What is Uber's Tax Summary?

A year-end earnings breakdown Uber provides to every earner - courier or driver - whether or not you qualify for a 1099. Uber itself calls it not an official tax document, but it contains what you actually file from: gross earnings, the Uber fees you can deduct, your online miles with a monthly breakdown, and your total tips. It appears by January 31 at drivers.uber.com or in the app under Account, Tax Info, Tax Forms.

What is the difference between online miles and on-trip miles?

Online miles - the headline figure - cover everything while logged in: waiting for an offer, en route to a pickup, and on the delivery itself. On-trip miles count only active deliveries. Online miles are the superset and the sensible starting point for your deduction; never add the two together.

Which Uber earnings go on which 1099?

The 1099-K carries gross customer payments for completed deliveries, including tips. The 1099-NEC carries what Uber itself pays you: promotions, quests, and referrals. The federal 1099-K threshold is $20,000 and 200 transactions; the 1099-NEC threshold is $600 for 2025 payments, rising to $2,000 for 2026.

Why is my 1099-K bigger than what Uber deposited?

Because IRS rules require Uber to report the full amount customers paid - including Uber's own service fees and other charges. Your deposits are net of those fees. You report the gross, then deduct the fees itemized in your Tax Summary as a business expense, so you never pay tax on money Uber kept.

What miles does Uber's summary miss?

Anything outside your online window: driving to your zone before you log in, miles while logged out between sessions, and working miles credited to another app while multi-apping. Uber's number is also not a contemporaneous per-trip log, which is the documentation standard IRS Publication 463 describes.

I multi-app. Can I add Uber's miles to DoorDash's estimate?

No - the same physical mile can appear in both apps' figures when you run them simultaneously, so adding summaries double-counts. One independent, contemporaneous log from your own phone is the clean record that covers every app without overlap.

What if I earn too little for any 1099?

You still owe tax on every dollar, and you file from the Tax Summary, which Uber provides regardless of thresholds. Uber also lets sub-threshold earners opt in to receive 1099s anyway. With the NEC threshold doubling to $2,000 for 2026, more couriers will be in exactly this spot.

Uber's Tax Summary, Decoded for Couriers

Q: Do Uber Eats tips qualify for the new tips deduction?

Generally yes. The IRS final regulations from April 2026 added app-based delivery people to the qualifying occupation list, and voluntary customer tips reported on your 1099 generally qualify - up to $25,000 a year through 2028, subject to income limits. Your Tax Summary shows the annual tip total; your own per-shift records back it up.

GigOdo Team · Published July 13, 2026 · Verified against Uber's tax pages and IRS guidance, July 2026

TL;DR

The Tax Summary is "not an official tax document" (Uber's words) - but it holds what you file from: gross earnings, deductible Uber fees, online miles, and tips.
Online miles include waiting, en-route, and on-trip driving while logged in; on-trip miles are the smaller subset. Use online as the starting point - never add both.
Your 1099-K reports gross customer payments including Uber's fees - deduct those fees from the summary so you don't pay tax on Uber's cut.
Thresholds changed again: 1099-K is back to $20,000 and 200 transactions; 1099-NEC rises to $2,000 for 2026 payments. Many couriers will get no form and file from the summary.
Uber's miles still miss pre-login, logged-out, and multi-app driving - your own log covers what no platform sees.

What the Tax Summary is - and where it hides

Every Uber earner gets one, courier or driver, 1099 or not. By January 31 it appears at drivers.uber.com under the Tax Information tab, or in the app under Account > Tax Info > Tax Forms. Uber describes it as the annual earnings information you need to file, while stating plainly that it is not an official tax document. Both things are true: nothing on it goes to the IRS as-is, and yet for most couriers it is the single most useful page of the year - the bridge between what customers paid, what Uber kept, and what you actually earned.

Two mileage lines, one correct reading

The summary carries two mileage figures, and misreading them costs money in both directions:

Online miles (the headline, with a monthly breakdown): every mile while logged in - waiting for an offer, en route to a pickup, and on the delivery. Uber's own definition includes the waiting-and-repositioning driving.
On-trip miles: only the miles during active deliveries - the floor, not the total.

Online miles are the superset, so they are the sensible starting point for a deduction claim. Never add the two lines together - on-trip is already inside online.

What even the online-miles figure misses

By definition, online miles start when you log in. Not captured: the drive to your starting zone before you go online, miles while logged out between sessions, and - the big one for multi-appers - working miles when you were online in another app but offline on Uber. The overlap cuts the other way too: run Uber Eats and DoorDash simultaneously and the same physical mile can appear in both platforms' figures, so adding summaries double-counts. One contemporaneous log from your own phone, like the one IRS documentation rules favor, covers every app with no gaps and no overlap. That is the record worth up to 76 cents per mile in 2026 (72.5 cents before July 1).

Which form carries which money

Document	What's on it	Federal threshold
1099-K	Gross customer payments for deliveries, tips included - Uber's fees NOT subtracted	$20,000 and 200 transactions
1099-NEC	What Uber itself pays you: promotions, quests, referrals	$600 (2025) → $2,000 (2026 payments)
Tax Summary	Everything: gross, deductible fees, online miles, tips total	Everyone gets it

Sources: Uber help pages and IRS OBBBA guidance, July 2026. Some states trigger a 1099-K at lower amounts.

A warning about older guides: the 1099-K threshold whiplashed for years ($600, then $5,000, then $2,500 in various proposals), and many articles still carry stale numbers. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act settled it - back to $20,000 and 200 transactions, retroactively. Check anything you read, including this, against the IRS page linked below; our 1099-K explainer covers the full history.

The gross-payment trap: don't pay tax on Uber's cut

The most common courier panic in February: the 1099-K shows a number far bigger than anything that hit the bank. That is by design - IRS rules require Uber to report the full amount customers paid, including Uber's service fee and other charges. Your deposits are net of those fees; the form is gross.

The fix is mechanical: report the gross, then deduct the fees itemized in your Tax Summary's expenses section as a business expense on Schedule C. Use the summary's annual totals rather than reconstructing per-trip fees - Uber's percentages vary trip to trip. Done right, you pay tax only on money you actually kept - before your mileage deduction takes its bite too.

Tips: on the 1099-K, and now partly deductible

Customer tips flow through the 1099-K as part of gross payments, and the Tax Summary breaks out your annual tip total. Since 2025 that breakout earns its keep: the qualified-tips deduction lets tipped workers deduct up to $25,000 a year through 2028, and the IRS final regulations (April 2026) explicitly added app-based delivery people to the occupation list. Voluntary customer tips reported on your 1099 generally qualify; income limits apply. Keep your own per-shift tip records too - a single annual number is thin documentation if questions come.

Deposits, statements, and the summary: reconciling the three

Weekly statements and Instant Pay deposits reflect net earnings after Uber's fees, so they will never match the 1099-K - expected, not an error. The reconciliation order that works: start from the Tax Summary's gross, subtract its itemized fees to get your true earnings, and check that against your own running log of what each shift paid. If your records disagree with Uber's summary, your contemporaneous log - with dates and amounts recorded as they happened - is the stronger document to file from and defend.

No form at all? You still file

With the 1099-K at $20,000/200 and the NEC threshold doubling to $2,000 for 2026 payments, a part-time courier can easily receive nothing in January. The income is still fully taxable, and the Tax Summary - which Uber provides to everyone - becomes your filing source. Uber even lets sub-threshold earners opt in to receive 1099s anyway. Either way, the return still runs through Schedule C, and your own records still beat everyone else's.

The courier's five-line year-end routine

Download the Tax Summary (and any 1099s) from drivers.uber.com by early February.
Circle three numbers: gross earnings, total Uber fees, online miles.
Compare online miles to your own log - yours should be higher; if not, you have tracking gaps. Here is how couriers close them.
Deduct the fees, then the miles (2025 miles at the 70-cent rate; 2026 miles at 72.5 or 76 cents depending on the trip date).
Note your tips total for the qualified-tips deduction, and keep per-shift records behind it.

More platform paperwork decoded in the Platform Guides hub.

Your log should out-document Uber's

GigOdo tracks every working mile automatically - before login, between apps, all of it - and keeps tips separate for the new deduction. Free, no Uber login.

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FAQ

What is the Tax Summary?

Uber's year-end earnings breakdown for every earner - gross pay, deductible fees, online miles, tips. Not an official tax document (Uber's words), but it's what most couriers file from. Find it at drivers.uber.com or Account > Tax Info in the app.

Online miles vs on-trip miles?

Online = everything while logged in (waiting, en route, on-trip). On-trip = active deliveries only. Online is the superset - start there, never add both.

Which earnings go on which 1099?

1099-K: gross customer payments including tips ($20,000/200 threshold). 1099-NEC: promotions, quests, referrals ($600 for 2025; $2,000 for 2026 payments).

Why doesn't the 1099-K match my deposits?

The form is gross customer payments including Uber's fees; deposits are net. Deduct the fees from your Tax Summary on Schedule C so you don't pay tax on Uber's cut.

What miles does Uber miss?

Pre-login driving, logged-out gaps, and multi-app miles credited elsewhere. It's also not a contemporaneous per-trip log - the IRS documentation standard.

Can I add Uber's and DoorDash's mileage figures?

No - simultaneous multi-apping puts the same mile in both figures. One independent log covers everything without double-counting.

Do my tips qualify for the tips deduction?

Generally yes - app-based delivery is on the IRS final occupation list. Up to $25,000/year through 2028, income limits apply, tips must be voluntary.

No 1099 arrived - now what?

Still taxable. File from the Tax Summary (everyone gets one), or opt in with Uber to receive 1099s below the thresholds.

Sources: Uber tax information guide; Uber help: tax summary and 1099s; Uber help: tax summary questions (online-miles definition); IRS FAQ: 1099-K threshold reverts to $20,000; IRS 1099-MISC/NEC instructions; IRS 2026 mileage rate (Notice 2026-10); IRS final regulations on qualified tips; TurboTax on Uber 1099s; EntreCourier on Uber Eats 1099s. This article is general information, not tax advice.