Car

AngelG

How am I able to write my car off? I do uber and lyft years round.

ZachT

That's a great question!

Generally, income earned from Uber and Lyft are considered as self-employment income and would be reported on a Schedule C accordingly. While reporting your income, you will also be able to deduct certain vehicle expenses that pertain to your business use of the vehicle.

The IRS currently offers two vehicle expense deduction methods:

1. The "Actual Expenses" method allows you to deduct the exact expenses for things such as gas, oil, repairs and maintenance, and registration fees to name a few. If you wish to use this method, be sure you have access to your receipts supporting these expenses.
2. The "Standard Mileage" method allows you to deduct a predetermined amount based on the amount of business-miles you drove throughout the year. For 2023, the amount is $0.655 per mile. This option may be the simpler option of the two because you only need to keep track of your business and personal mileage throughout the year.

While there are a few different rules that may apply and determine whether you may use one expense method over the other, you may try both options in the software to determine which will give you the greatest tax benefit.

There are additional expenses that may be deducted regardless of whether you use the Actual Expense method or the Standard Mileage method, such as business parking fees, property tax paid on the vehicle, and car loan interest paid.