The Short Answer
Mileage covers most of what gig workers can deduct, often 70 to 80 percent of the total. But there are real dollars sitting in other categories that most drivers either don’t know about or don’t bother tracking.
For a driver earning $25,000 gross from gig work with $8,000 in mileage deductions, the remaining deductions covered here might add another $1,500 to $3,000 in reductions to taxable income. At a combined self-employment and income tax rate of 30%, that’s $450 to $900 in actual tax savings.
Worth tracking.
Phone and Data Plan
The business-use percentage of your phone bill is deductible. If you use your phone 60% for gig work, 60% of your monthly bill is a business expense. The same percentage applies to any accessories used for work: a phone mount, a car charger, a case you bought because you need the phone constantly while driving.
The practical question is what percentage to claim. There’s no IRS formula for this. You’re expected to apply a reasonable estimate based on actual usage. A driver who spends 30 hours a week on the app has a stronger case for a higher percentage than someone who dashes a few hours on weekends.
Most gig workers claim somewhere between 50% and 75%. Claiming 100% is aggressive and difficult to support unless gig work is genuinely the only thing you use your phone for.
Hot Bags, Equipment, and Supplies
Any item purchased specifically for your gig work is deductible as a business supply:
- Insulated delivery bags and hot bags
- Catering-style carriers for larger orders
- Phone mount for the dashboard
- Extra car charger or charging cable
- Reflective vest (if required or used for safety while delivering)
These tend to be modest amounts individually, but they add up. A driver who bought two hot bags ($60), a phone mount ($25), and a charging cable ($15) has a $100 deduction that takes thirty seconds to document.
The rule is simple: purchased for the job, not for personal use. Keep the receipts.
The Self-Employment Tax Deduction
Self-employment tax is 15.3% of your net self-employment earnings. You pay the full amount. The IRS also lets you deduct half of what you paid in SE tax from your gross income.
The deduction doesn’t reduce your SE tax. It reduces the income tax calculated on top of it. On $20,000 of net self-employment income, the SE tax is approximately $2,826. Half of that, $1,413, is deducted from your gross income for income tax purposes. At a 22% income tax rate, that’s about $311 saved.
Tax software applies this on Schedule 1 automatically. You don’t need to calculate it manually.
Health Insurance Premiums
If you’re self-employed and not eligible for coverage through a spouse’s employer plan, you can deduct 100% of health insurance premiums paid for yourself and your family from your gross income. (For an overview of your health coverage options as a gig worker, see best health insurance for self-employed gig workers.)
This is one of the more significant non-mileage deductions available. A driver paying $300 per month in premiums has a $3,600 annual deduction. At a 25% combined tax rate, that’s $900 in savings.
The deduction applies to:
- ACA marketplace plans
- Short-term health plans (in most cases)
- Dental and vision premiums
It does not apply to any month in which you were eligible for employer-sponsored coverage through a spouse or another job. If you had employer health coverage for part of the year and self-paid for the rest, you can only claim the deduction for the months you were self-paying.
This deduction goes on Schedule 1 of your 1040, not on Schedule C.
Parking Fees and Tolls
Parking fees paid during active delivery trips are deductible. If you paid for a parking garage to pick up an order in a downtown area, or a metered spot while making a delivery, that’s a business expense.
The same applies to tolls: any toll paid while on an active order qualifies.
What doesn’t qualify: parking at your home base before you start working, parking fines and tickets (ever), or tolls on your commute to the area where you plan to work.
If you’re using the standard mileage rate for vehicle costs, tolls are deducted separately as a standalone expense. They’re not included in the per-mile rate.
Tax Preparation Fees
The cost of tax software or a CPA to prepare your self-employment return is a deductible business expense. There’s a catch on timing: the deduction applies in the year you pay the fee, which means fees paid in 2026 for your 2025 return are deductible on your 2026 return.
For most gig workers using self-filing software, this is a modest deduction ($25 to $130 for the self-employed tier of most products). If you use a CPA and pay $300 or more, it’s worth including.
Monthly fees on a dedicated business bank account, fees for accounting software, and any payment processing fees also qualify. These are small individually. Combined with tax prep fees, they often add up to $150 or more in deductible expenses that take five minutes to document.
What You Cannot Deduct
A few things that come up often:
Car payments are not deductible under either the standard mileage rate or actual expense method. Under the actual expense method you can deduct depreciation, which is a separate concept from the loan payment itself.
Driving from home to your starting zone is a commute, not a business trip. Those miles and any associated costs don’t qualify regardless of how far you drive.
Ordering food from the apps you deliver for doesn’t become a deduction because you work for those companies.
Normal clothing you wear while working isn’t deductible. A required, branded uniform would be; a jacket you also wear to the grocery store is not.
Parking tickets and traffic fines are never deductible. The IRS treats fines as penalties regardless of whether they occurred during work hours.
Tracking It Throughout the Year
The deductions covered here are easy to miss if you’re not in the habit of logging them. A receipt for a $40 hot bag sitting in a bag in your back seat isn’t going to make it onto your tax return unless you track it somewhere.
The practical approach: take a photo of every work-related receipt when you make the purchase and save it to a folder. A notes app or a simple spreadsheet with date, item, and amount works. Apps like Stride and Everlance also have expense tracking alongside mileage logging — see our mileage tracking app comparison for a breakdown of both.
At tax time, your mileage log covers the biggest deduction. But a year of small receipts can add up to a few hundred dollars more in savings, and they’re easy to document as you go.
For a full breakdown of the mileage deduction specifically, see DoorDash mileage deduction: how to track and claim it. For what you owe overall, the quarterly estimated taxes guide covers the full picture.
