Gig Driver Take-Home Pay Calculator

Why gig driving pays less than the app says

The number an app shows you is gross revenue, not pay. Three things sit between that figure and the money you keep. The car is the first one, and the IRS standard mileage rate stands in for what it costs you: gas, insurance, tires, repairs, and the depreciation you only notice at trade-in. Then there is self-employment tax, because Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and Instacart send you a 1099 instead of withholding FICA. Last comes income tax on whatever profit is left.

Run the default numbers and the gap shows up fast. A single filer in California grosses $35,000, drives 9,000 business miles in each half of the year, spends $1,200 on phone, tolls, and supplies, and works 1,800 hours. The mileage deduction comes to about $13,365 and net profit lands near $20,435. Self-employment tax takes roughly $2,890, federal income tax about $230 after the standard deduction and the QBI deduction, and estimated California tax about $1,330. Take-home is close to $15,990, which is under 46 cents of every gross dollar and around $8.90 an hour once the car is paid for out of it.

How the 2026 mileage deduction works (and why the rate changed mid-year)

The IRS raised the business standard mileage rate partway through 2026. Miles driven January 1 through June 30 deduct at 72.5 cents each, and miles from July 1 through December 31 deduct at 76 cents (Notice 2026-10 and Announcement 2026-11). Which is why this page asks for your miles in two boxes instead of one. Each half gets its own rate, so a driver who logged more miles in the back half of the year keeps the benefit of the higher one instead of a blended average. Most gig tax calculators still apply a flat 72.5 cents to the whole year, which quietly shrinks the deduction.

That rate already covers fuel, maintenance, insurance, registration, and depreciation, so you cannot claim it and your gas receipts on the same miles. You choose either the standard mileage rate or actual vehicle expenses for the year. Tolls and parking sit outside that choice and are deductible either way, as are non-vehicle costs like a phone plan and delivery bags. Business miles are the ones driven while online and available, en route to a pickup, and between drop-offs. The drive from home to your starting area is commuting and does not count. Keep a log or run a tracking app, since the platform-reported figure is almost always lower than your deductible total.

Self-employment tax, step by step

Self-employment tax starts from 92.35 percent of your net profit, an adjustment that approximates the employer share an employee never sees. That base is taxed at 15.3 percent: 12.4 percent for Social Security and 2.9 percent for Medicare. It applies once net earnings reach $400, and half of it comes back as an above-the-line deduction against income tax. The Social Security piece stops at the $184,500 wage base for 2026, and that base is per person across all your earnings, so W-2 wages from a day job use it up first. Drive for DoorDash on top of a $190,000 salary and your gig profit owes Medicare only.

Income tax is where a side gig surprises people. Your gig profit stacks on top of your W-2 wages, so the first dollar of profit is taxed at whatever bracket your day job already reached, not at 10 percent. That is what the "your other W-2 income" box is for, and it is why this page reports the federal tax the gig adds rather than the tax on your whole return. Working the other direction, the Net to Gross Salary Calculator starts from the take-home you want. Business income also gets the section 199A QBI deduction, worth 20 percent of qualified business income, capped at your taxable income before the deduction. For a part-time driver whose standard deduction already zeroes out taxable income, that cap means the QBI deduction is $0 and federal tax is $0, while self-employment tax is still fully owed.

State tax here is a simplified effective-rate estimate. No-income-tax states use 0 percent, flat-tax states use their statutory rate, and graduated states such as California and New York use a single representative rate. Actual state tax is bracketed and carries state-specific items this version skips, and a handful of cities add local income tax on top. A few states also decouple from the federal standard mileage rate or run business income through a separate schedule.

What to do with the number: set-aside, quarterlies, and comparing to a W-2 job

The set-aside percentage is the one to act on. Move that share of every payout into a separate account the day it lands, and the quarterly bill stops being a shock. Estimated payments are due April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15 of the following year, and you are expected to make them if you will owe $1,000 or more. If you also hold a W-2 job, an easier route is to raise the withholding on your W-4 there and let payroll cover the gig tax for you.

The equivalent W-2 salary line answers the question behind most of this: is driving worth it against a regular job? It solves for the gross salary whose employee-side net, after federal tax, the same state rate, and employee FICA, matches your gig take-home. A W-2 offer at that salary leaves you the same money, and it usually adds health coverage, paid time off, and an employer match on top. The 1099 vs. W-2 Rate Equivalent Calculator runs the same comparison from an hourly rate. If you want to keep a few of these side by side, or model a full paycheck with pre-tax deductions and the real W-4, download the Stub44 Salary Calculator app.