If you drove for DoorDash, Uber, or Instacart this year, there's a decent chance you owe money this April instead of getting a refund.
It's how the system is built for people who get paid as independent contractors.
When you work a regular job, your employer withholds taxes from every paycheck and quietly sends it to the IRS.
Nobody hands you a 1099 and expects you to figure it out.
You're treated as self-employed, which means you're responsible for both halves of Medicare and Social Security — 15.3% instead of the 7.65% a W-2 employee pays.
On $30,000 of gig income, that's roughly $4,590 in self-employment tax alone, before a dime of income tax.
Most gig platforms don't withhold anything, and many workers don't set money aside because the deposits look like a paycheck.
Come filing season, a driver who made $40,000 gross can owe $5,000 or more.
Reddit and TikTok are full of people posting four-figure balances they can't pay.
The IRS payment plan is the fallback, but interest keeps running.
There's a real fix, and most gig workers skip it: tracking mileage.
The IRS standard mileage rate for 2024 is 67 cents per mile, and for 2025 it's 70 cents.
That's not a deduction on top of your income — it subtracts directly from what you owe taxes on.
A driver logging 20,000 miles gets a $14,000 deduction at 70 cents, which can wipe out a big chunk of the tax bill.
An app like Stride or Everlance does it automatically; a notebook works too, but the IRS wants dates, destinations, and totals.
Other write-offs gig workers miss constantly: phone bills, phone mounts, insulated bags, car washes, parking, tolls, and the interest on a car loan.
Health insurance premiums can be deductible too.
None of this helps if you file the free version of a tax app and click through without entering expenses.
If you expect to owe $1,000 or more for the year, the IRS wants payments in April, June, September, and January.
Skip them and you get an underpayment penalty tacked on.
Setting aside 25% to 30% of every deposit into a separate savings account is the simplest habit that keeps people out of trouble.
If you're already behind, don't panic-file.
An IRS installment plan is available online, and penalties are far smaller than the ones for not filing at all.
A CPA who works with gig workers often costs $200 to $400 and can find deductions worth several times that.
The gig economy sold workers on flexibility, and it delivered — but it quietly handed the tax paperwork to the people least equipped to handle it.
A little tracking now beats a payment plan later.
Final Thoughts
If you drove at all last year, spend an hour with your mileage and your bank statements before you file.