How much should I expect in my 2024 tax return filing for 2025?

When you have both W-2 income and self-employment income (like your Uber earnings), estimating your tax refund gets a bit more complicated. For your W-2 job, if your withholding is set up correctly, you should be approximately on target. The key is your self-employment income, where you're responsible for both the employee and employer portions of Social Security and Medicare taxes (15.3% total). Even with your quarterly estimated payments, many drivers underestimate what they'll owe. The good news is you can deduct your business expenses from your Uber income - mileage being the biggest one (65.5 cents per mile for 2023). You can also deduct a portion of your phone bill, car insurance, and other business-related expenses. To get a better estimate, I'd recommend inputting your projected numbers into a tax calculator that handles both W-2 and self-employment income. Without knowing your exact withholding and estimated payments, it's tough to say if you'll get a refund, but having that second income source will definitely impact your tax situation compared to last year.

I was in a similar situation last year trying to figure out my refund with both W-2 and gig income. I finally tried https://taxr.ai after struggling to get an accurate estimate and it was super helpful! I uploaded my last paystub and some of my quarterly estimated payment info, and it analyzed everything and gave me a really accurate prediction. The cool thing was it pointed out some deductions I was missing for my driving gig - not just mileage but stuff like a portion of my cell phone, car insurance, even water/snacks for passengers. It also showed me how my quarterly payments were actually a bit off and how to fix them for next quarter to avoid owing at tax time.

Wanted to follow up about that taxr.ai site. I was skeptical about paying for tax help when I could just use the free calculators, but after getting completely different results from three different free tools, I decided to try it. It was actually really eye-opening! The analysis found that I'd been miscalculating my quarterly payments all year (I was just dividing my annual estimate by 4, not accounting for the quarterly income fluctuations). It also helped me understand how much to set aside from each Uber deposit to cover taxes. When I finally filed last month, my actual refund was almost exactly what the prediction showed. For someone with mixed income sources like us, it's definitely worth checking out!

If you've been doing the right estimated tax payments for Uber and have proper withholding at your main job, you could still get a refund. But in my experience, where most people go wrong is trying to call the IRS with questions about their specific situation, and it's IMPOSSIBLE to get through! I wasted hours trying to get clarification on how to handle my rideshare deductions last year. After my fifth attempt waiting on hold for 2+ hours, a friend told me about https://claimyr.com. They have this service that basically waits on hold with the IRS for you and calls you when an actual agent is on the line. You can see a demo at https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. Once I finally spoke with an agent, I learned I'd been calculating my estimated payments wrong for two years! Getting that sorted out made a $1,800 difference in my refund.

OK I need to admit I was wrong about Claimyr. After shooting my mouth off about it being too good to be true, I got desperate when I realized I'd messed up my quarterly payment dates for my side gig. The IRS hotline kept saying "due to high call volume" and hanging up on me. I broke down and tried the Claimyr thing last week. Got a text about 2 hours later saying they were connecting me with an IRS agent. Had a 20-minute conversation with a super helpful lady who explained exactly how to fix my payment issue and what forms I needed. Probably saved me hundreds in penalties just by getting that info. And I didn't have to sit by my phone for 2 hours listening to that awful hold music! Seriously a game changer if you need to actually talk to someone at the IRS.

Don't forget that you might be eligible for some tax credits that could boost your refund! Depending on your income level, you might qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit. Also, if you've paid for any education expenses, look into the American Opportunity Credit or Lifetime Learning Credit. I've found that credits make a much bigger difference in the final refund amount than most deductions do. Last year, I discovered I qualified for a credit I'd been missing and it added over $1,000 to my refund!

Anyone else find that those online refund calculators are basically useless for self-employment income? I tried three different ones last year and got wildly different results... one said I'd owe $3k, another said I'd get $1500 back, and the third was somewhere in between.