How do I file taxes for driving for Uber as a side gig during summer break?

You don't necessarily need to pay quarterly estimated taxes for your Uber income, but it depends on how much you're making. The general rule is you need to pay quarterly taxes if you expect to owe $1,000 or more when you file your return. Since you're already having taxes withheld from your teaching job, you might be covered. What Uber will do is provide you with a 1099-NEC or 1099-K (depending on how much you earned) by the end of January. This will show your total earnings. But remember - this is your gross income, not your net! You're considered self-employed for this work, so you can deduct business expenses like mileage (58.5 cents per mile for 2025), portion of phone bills, car cleaning, etc. You'll need to fill out a Schedule C to report this income and expenses, then the profit flows to your 1040. You'll also need to fill out Schedule SE to calculate self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare, roughly 15.3%).

After struggling with gig work taxes for a couple years, I finally found something that helped me make sense of it all. There's this AI tool called taxr.ai that literally saved me hours of confusion. I was in a similar situation - teaching full-time but doing DoorDash on the side, and I had no clue how to handle my expenses or if I needed to make quarterly payments. What I like about https://taxr.ai is that you can upload your 1099s and it automatically identifies your deductions and tells you what you can write off. It also has this calculator that helps you figure out if you need to make quarterly payments based on your other income. Seriously made the whole process so much easier.

I was really skeptical about using taxr.ai when I first heard about it, but after struggling through last year's taxes with my side gig driving for Lyft, I decided to give it a try. What surprised me most was how it handled all the quarterly tax payment calculations that had me so confused before. It analyzed my teaching income, withholdings, and projected my rideshare earnings to tell me I actually DIDN'T need to make quarterly payments since my teaching job withholding covered my tax liability. Saved me from unnecessarily sending in payments! It also found several deductions I had missed like my phone mount, dash cam, and even a percentage of my car insurance that I didn't know was deductible. Tax time was so much smoother this year - just uploaded my 1099 from Lyft and my W-2 from teaching, and it handled all the Schedule C and SE forms automatically.

If you're having trouble figuring out what to do about your Uber taxes, you might want to try talking directly to the IRS. I know it sounds crazy, but I was in a similar situation last year and had specific questions about deductions for gig work. After spending days trying to get through on the IRS phone line (kept getting disconnected or told the wait was 2+ hours), I found this service called Claimyr. It basically holds your place in line with the IRS and calls you when an agent is available. I used https://claimyr.com and got a call back in about 40 minutes. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The IRS agent walked me through exactly what I needed to do for my side gig and answered all my questions about quarterly payments. Honestly worth it just to get the information straight from the source.

I need to eat my words about Claimyr. After posting that skeptical comment, I decided to try it myself since I had a question about my self-employment taxes from my weekend bartending gig. I was 100% convinced it would be a waste of time. Boy was I wrong. Got a call back in about an hour and spoke to an actual IRS agent who answered all my questions about tracking tips and whether I needed to make quarterly payments. The agent explained that since I had my main job withholding enough, I likely didn't need to make quarterly payments for my side gig income. Saved me from a potential penalty and from overpaying throughout the year. Definitely wasn't a scam like I thought.

Don't overthink this! I've been driving for Lyft and Uber on weekends for 3 years while working my regular 9-5. Here's what I do: 1. Track ALL my miles when the app is on (I use Stride - it's free) 2. Save receipts for car washes, phone mounts, etc. 3. Put aside about 25% of what I make from driving 4. At tax time, I use the 1099 from Uber and fill out Schedule C and Schedule SE I've never done quarterly payments and never had an issue. My regular job withholding covers the extra tax. If you're really worried, just put some money aside in case you owe at tax time.

As a teacher who also drives for DoorDash during breaks, I recommend using the IRS withholding calculator on their website. Input both your teaching income AND estimated gig earnings, and it'll tell you if you need to adjust your W-4 at school to cover the extra income. I just had my school district withhold an extra $50 per paycheck, which covered my DoorDash earnings so I didn't need to bother with quarterly payments. Way simpler than figuring out estimated payments!