Whether you deliver for DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, or all three, none of them withhold a cent from your earnings. You are an independent contractor, which means the tax side of the job belongs entirely to you. It comes down to three pieces, the forms the apps send, the miles you drive, and whether you owe the IRS during the year or just in April.
The 1099 forms and what they miss
Each app sends its own form in January. DoorDash and Grubhub report your gross earnings, including base pay, promotions, and in-app tips, on a Form 1099-NEC (DoorDash delivers it through Stripe Express). Uber Eats splits it up, with delivery fares on a 1099-K and promotions on a 1099-NEC, and the 1099-K shows the gross amount customers paid before Uber's fees came out. The IRS gets a copy of all of them, so that income is known.
What the forms do not show is any of your costs. Those come off on your Schedule C, and for delivery drivers they are big. If you run several apps, it all goes on one Schedule C. Delivery is one business no matter how many apps feed it.
Mileage is the largest deduction
The standard mileage rate lets you deduct a fixed amount for every business mile, covering gas, maintenance, insurance, and wear in one number. For a delivery driver, business miles include driving to pick up an order, delivering it, and repositioning between offers while an app is on. At typical delivery density, mileage alone often erases 30% to 50% of gross earnings.
Track from your first delivery. A mileage app, or a dated odometer note at the start and end of each shift, both hold up. Smaller deductions stack on top, the insulated bag, phone mounts, the share of your phone plan used for deliveries, tolls, and parking while delivering.
What the profit owes
Earnings minus deductions is your profit, and it owes income tax at your bracket plus about 15.3% self-employment tax, which starts at just $400 of profit. A common all-in range is 20% to 30% of profit, so the safe habit is setting that share of each week's payout aside. The 1099 tax calculator gives you your own number instead of the range.
Quarterly payments, or not
If you expect to owe $1,000 or more at filing time, the IRS wants four payments during the year, and skipping them adds an underpayment penalty. Delivering next to a W-2 job? Your paycheck's withholding counts toward the test, and a small W-4 adjustment can cover the delivery income with no quarterly payments at all. Full-time drivers should read the self-employed guide for the whole calendar.
See what your delivery driving really owes
Enter your delivery profit, what's left after your mileage deduction, and get your set-aside percentage and quarterly payment, free.
Sources: IRS Gig Economy Tax Center · IRS Schedule C