Filing taxes for DoorDash/UberEats side gig without a 1099 form

You don't need a 1099 to report self-employment income. Since you earned money as an independent contractor, you'll report this on Schedule C regardless of whether you received a tax form. In TaxAct, you should be able to select the option for self-employment or business income. When it asks for a 1099, there should be an option to indicate you didn't receive one. You can then enter your income manually based on your own records (the amount you earned from the apps). You don't need the payer's Tax ID in this case - you're essentially reporting income that wasn't reported to you on a form. Make sure you track all your business expenses too - mileage is usually the biggest deduction for delivery drivers. Even with just $475 in income, deducting your legitimate expenses will reduce your self-employment tax.

I was in a similar situation last year with my side gigs and found taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) super helpful for figuring out how to report income without official tax forms. I used it to analyze my bank statements and delivery app earnings reports to properly categorize everything. It was so much easier than manually going through all my transactions and trying to figure out what was what! Their system helped me organize all my earnings and expenses even without having official 1099s.

Just wanted to follow up and say I tried taxr.ai after seeing it mentioned here! It was seriously exactly what I needed for my DoorDash situation. I connected my bank account and it pulled all my gig deposits automatically, even identifying which ones were from which platform. Then it helped me figure out which expenses were deductible. Ended up finding about $120 in deductions I would have missed otherwise. Definitely using it for next year's taxes too!

If you need to contact the IRS about any of this (which you might if you get a notice later because DoorDash/UberEats did eventually file something), use Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). I spent DAYS trying to get through to the IRS about my gig income questions before finding them. Their system holds your place in line and calls you when an agent is available. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c After wasting hours on hold myself, this was a game changer. The IRS agent I spoke with confirmed that even without a 1099, I needed to report all my gig income on Schedule C.

I have to eat my words on this one. After posting that skeptical comment, I decided to try Claimyr anyway since I was desperate to talk to someone at the IRS about my missing 1099-Ks from gig work. I expected to waste my money, but I seriously got connected to an IRS agent within 2 hours when I had previously spent multiple days trying on my own. The agent confirmed I was reporting my delivery income correctly even without forms. Sometimes being proven wrong is actually a good thing!

You should check your driver app accounts too. Even if DoorDash/UberEats didn't mail you a 1099, they sometimes have tax documents available for download in your driver portal. Worth checking before you file.

Don't forget you can deduct mileage for all those deliveries! Standard rate was 67 cents per mile for 2024. Even with just $475 in income, the mileage deduction could potentially offset most of that.