Track Rideshare Profit and Loss: Mileage Apps and Tax Records

In 2015 I wrote about the tools I used to answer one question: am I actually making money? That is still the right question. A busy week can look great in the app and still be a bad week once gas, wear on the car and taxes come out. This is the updated version, with what the IRS requires and the tools that exist today.

What I tracked in 2015, and why it still works

I used a simple mileage-log app on my Android phone, plus an Excel sheet. From the log I wanted to know:

• how much time and how many miles I spent driving without a passenger
• how much gas I burned on those empty miles
• which parts of the city had me waiting the least
• which areas produced the longest or best-paying rides

That gave me evidence instead of a hunch like “downtown is always busiest,” and a way to set goals for cutting dead time between trips. I also used it to compare gas and car costs against what I took in. That is still the best use of tracking, and it matters before tax time. Plug your own numbers into the profit calculator, the hourly earnings calculator and the vehicle cost per mile calculator.

What the IRS requires

You’re an independent contractor, so you report your income and expenses on Schedule C (Form 1040), and you deduct car expenses there. The IRS’s guidance on car expenses (Publication 463 and the Schedule C instructions) comes down to this:

• Keep a written record. For each business use of the car, record the date, destination, business purpose and miles, plus your total miles for the year. A log, diary, notebook or app all work.
• No estimating. The IRS says you can’t deduct amounts you approximate or estimate.
• Keep records for 3 years. The usual period is three years from the date you file the return on which you claim the deduction.
• Pick a method. Either the standard mileage rate or your actual expenses (gas, repairs, insurance, depreciation and so on, for the business share of use). If you use the standard rate you can’t also deduct the actual costs for the year, except that parking fees and tolls can be added on top. The IRS has rules about which method you can use and when you can switch, so read Publication 463 or ask a preparer before your first year.
• Commuting isn’t deductible. Ask your preparer how they treat the drive to your first pickup and miles while you wait with the app on. Uber’s tax summary and Lyft’s annual summary both report your “online miles” (time waiting, driving to pickup and on trip), which is a useful starting point, not a legal answer.

2026 standard mileage rates

For 2026 the IRS set the business rate at 72.5 cents per mile in December 2025 (Notice 2026-10). In July 2026 it raised the rate for the rest of the year (Announcement 2026-11, issued July 13, 2026), because of higher fuel costs:

Period in 2026	Business rate (cents per mile)
January 1 to June 30	72.5
July 1 to December 31	76

That means a driver using the standard method needs to know their odometer reading at June 30 so they can split the year’s business miles. For comparison, the 2025 rate was 70 cents. The rate changes every year, and the IRS can change it mid-year, so look up the figure for the year you are filing.

Tools that exist today

My 2015 log app is not something I’d point you to now, and I’m not naming it. Here are the options I could confirm are still around as of October 2026. Prices and free-tier limits change often, so check each app’s own page before paying.

Tool	What it is	Free version?
MileIQ	Automatic drive detection, swipe to classify	Reported limit of 40 drives a month; paid plan for unlimited
Driversnote	Automatic mileage log with reports	Vendor says free plan covers up to 15 trips a month
Everlance	Mileage and expense tracking, bank sync on paid plan	Has a free tier; paid plan adds automatic features
Stride	Mileage and expense tracker for independent workers	Listed as free in the app store
Hurdlr	Mileage, income and expense tracker	Free plan with semi-automatic tracking; automatic tracking on paid plan
Gridwise	Built for gig drivers: mileage, earnings from multiple apps, driving insights	Free to download; paid Plus tier adds features
QuickBooks Solopreneur	Bookkeeping and tax tools for the self-employed, including mileage	Free tier limited to 5 mileage trips a month; paid plans around $20 a month at list price

A few notes:

• QuickBooks Self-Employed has been replaced. Intuit has been discontinuing QuickBooks Self-Employed in favor of Solopreneur, so don’t sign up for the old product.
• Automatic tracking is not magic. Any app can miss a trip, run the wrong direction or log a personal drive. Open the app and review your trips at least weekly. The IRS cares about the log, not the app.
• The platforms also give you numbers. Uber’s annual tax summary (in the Driver app under Account, then Tax Info, or at drivers.uber.com) shows earnings and online miles, and Lyft’s annual summary (in the Tax Center in the driver dashboard) does the same. Treat them as a cross-check, not your only record. Both companies say these summaries aren’t official tax documents.
• Don’t use a platform’s printed mileage rate. Lyft’s tax page has listed 70 cents per mile, which is the 2025 figure. Use the IRS rate for the year you are filing.
• A spreadsheet is fine. I used Excel and it still works. Put one row per shift: date, start and end odometer, hours online, miles with a passenger, platform earnings, tips, gas, tolls, parking, and anything else you paid for. Pair it with a screenshot or photo of your odometer at the start and end of each year.

Pick one tracking method, use it every day and don’t switch mid-year unless you have to.

Forms and numbers worth knowing

Schedule C and Schedule SE. Schedule C shows your income and expenses and ends in your net profit. Schedule SE figures your self-employment tax from that profit. The IRS says you generally owe self-employment tax if your net earnings are $400 or more. The combined rate is 15.3% (12.4% Social Security plus 2.9% Medicare), applied to 92.35% of your net earnings, with the Social Security part capped at $184,500 of earnings for 2026. The self-employment tax estimator will give you a rough figure.

Estimated tax payments. If you expect to owe at least $1,000 for the year after withholding and credits, the IRS expects you to pay during the year. For tax year 2026 the dates are April 15, June 15 and September 15, 2026, and January 15, 2027. Payments for the 2027 tax year are due April 15, June 15 and September 15, 2027 and in mid-January 2028. If a date falls on a weekend or holiday it moves to the next business day, and the January 2028 date is affected, so check Form 1040-ES when you get there. If you’re also an employee you can raise your W-4 withholding instead.

1099-K, 1099-NEC and why you may not get one. Uber and Lyft report rider payments to the IRS on Form 1099-K. Since the 2025 law the federal threshold is back to more than $20,000 in payments and more than 200 transactions, and the $600 threshold that was planned never took effect. Some states set lower thresholds, and both companies say you can still get a form below the federal amount. Form 1099-K shows gross payments, before fees. Non-ride payments such as referral or promotional income come on Form 1099-NEC. The IRS threshold for 1099-NEC is $2,000 for payments made in 2026 (it was $600), though Uber and Lyft pages have still described $600, so look at what you receive. Whether or not you get a form, you must report all your income.

Tips. Tips are income on Schedule C. For tax years 2025 through 2028 there is also a separate deduction for qualified tips, claimed on Schedule 1-A, that applies to rideshare drivers. The details are in the post on tips and ratings.

Deductible expenses to track

If you use the standard mileage rate, car costs are covered by the rate, but you can still add parking fees and tolls. Keep the receipts or a log for those, plus any other business costs your preparer says are deductible, such as the business share of your phone plan. The IRS’s Publication 334 and the Schedule C instructions list what is allowed. If you use actual expenses instead, track gas, repairs, insurance, registration, depreciation and the rest and apply your business-use percentage.

A simple routine

1. Turn on your mileage tracker whenever you’re driving for business, and check it weekly.
2. Log earnings, tips and expenses weekly.
3. Set aside part of each week’s profit for taxes and for estimated payments.
4. Once a month, check cost per mile and hourly profit with the calculators on the tools page.
5. In January, collect your tax summaries and forms and compare them with your own records.

I’m not a tax professional and this isn’t tax advice. Rules for your state, your car and your situation can differ, so ask a preparer if you aren’t sure.