Who Can Claim the DoorDash Mileage Deduction
DoorDash treats Dashers as independent contractors. An independent contractor is self-employed, meaning you run your own small business and no employer withholds taxes from your pay. That status shapes how DoorDash driver taxes work, including the self-employment tax you owe.
A deduction is an expense you subtract from your income, so you pay tax on a smaller amount. You report mileage on Schedule C (Profit or Loss From Business), the form self-employed people use to list business income and expenses. Car costs go on line 9, “Car and truck expenses,” which lowers your net profit and the tax you owe on it.
Standard Mileage Rate vs. Actual Expenses
You can choose between two deduction methods for car costs, and you must own or lease the car to use either one.
| Standard mileage rate | Actual expenses | |
|---|---|---|
| How you calculate it | Business miles × IRS rate | Business-use percentage × your total car costs |
| What it covers | Gas, maintenance, insurance and depreciation | Each car cost you document |
| What you track | Business miles | Business miles, total miles and receipts |
Your business-use percentage is your business miles divided by your total miles for the year. Depreciation is the drop in your car’s value over time, deducted a portion at a time.
The standard rate is simpler, but it already includes gas, maintenance, insurance and depreciation, so you can’t deduct those separately. You can still deduct business parking fees and tolls on top of it.
First-Year Rules
Your first-year choice matters. If you own your car and want to use the standard rate, you must use the standard rate in the first year you drive it for business, and you can switch to actual expenses later. If you lease and pick the standard rate in the first year, you must keep it for the entire lease period.
DoorDash Mileage Rates for 2025 and 2026
The IRS updates the rate yearly, and 2026 has two standard mileage rates.
| Tax year | Dates | Rate per business mile |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Jan. 1–Dec. 31, 2025 | 70 cents |
| 2026 | Jan. 1–June 30, 2026 | 72.5 cents |
| 2026 | July 1–Dec. 31, 2026 | 76 cents |
The January 2026 rate applies the same way to gas, diesel, hybrid and electric vehicles. The July increase, set in Announcement 2026-11, reflects higher fuel prices.
Example Calculation
Say you drive 4,000 business miles from January through June 2026 and 5,000 from July through December:
- 4,000 miles × $0.725 = $2,900
- 5,000 miles × $0.76 = $3,800
Your 2026 deduction would be $6,700. For your 2025 return, use 70 cents for every business mile, so 10,000 miles equals a $7,000 deduction.
Which DoorDash Miles Count
Miles That Count
The IRS treats driving for app-based deliveries as gig work, and deducting your expenses can lower the tax you owe.
Under IRS rules for business transportation, travel between work locations is deductible. For a Dasher, that generally means miles between stops while you’re working, such as a restaurant pickup and a customer drop-off.
Miles That Don’t Count
Some driving doesn’t count:
- Personal trips, such as errands
- Commuting, which the IRS treats as personal and nondeductible
How to Track Your Miles
Keep a mileage log, and make each entry at or near the time of the trip. IRS recordkeeping rules call for the date, miles driven, destination and business purpose of each trip. Because 2026 has two rates, log your miles by date so you can apply the right rate to each half of the year.
Sources
- IRS, Standard Mileage Rates
- IRS, IR-2025-128: 2026 Business Standard Mileage Rate
- IRS, Topic No. 510, Business Use of Car
- IRS, Publication 463, Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses
- IRS, Topic No. 554, Self-Employment Tax
- IRS, Manage Taxes for Your Gig Work
- IRS, Announcement 2026-11, Internal Revenue Bulletin 2026-29
- IRS, Instructions for Schedule C (Form 1040)
