Uber does track mileage for taxes, but only part of what you can legally deduct. Your annual tax summary reports a single figure Uber calls “online miles,” covering the distance you drive while logged into the app. Business driving that happens with the app off — and there is more of it than most drivers realize — does not appear anywhere in Uber’s records. If you rely on Uber’s number alone, you will underclaim your deduction.
What Uber’s Online Miles Actually Include
Uber’s tracking starts when you go online in the driver app and stops when you go offline. Everything in between rolls into one “online miles” total on your year-end tax summary, and it breaks down into three types of driving:1Uber. Tax Season Guide for Uber Drivers and Couriers
- Waiting miles, driven while you are logged in and available for a request.
- En-route miles, from the moment you accept a request until you reach the pickup.
- On-trip miles, from pickup to drop-off.
The tax summary bundles all three into one number. Trip-by-trip detail is not included, and any driving you do with the app closed is invisible to the system.
Business Miles Uber Does Not Track
The IRS allows a deduction for any ordinary and necessary business driving, not just the miles a platform happens to measure. Several categories fall outside Uber’s logs and are yours to record:
- Driving to a busier part of town before you open the app.
- Trips to a mechanic, car wash, tire shop, or auto parts store for the vehicle you use for rideshare.
- Supply runs for items you use on the job, such as phone chargers, water bottles, or cleaning products.
- The drive between platforms when you switch from Uber to another rideshare or delivery app at a different location.
None of these show up in your tax summary, and none of them will be reconstructable at the end of the year unless you log them as they happen.
What About the Drive From Home?
The trip from your house to your first pickup, and from your last drop-off back home, is usually not deductible. Under general IRS rules, driving between your home and a regular place of work is a nondeductible commute, and turning the app on as you leave the driveway does not change that. The exception is a qualifying home office that serves as your principal place of business: if you have one, trips between home and any work location in the same trade become deductible.2Internal Revenue Service. Publication 463 (2024), Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses
Why the Gap Is Worth Real Money
The IRS set the 2026 standard mileage rate for business driving at 72.5 cents per mile, covering cars, vans, pickups, and panel trucks, including fully electric and hybrid vehicles.3Internal Revenue Service. IRS Sets 2026 Business Standard Mileage Rate at 72.5 Cents Per Mile, Up 2.5 Cents A driver who shows 15,000 online miles on the Uber summary but actually drove 20,000 business miles is walking away from 5,000 miles of deduction, or $3,625.
That number matters twice. Because Uber classifies you as an independent contractor and does not withhold taxes,4Internal Revenue Service. Independent Contractor (Self-Employed) or Employee? your net earnings are subject to both income tax and self-employment tax. Self-employment tax runs 15.3% on net earnings once they reach $400, split between 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare, and as a contractor you owe both halves.5Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 554, Self-Employment Tax Every deductible mile you capture reduces both taxes.
What the IRS Wants to See in a Mileage Log
The Uber tax summary is not enough on its own. The IRS requires records that show the amount, time and place, and business purpose of each trip,6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 274 – Disallowance of Certain Entertainment, Etc., Expenses and a lump annual total does not meet that standard.
A valid log, digital or paper, should include four things for every trip: the date, starting and ending locations, total miles, and the business reason. Entries need to be made at or near the time of the trip, not pieced together months later. Smartphone apps can do this in the background using GPS, letting you classify each trip as business or personal as it comes in.
The risk of skipping this is real. If the IRS audits and your records are inadequate, the agency can disallow the deduction entirely, and it can add an accuracy-related penalty of 20% of the underpayment on top of the extra tax.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6662 – Imposition of Accuracy-Related Penalty on Underpayments
How the Miles Get onto Your Tax Return
Rideshare income and expenses go on Schedule C (Form 1040). Under the standard mileage rate, you multiply your total business miles by 72.5 cents, add tolls and parking, and enter the result on Line 9.8Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Schedule C (Form 1040)
The standard mileage rate is a flat per-mile figure that folds fuel, maintenance, insurance, depreciation, and most other vehicle costs into a single number.9Internal Revenue Service. 2026 Standard Mileage Rates (Notice 2026-10) Most rideshare drivers use it because the paperwork is lighter: you need a mileage log rather than a folder of gas and repair receipts. The alternative is the actual expense method, where you deduct the business-use percentage of every vehicle cost — gas, oil, tires, repairs, insurance, registration, depreciation, and lease payments.2Internal Revenue Service. Publication 463 (2024), Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses
The choice is not fully reversible. You must select the standard mileage rate in the first year the car is available for business if you want the option of switching later; picking actual expenses first locks you out of the standard rate for that vehicle in future years.10Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 510, Business Use of Car If you lease and choose the standard rate, you have to stay with it for the entire lease, including renewals.
Either method depends on the same underlying record. Under the standard rate, your mileage log is the deduction. Under actual expenses, the business-use percentage that scales every receipt comes from the ratio of business miles to total miles. In both cases, the number Uber puts on your tax summary is a starting point, and the miles you add to it are the ones that make the deduction whole.