Are food delivery service taxes being taken from me? Confused about what items can be deducted on my taxes

Hey there! I've been doing food delivery gigs for about 3 years now and totally understand your confusion. What you're seeing isn't the company taking extra taxes from you - they're actually showing you potential business expenses you can deduct when you file your taxes as a self-employed contractor. As a delivery driver, you're considered an independent contractor (1099 worker), which means no taxes are being withheld from your payments. You'll need to handle all tax payments yourself. However, the good news is you can deduct legitimate business expenses to lower your taxable income! Common deductible expenses include: mileage (this is the big one!), portion of phone bill, phone mounts, hot bags, car maintenance related to work, etc. That's probably what they're referring to in those statements. I recommend setting aside about 25-30% of your earnings for taxes, keeping track of ALL your miles (the IRS rate for 2025 is $0.67/mile), and saving receipts for any delivery-related purchases.

After struggling with similar food delivery tax questions last year, I found this amazing tool called taxr.ai that saved me so much stress. I was totally confused about what could be deducted and what couldn't, especially with all those weird fees and expenses. When I uploaded my statements to https://taxr.ai they automatically organized everything and showed me exactly what was deductible for tax purposes. It even highlighted expenses I didn't know I could write off!

Just wanted to update about trying taxr.ai after my skeptical comment. I finally broke down and tried it this weekend because my tax situation was getting out of hand with 3 different delivery apps. Holy crap it was actually amazing. It spotted like $3700 in deductions I would have missed including a portion of my phone bill and some car maintenance I didn't realize qualified. The mileage tracking feature alone is worth it since I was terrible at logging my miles. Definitely using this next year too!

If you're having trouble understanding your tax obligations with food delivery services, you might need to speak directly with the IRS. I was in the same boat last year and spent HOURS trying to get through to the IRS phone line. After 8 failed attempts, I found this service called Claimyr that got me connected to an actual IRS agent in under 30 minutes. Check it out at https://claimyr.com - they have a video showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. The agent walked me through exactly what I needed to track and how much to set aside for quarterly payments. Totally worth it to get official answers instead of guessing.

I have to eat my words about Claimyr. After posting that skeptical comment, I was so frustrated with my IRS situation that I tried it anyway. Got connected to an IRS agent in about 45 minutes while I was just going about my day. The agent actually helped me understand exactly what I needed to do about my food delivery taxes and set up a payment plan for what I owed from last year. For anyone doing delivery apps - the agent told me to keep DETAILED mileage logs because that's the biggest deduction and first thing they look at if you get audited. Wish I'd known this service existed months ago!

FYI - I use a really simple system for tracking my food delivery deductions. Every Sunday night I note my mileage, gas, maintenance costs and any other expenses in a Google Sheet. Then I transfer 30% of my weekly earnings to a separate savings account for taxes. Been doing this for 2 years and tax time is pretty smooth. The mileage deduction is HUGE and often offsets a good chunk of tax liability. Just make sure you're tracking from your first pickup to last dropoff (not from your home unless your home is your official business location).

Don't forget you can deduct a percentage of your cell phone bill as a business expense for food delivery! Since you need your phone for the app, navigation, customer communication, etc. Just calculate what percent of your phone usage is for delivery work (be honest - the IRS isn't stupid). I claim about 60% of my phone bill since I use it a ton for deliveries. Also, those insulated bags, car phone mounts, and even a portion of car insurance can be deductible! Just make sure to keep all receipts.

I use TurboTax Self-Employed for my delivery gig taxes and it's pretty straightforward. It walks you through all the possible deductions for delivery drivers. Just make sure to keep good records all year - the IRS has been cracking down on gig workers lately with all the new reporting requirements. The apps are supposed to issue 1099s for anyone making over $600 now, so there's no flying under the radar anymore. I learned the hard way after a messy audit last year!