DoorDash taxes: what Dashers owe and what they can deduct

No. DoorDash’s tax guide says it does not automatically withhold taxes, and it tells Dashers that as independent contractors they are responsible for keeping track of their earnings and reporting them accurately. Nothing is set aside from your pay for income tax, Social Security or Medicare.

The IRS still expects tax to be paid as you earn, either through withholding or through estimated payments, and with no withholding the payments fall to you. What you owe comes in two main parts: income tax on your taxable income, and self-employment tax on your delivery profit.

DoorDash reports your earnings on Form 1099-NEC, which it says is the only tax form eligible Dashers receive. For 2025 earnings it went to Dashers who earned $600 or more on the platform during the calendar year, and it appears in the Dasher app by January 31 under Earnings, View payout details, Tax documents. DoorDash counts earnings by the date they were deposited, not the date you dashed, and sends the same information to the IRS and the relevant state tax authorities.

For 2026 earnings the threshold changes. The July 2025 tax law (Public Law 119-21) raised the federal reporting threshold for Form 1099-NEC from $600 to $2,000 for payments made after December 31, 2025, with inflation adjustments after 2026. A Dasher who earns less than $2,000 in 2026 may get no form at all, and the 2026 form adds a separate box for cash tips.

None of this changes what is taxable. The IRS says you must report all income even if you don’t receive a Form 1099, and you must file a return if your net earnings from self-employment are $400 or more. If you left DoorDash income off a return you already filed, the IRS says to correct it with Form 1040-X, the amended return.

As an independent contractor you generally report DoorDash income and expenses on Schedule C, which works out your profit. Schedule SE takes that profit, multiplies it by 92.35%, and applies self-employment tax of 15.3% to the result: 12.4% for Social Security, up to an annual earnings limit, and 2.9% for Medicare. You owe it, and must file Schedule SE, if your net earnings from self-employment are $400 or more.

For example, $10,000 of profit becomes $9,235 of net earnings, and 15.3% of that is about $1,413 of self-employment tax, before any income tax. You can then deduct half of the self-employment tax when figuring your adjusted gross income, which lowers your income tax but not the self-employment tax itself.

Income tax comes on top, figured on your taxable income from all sources after deductions. Your state return is filed separately.

Because nothing is withheld, you generally need to make estimated tax payments if you expect to owe $1,000 or more when you file. You figure them with Form 1040-ES and can pay online, by phone, by mail or through your IRS online account. You can also pay more often than quarterly, for example out of each weekly payout, as long as enough has been paid by the end of each period.

Paying late, or too little, can bring a penalty even if you are due a refund when you file. You generally avoid it by owing less than $1,000 after withholding and credits, or by paying at least 90% of this year’s tax or 100% of last year’s, whichever is smaller; higher incomes have special rules. If you also have a job with a paycheck, you may be able to cover your DoorDash tax by having more withheld there instead, with a new Form W-4.

For 2026 income the four due dates are below. A date that falls on a weekend or legal holiday moves to the next business day.

You can deduct the business use of your car one of two ways: the standard mileage rate, or the actual costs of running it, divided between business and personal use by miles. For 2025 the standard rate for a car, van, pickup or panel truck is 70 cents a business mile. For 2026 it is 72.5 cents for miles driven January 1 to June 30 and 76 cents from July 1 to December 31, after the IRS raised it mid-year because of fuel prices, so date your miles.

The standard rate stands in for gas, repairs, insurance, depreciation and registration fees, so you cannot claim those as well; business parking fees and tolls are deductible under either method. To use it for a car you own, you have to choose it in the first year you use the car for business; after that you can switch between methods from year to year. Claiming accelerated depreciation, a section 179 deduction or bonus depreciation on the car rules the standard rate out for that car.

Either method needs records. Under IRS rules the deduction has to be backed by adequate records: a written log made at or near the time, with the details below. A log kept weekly counts as timely, and a record kept on a computer counts as written. DoorDash emails a mileage estimate by January 31 to Dashers who dashed by car and had on-delivery mileage; treat it as DoorDash’s estimate, not as your log.

Beyond the car, you can deduct business expenses that are ordinary and necessary, meaning common and accepted in your line of work, and helpful and appropriate for it. For a Dasher that can include an insulated delivery bag or a phone mount. Something you also use personally, like your phone plan, is deductible only for its business share.

Separately, the qualified business income deduction lets eligible self-employed people deduct up to 20% of their qualified business income, whether or not they itemize, subject to limits based on taxable income. The July 2025 law made it permanent, and from 2026 it sets a minimum deduction of $400 for anyone with at least $1,000 of qualified business income from businesses they materially participate in, both figures indexed for inflation after 2026. If you claim the tips deduction too, the IRS notes that certain tip income may be excluded when QBI is figured.

For 2025 through 2028, you may be able to deduct qualified tips, up to $25,000 a year, if you earn them in an occupation on the Treasury and IRS list of occupations that customarily received tips. Delivery is on it: the final list, issued in April 2026, includes goods delivery people, code 804, and names app or platform-based delivery people as an example. Qualified tips are voluntary cash or charged tips from customers.

The paperwork is the catch. A self-employed worker’s tips count only if they are reported on an information return such as Form 1099-NEC. For 2025 the IRS accepts tips included in the form’s total even though they are not shown separately, and DoorDash says it emails each US Dasher active in 2025 their total 2025 tips by January 31. From 2026 the 1099-NEC has its own box for tips, and under the final regulations tips that are not reported to you that way do not qualify.

Because the rules are new and changed between years, have a preparer check your tips figure before you claim it, especially if you earned too little to get a 1099. The other conditions: