Year-End Tax Moves for Gig Workers

Most year-end tax advice is written for people with a salary, a 401(k) at work and an accountant on speed dial. A gig worker's year looks different. Income arrives weekly from two or three apps, the biggest deduction lives inside a phone, and the forms that summarize the year will not show up until early 2027. The useful questions for the last 10 weeks of the year are narrower: what does each app report, what is missing from your records, and which moves still count if you make them before Dec. 31?

This guide answers those questions app by app, then runs one driver's year through the numbers. It is educational, not tax advice. For the platform pages and a calculator set up for gig income, start at the gig worker tax hub.

Rideshare drivers on Uber and Lyft

Rideshare income is usually the largest single stream a gig worker has, and it is also the one where the form and the profit are furthest apart. A 1099-K reports the gross amount riders paid, including the share Uber or Lyft kept. Both apps publish an annual tax summary that separates the gross figure from the fees the platform took, and those fees are a business expense. Before the year ends, work through this list:

• Open the app's tax or earnings section and download the year-to-date summary now. Compare its online miles with your own mileage log for the same months.
• Find the weeks where your log is thin or empty. Those are usually the weeks your tracking app was closed or your phone died.
• Rebuild missing business miles from the platform's trip history and your calendar, and note how you rebuilt them. A written method is what makes a reconstruction believable.
• Remember that the drive from home to your first pickup counts only if your home office qualifies as your principal place of business. Otherwise it is commuting.
• Gather parking receipts, toll statements and airport fees. These are deductible on top of the standard mileage rate.
• Estimate whether you will cross $20,000 and 200 rides on each app. If you will not, you may get no form at all, and the income is still taxable.

The mileage rate changed partway through 2026, so a log that only shows a yearly total is not enough. Miles driven through June 30 use 72.5 cents and miles from July 1 on use 76 cents. The mileage deduction guide covers which trips count, and the Uber and Lyft pages run the numbers for each platform.

Delivery and shopping: DoorDash, Instacart and Shipt

Delivery and shopping apps usually pay independent contractors on a 1099-NEC, now issued only once you are paid $2,000 or more in the year. The mileage rules are the same as for rideshare, but two items need attention before Dec. 31.

The first is supplies. Insulated bags, cart hooks, a phone mount and a backup battery are business equipment, and anything bought and put into use by Dec. 31 is a 2026 deduction. Small items can be written off in full under the de minimis safe harbor, which covers items up to $2,500 each for a business without audited financial statements. That is a reason to replace worn gear in December rather than January, not a reason to buy gear you do not need. A dollar spent to save 20 cents of tax still leaves you 80 cents poorer.

The second is tips.

Platform details differ, especially in how each app labels tips and promotions. The DoorDash, Instacart and Shipt pages cover each one.

Task and pet work: TaskRabbit and Rover

Taskers and pet sitters tend to have smaller mileage totals and larger supply costs: tools, cleaning products, leashes, waste bags, a crate for boarding. The year-end job here is a receipt sweep. Go through your card statements for the year, flag every purchase that was for the work and save the receipt or statement line in one folder. Many people in this group earn below the reporting thresholds, which means no form arrives in January and the only record of income is the app's own payout history. Download it before the year ends, while the account and the export are in front of you. The TaskRabbit and Rover pages show what the income looks like after self-employment tax.

Four moves that apply on every app

Income timing

Salaried workers sometimes shift a bonus into January. Gig workers have little room to do that. As a cash-basis business, you report income in the year it is paid to you or made available to you, so leaving a late-December balance in the app does not move it into 2027. Keep the payout statements for the last two weeks of December and the first week of January. If your records and the platform's form disagree about which year a payout belongs to, those statements settle it.

The mileage log review

Set aside an hour this month to compare your log with each platform's records, month by month. Missing miles are the largest deduction most drivers lose, and October is late enough to see the pattern but early enough that the trip history is easy to pull. Every 100 rebuilt miles from the first half of the year is $72.50 of deductions; from the second half, $76.

Equipment before Dec. 31

Gear bought and put into use by Dec. 31 is a 2026 expense. Your car is the exception that needs care. Under the standard mileage rate, the cost of the car is already built into the per-mile figure, so a December purchase adds no separate deduction. A large write-off for a vehicle comes only under the actual expense method, and if you claim Section 179 or accelerated depreciation on a car, you cannot switch that car to the standard rate later. That is a decision for a preparer, not a December impulse.

Retirement contributions

A solo 401(k) needs paperwork. If you already have one, the 2026 deferral election generally has to be made by Dec. 31, while a sole proprietor with no employees who opens a new plan has until the 2027 filing deadline. A traditional or Roth IRA can be funded until April 15, 2027. For many gig workers, the honest answer is that a traditional contribution saves less than expected, because it reduces income tax but not self-employment tax, and the qualified business income deduction shrinks along with taxable income. The example below shows how much less. The year-end planning guide covers retirement timing at higher incomes, where the math looks very different.

Darnell's year-end, in dollars

Darnell's best move cost him nothing. The 900 rebuilt miles saved more tax per dollar than the IRA, and they were already his to claim. That pattern holds for most drivers below roughly $50,000 of profit: records first, purchases second, retirement money third, unless retirement savings is the goal on its own. You can test your own version by entering your profit before and after the changes in the self-employment tax calculator.

What January will ask of you

The year-end work pays off in the first month of 2027. The fourth estimated payment is due Friday, Jan. 15, and the quarterly tax guide shows how to size it. Platforms must send 2026 forms by Feb. 1, 2027, since Jan. 31 falls on a Sunday. When they arrive, check each one against the payout history you saved this fall. A 1099-K that looks larger than what reached your bank account is normal, and the 1099-K guide walks through the reconciliation. If you did the October review, January is a matter of matching numbers rather than rebuilding a year. The phone and internet share of your costs is covered in how to deduct your phone and internet, and every app's page is linked from the gig worker hub.