of estimated tax payments penalty, you would have to show considerable net profit and blow them off all year.