Lyft Tax Information 2019 – How to pay tax as a Lyft driver
Lyft Tax Guidelines 2019
Lyft’s website very helpfully provides drivers with in-depth information on how to prepare their taxes as a Lyft driver. The following is an abridged version of this information. For the purpose of understanding a driver’s income and tax information, it is important to remember the following:
Non-Ride Earnings include: referral bonuses, mentor payments, express drive bonuses, damage feeds and incentives (e.g. Average Hourly Guarantees).
Ride Earnings include: ride payments, tips, tolls, cancellation fees and power driver bonuses.
1099 Forms
Though all Lyft drivers are considers users of the Lyft platform, they are not considered an employee of Lyft, no matter what the income they report. Because of this, some, but not all, drivers are eligible to receive a 1099 Form in the shape of a Form 1099-K or a Form 1099-MISC.
A Form 1099-K is for drivers who earned at least $600 in gross ride receipts through Lyft in the last year. With this form, the amount in “Box 1” is the gross receipts from all rides that a driver was paid for throughout one year. This amount excludes all extra fees such as Service Fees, airport fees, city fees and sales tax. However, it is important to know that this gross amount in Box 1 includes the Lyft commission and tolls, so the number might be larger than what a driver actually took home in Lyft ride earnings.
A Form 1099-MISC is for drivers who earned at least $600 through activities other than driving, such as referral bonuses, Mentoring, Express Drive bonuses or other incentives in the last year. With this form, the amount in “Box 7” is the total income not related to ride earnings, such as referral bonuses, Express Drive bonuses or Mentoring.
Some drivers will not be eligible to receive a Form 1099, however Lyft still provides drivers with an annual summary of their yearly earnings in their Driver Dashboard. This total is called your “yearly driver stats” and they include the number of rides given, the gross earnings from rides, non-ride earnings, tolls and total mileage information.
Lyft drivers can find their 1099 forms under the Tax Info section of their Driver Dashboard. However, to print their 1099 forms, drivers must access their Driver Dashboard on a desktop computer or laptop on the Lyft website. Similarly, drivers can access this form in the Tax Info section and then click print.
Earnings
A driver’s Driver Dashboard provides them with their annual summary. This summary shows a driver’s gross earnings vs. their net earnings, as well as their total miles. The Driver Dashboard summary is available to all drivers, even drivers who have been de-activated, therefore a driver’s tax information is always available.
Lyft encourages all drivers to make sure that their name, address and phone number are up-to-date so that tax information can be easily accessed at any time.
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