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TurboTax + Uber: Tax Write-Offs for Rideshare Drivers [Webinar] - YouTube
Channel: unknown
[6]
- Hey there, my name's Alexis Hartford.
[7]
I'm a tax expert here at TurboTax.
[9]
So TurboTax is partnered with Uber
[11]
to provide drivers like yourself
[14]
an easy and educational way
[15]
to file taxes online
[17]
from the comfort of your own home
[19]
or while you're out and
about in-between rides.
[21]
So in today's webinar what I want to cover
[23]
is everybody's favorite topic,
[25]
tax write-offs.
[26]
Now being a rideshare driver means
[28]
you can write off a slew of things
[30]
and I'll get into those in a little bit.
[31]
So first we're gonna talk
[32]
about the tax write-offs.
[34]
then I want to show you a little bit
[35]
about how TurboTax works
[37]
and how easy it is to put
[38]
your expenses into the program.
[40]
And then at the end I'm gonna leave time
[42]
for any questions that you folks may have.
[44]
So let's get started.
[47]
Being self-employed comes with a huge perk
[49]
and those are your tax write-offs.
[51]
One amazing thing about TurboTax
[53]
is that we understand
what industry you're in,
[55]
you're in the rideshare industry,
[56]
and we actually personalize our experience
[59]
based on the type of business that you do,
[62]
which is rideshare driving.
[63]
So the biggest deduction
[64]
that a rideshare driver has is their car.
[67]
So, as far as taking a car as an expense,
[69]
it all starts with your mileage.
[71]
The IRS requires that you keep great track
[73]
of all of the miles that you drove
[75]
throughout the year.
[76]
This includes your business miles
[77]
and your non-business miles as well.
[79]
But what happens if you rideshare drive
[81]
for multiple companies?
[82]
Uber is not gonna keep
track of that for you.
[84]
So what you want to do is you want to have
[86]
a way to track all of your miles
[88]
outside of the Uber app
[90]
if you're doing rideshare for other jobs.
[93]
So this could mean that you should install
[96]
maybe an outside app
[97]
such as QuickBooks Self-Employed
[98]
does a great job of tracking your miles.
[100]
Therefore, you'll have all of your miles
[101]
tracked in one place.
[103]
So we need to track our business miles
[105]
and our personal miles.
[106]
And the reason that we do this
[107]
is because we want to know
[108]
what business percentage
[110]
that you were driving with Uber.
[113]
So for example, if you have
[114]
50,000 miles all throughout the year
[117]
for business and personal
[118]
and let's just say you
drove 25,000 with Uber,
[121]
that means it's 50% business use.
[124]
That number will come in handy later
[126]
when we actually put some expenses in.
[128]
So, as far as the vehicle deduction
[130]
there's two ways that you
can actually take this.
[132]
You can do what's called standard miles
[135]
and that is a set rate by the IRS,
[137]
it's 54.5 cents a mile for 2018.
[140]
And you just take 54.5 cents a mile
[143]
and times that by your business miles
[144]
and that's your tax deduction.
[146]
You can also take what's
called actual expenses.
[149]
Now, this is a little more complicated
[151]
because you need to keep track
[152]
of all of your gas,
[154]
all of the repairs, the maintenance.
[156]
Did you get new tires on your car?
[158]
How about some oil changes?
[159]
So you want to keep track
[160]
of all of those business expenses
[162]
and add all of them up
at the end of the year.
[164]
And then you want to look and see
[165]
which one is higher.
[167]
So if you otherwise qualify
[168]
you're gonna want to take whichever one
[170]
provides the largest deduction.
[171]
You're not gonna have to figure that out.
[173]
We're gonna figure it out for you
[175]
through TurboTax.
[176]
I'm gonna show you exactly
[177]
how to do that in a few minutes.
[178]
So what happens if you don't own your car?
[180]
What if you're participating
[181]
in the Uber exchange program?
[183]
You're gonna be able to write off
[184]
a business portion of that as well.
[186]
You'll find that expense amount
[187]
on your 2018 tax summary.
[190]
Your 2018 tax summary also contains
[192]
multiple deductions that
you can also write off.
[196]
Some things that are outside
[197]
of your 2018 tax summary
[199]
are your cell phone bill.
[200]
Some refreshments.
[201]
How about water for your passengers?
[203]
What about your music subscription
[204]
that you use to play in your car
[206]
while you're driving around?
[207]
Car seat covers.
[208]
How about an air freshener?
[209]
We're gonna walk through
the product right now
[211]
and I'm gonna show you how to enter in
[213]
all of this information.
[214]
Okay, so let's get started
[215]
and get into the product.
[218]
So you want to go to your Uber
[219]
Partner Earnings dashboard
[221]
and you want to select Tax
Information at the top.
[223]
Now, this is an important
way to get inside TurboTax
[226]
because you don't want to
go to TurboTax.com directly
[228]
because your discount's
not gonna be applied.
[230]
So go ahead and select Tax Information
[232]
and right here you're gonna see an offer,
[235]
File for Free.
[236]
Go ahead and click the
Start for Free button.
[239]
After you click Start for Free,
[240]
you're gonna come to this page
[241]
where you're gonna see two offerings.
[243]
The first offering is
TurboTax Self-Employed.
[247]
That's the do-it-yourself program
[249]
where TurboTax walks you
through screen by screen
[251]
asking you extremely simple questions
[253]
which I'll demonstrate in a minute.
[255]
So our second offering
that we have available
[257]
is TurboTax Live.
[259]
This is if you want a
little extra assistance
[261]
with your tax return.
[262]
You can contact a tax pro like myself
[264]
to actually review and
answer any questions
[266]
that you have about your return.
[268]
We're offering this to
Uber driver partners
[270]
for half price so it's only $85.
[273]
We're gonna go ahead and get started
[274]
with the TurboTax
Self-Employed program for free
[277]
because you can always
upgrade along the way
[279]
if you feel like you need
[280]
that little extra assistance.
[281]
So if you've used our product in the past
[283]
what you want to do is select Sign In
[286]
and just put your username
and password in there
[288]
and we'll transfer all of the information
[289]
that you have from last year
[291]
into this year's program.
[292]
If you're new to TurboTax, welcome
[294]
and just go ahead and say Start for Free,
[296]
and then create an account profile
[298]
with your username and password.
[300]
So once you get into the TurboTax program,
[303]
we're gonna walk you through
very simple questions
[305]
to get your tax return set up.
[306]
We're gonna ask for your
name, your birthdate,
[308]
where you live, what
your mailing address is.
[313]
And then you're gonna
get to the self-employed
[314]
income expenses section.
[316]
So, in the previous
webinar, I talked about
[318]
how to enter in some income
[320]
and set up your business.
[321]
In this webinar, we're gonna focus
[323]
on those tax write-offs.
[324]
So because you told TurboTax
[326]
that you're a rideshare driver previously,
[328]
it's gonna go ahead and personalize
[330]
this entire write-off experience for you
[333]
based on the industry that you're in,
[334]
which is rideshare driving.
[336]
So let's take a look at
some of the common expenses.
[339]
So vehicle.
[340]
This is the biggest deduction
[341]
that you're probably gonna have.
[344]
You're gonna go ahead and enter in
[345]
your car and equipment rental here.
[347]
We've got communications.
[349]
This is where you're gonna enter in
[350]
your business portion of your cell phone.
[353]
We have supplies, such as the refreshments
[355]
for your passengers.
[357]
If you have to pay any city taxes,
[358]
you're gonna go ahead
[359]
and enter those in down here.
[361]
And then we have all of
those Uber operational costs
[364]
that are reported out in
your 2018 tax summary.
[367]
So you'll enter those
[368]
under Other miscellaneous expenses.
[370]
So, why don't we go ahead
[371]
and walk through the Vehicle flow,
[372]
and I'm gonna show you how easy it is
[374]
to put in your vehicle.
[376]
So go ahead and select Vehicle.
[380]
And then it's gonna ask you if you used
[381]
a car for your rideshare driving work.
[382]
Well, of course you did.
[383]
So go ahead and say Yes there.
[385]
And then we'll put in what type
[387]
make and model car you have,
[390]
and what type of vehicle it is.
[393]
And when did you start
using this for work?
[395]
We're gonna say that we did it in 2017.
[401]
And we'll just go ahead and continue.
[404]
So, do you own the vehicle,
are you leasing it?
[407]
Select whichever one pertains to you.
[410]
And then, was it available
[411]
for personal use as well?
[414]
So do you have multiple cars?
[415]
If you don't, then this vehicle was
[417]
available for personal use.
[425]
Did you keep track of the miles
[426]
that you drove for rideshare work?
[428]
This is a very important question
[430]
and I'm hoping that everybody
[431]
is gonna select Yes on this one
[433]
because you are required to keep track
[434]
of all of the miles that you
drive for rideshare work,
[436]
whether or not it's on
a mileage tracking app
[439]
like QuickBooks Self-Employed.
[441]
Maybe you use a spreadsheet at home.
[443]
Maybe you just use a pen and paper.
[444]
However you feel most comfortable
[446]
tracking your miles, it doesn't matter.
[448]
The most important thing to remember
[450]
is that you have to track your miles.
[452]
So yes, I tracked my work miles.
[457]
Alright, and here we go
about entering your miles.
[459]
So earlier I told you we needed all miles,
[461]
business and personal,
[463]
and we also need just business.
[465]
This is where this is
gonna come into play.
[467]
So enter the total miles
[468]
that you drove for any reason.
[470]
This includes personal,
work, commuting miles.
[472]
So let's go ahead and put in here
[474]
about 25,000 miles.
[477]
The second entry is where you enter
[478]
your business miles
[479]
that you've been tracking all year long.
[481]
So go ahead and put in your business miles
[483]
into this box.
[486]
Okay, let's move ahead.
[487]
We're gonna answer a couple more questions
[489]
about our car.
[492]
And then it's gonna ask you if you took
[493]
the standard mileage deduction last year.
[496]
This is a pretty important question.
[497]
If you transferred in your
tax return from last year,
[499]
we're gonna have that answer for you.
[502]
If you didn't use TurboTax
last year, that's okay.
[504]
Just go ahead and click on this button
[506]
that says Where can I find this info?
[508]
And it's gonna give you
very clear instructions
[510]
on where to go in your
last year's tax return
[512]
to look for it.
[514]
So we're gonna go ahead and say Yes,
[516]
I took the standard mileage deduction
[517]
in this example.
[518]
Okay, so here we are.
[520]
It shows us that we have
a $3200 tax deduction
[524]
just for our miles.
[525]
We haven't even put in any other expenses
[527]
so this is great.
[529]
So you have the option of sticking
[530]
with the standard mileage right now.
[533]
Most rideshare drivers just go ahead
[535]
with the standard deduction.
[536]
It's a lot less record keeping.
[537]
You don't actually have
[538]
to keep receipts for all of the gas
[540]
and the oil changes and the repairs
[541]
you've made to your car.
[543]
If you have kept all of those items
[545]
and you want to see
exactly how you compare
[547]
from standard versus actual,
[549]
go ahead down this flow
[551]
and you can enter in all
of your actual expenses,
[553]
and TurboTax is gonna tell you
[554]
exactly which one is gonna be
[555]
more beneficial for you.
[558]
But in my example today,
we're gonna go ahead
[559]
and stick with the
standard mileage deduction
[561]
because $3200 is a great write-off.
[565]
So go ahead and select Continue.
[567]
Here we are with a couple more questions
[569]
about that vehicle.
[571]
We're gonna ask about parking fees, tolls.
[573]
Did you pay any car registration fees?
[575]
You're able to deduct a
portion of that as well.
[577]
Maybe you have a loan on your car.
[579]
You can deduct the business
portion of the interest
[581]
that you paid on that car loan.
[583]
Remember, if you need any help
[585]
on how to figure out these items,
[586]
just go ahead and click on the Learn more.
[590]
Okay, so we're all done
with our vehicle expenses.
[593]
So let's go and look at what other types
[595]
of expenses rideshare
drivers like yourself
[597]
could have as well.
[598]
Just click this button
Add expenses for work.
[601]
Here are some other common expenses
[602]
that rideshare drivers have.
[604]
Communications, that's a huge one.
[606]
So everybody needs their cell phone
[607]
in order to drive with Uber.
[610]
What about supplies?
[611]
Did you have cell phone accessories
[613]
like did you buy chargers for your car?
[614]
What about car seat covers
[615]
to protect your car?
[618]
Your other big tax write-off
[619]
is gonna be under here,
[620]
under Other miscellaneous expenses.
[623]
So you want to go ahead and pull out
[624]
your 2018 tax summary from Uber.
[627]
This is where you're going to see
[628]
most of your expenses related to Uber.
[631]
You're gonna see Uber
service fees down here,
[633]
you're gonna see booking fees,
[634]
airport fees, city fees.
[635]
These are all tax deductible items.
[638]
You want to write all of those off.
[640]
So this is where you're gonna put them in
[641]
under Other miscellaneous expenses.
[645]
When you get into the Other
miscellaneous expense section,
[648]
it's gonna guide you up here
[649]
for exactly what you can write off.
[650]
So just make sure that you're matching
[653]
these words right here
[654]
with what's on your 2018 tax summary.
[657]
So if you have Uber service fees,
[661]
go ahead and put those
guys right in over here.
[665]
You can add another row.
[667]
Let's say you have a music subscription.
[671]
To Spotify.
[673]
Add that guy in over here as well.
[677]
So after you're done
entering all of your expenses
[679]
just come out to your
rideshare driving info,
[681]
make sure everything looks correct.
[683]
We have your income, we
have all of your expenses.
[686]
You're gonna hit Done
and you're good to go.
[687]
It's as easy as that.
[689]
So that wraps up the product demo.
[691]
Now it's time for viewer questions.
[696]
Okay, so now it's time
to take some questions
[698]
from you guys about your expenses.
[700]
I'm gonna turn it over to Molly.
[702]
- Alright, first up.
[704]
I forgot to track my mileage.
[705]
What should I do?
[706]
- Okay, so first of all don't freak out
[708]
if you didn't track your miles.
[709]
What you want to do is
stop what you're doing
[712]
and start tracking them right now.
[713]
And there's plenty of apps out there.
[715]
QuickBooks Self-Employed has a great one
[717]
for tracking your miles.
[718]
So, let's just say that you started
[720]
preparing your taxes and
it's asking for miles
[722]
and you're like, "Whoops, forgot to track
[724]
"my miles for last year."
[725]
There's a couple of different ways
[726]
that you can actually handle this.
[728]
You can go to your 2018 tax summary.
[731]
Uber is gonna give you
a set of miles there.
[734]
So you can go ahead and use those miles.
[736]
That would be the very,
very conservative approach.
[738]
The better approach would be for you
[740]
to try to reconstruct exactly
[742]
how much you drove last year.
[743]
Now, you're gonna have a rider history
[746]
so that you can go back through
[747]
and figure out exactly how many miles
[749]
you rode for each day.
[751]
And then just extrapolate that out
[753]
throughout the year.
[753]
So that's probably the safer bet as well.
[756]
The last thing you want to do
[757]
is try to make up any miles.
[759]
So just make sure that
you actually have proof
[762]
of what you're doing to back it up
[763]
just in case a question
ever comes from the IRS.
[767]
- You mention standard mileage
[768]
and actual expenses.
[770]
How do I know which auto deduction option
[772]
is best for me?
[773]
So in product we actually have
[774]
a really cook feature that will predict
[776]
which one is better.
[777]
You just have to answer
[778]
a couple of simple questions
[780]
and then that way you can decide
[782]
if it's worth tallying up
[783]
all your receipts or not.
[786]
Okay.
[787]
I have instant pay charges on my statement
[790]
so I don't have to wait to get paid.
[791]
Can I deduct that?
[794]
- So, as far as your instant pay goes,
[796]
that's gonna be listed out
[797]
on your 2018 Uber tax summary
[799]
and yes, you can go ahead
[800]
and write those off as an expense.
[802]
- Alright, next up.
[803]
I rented a car for a few months.
[805]
Can I claim standard mileage?
[807]
- So, as far as taking
the standard mileage,
[809]
no, you can't do that
[810]
because you don't actually own the car.
[811]
But I'm gonna show you
where you can actually
[813]
write off some of those
car rental expenses.
[816]
So you want to scroll down past Vehicle
[818]
because this Vehicle section
[819]
is if you actually own the car.
[821]
You want to look down here
[822]
under Car and equipment rental.
[825]
So go ahead and select that,
[827]
hit Continue,
[828]
and then in this section right here
[830]
you can put in the expenses that you paid
[834]
for the business portion of the rental.
[836]
Now, you're gonna find that amount
[837]
on your 2018 tax summary
[839]
that Uber provides for you.
[841]
Another perk about actually renting a car
[843]
is that you can write off the gas
[844]
that you paid for the business portion
[846]
of this rental as well.
[848]
So just make sure that you have
[849]
all those gas receipts, total them up,
[850]
take the business use portion
[852]
and enter them here.
[853]
- Yep, and in order to
get the business use
[855]
make sure you're keeping track
[856]
of all your personal trips and mileage
[858]
so that you can easily calculate it.
[861]
I had to pay for a car inspection
[863]
and background check
[864]
so that I can drive with Uber.
[866]
Are these deductible on my tax return?
[868]
- Yes.
[869]
Absolutely those are deductible.
[871]
You just want to go down
[871]
into the miscellaneous expense section
[874]
and put your background
check information there.
[876]
Let's just say you had to get thumbprint
[878]
so you put that information there also.
[880]
That's a good question.
[881]
- Okay, here's a good one.
[884]
What if I took actual expenses
[885]
on my 2017 tax return?
[887]
Can I claim standard
mileage for this tax year?
[890]
Unfortunately not.
[891]
If you chose actual
expenses in your first year,
[894]
you're stuck with that method
[895]
as long as you use that vehicle.
[897]
So again, there's the estimator tool
[899]
in the product that will tell you
[901]
which is better and you can make
[902]
the decision at that point.
[905]
Okay.
[907]
I just bought a new car and I paid a lot
[909]
in sales tax because I live in California.
[911]
Can I write that off?
[913]
- Okay, so that's a little bit
[914]
trickier of a question.
[916]
So the question about sales tax.
[918]
Earlier I was talking about
[919]
you can either take standard mileage,
[921]
which is that 54.5 cents a mile for 2018,
[924]
or you can take your actual expenses,
[926]
which is your gas, your
tires, your maintenance,
[928]
all of those items added up,
[930]
and then you take the
business use portion.
[932]
So the sales tax fits
[933]
into that actual expense category.
[935]
It's actually gonna be added
[937]
to the cost of your car
and then depreciated
[939]
over a certain period of time.
[941]
So TurboTax walks you through that flow
[943]
and you'll be able to enter your sales tax
[945]
in the actual expenses flow.
[947]
- Alright.
[948]
We just have the time
for a few more questions.
[950]
I heard there are increased
[952]
auto depreciation deductions for 2018.
[954]
That is true.
[956]
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act actually has
[959]
expense up to 18,000
[961]
if you use your car 100% for business.
[963]
So keep in mind, the more
you drive it personally
[965]
the less your deduction will be
[967]
but that is the maximum
[968]
that you could potentially take.
[970]
- Molly, that actually
brings up a good point too,
[972]
which I wanted to talk about.
[973]
With the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
[975]
they also instantiated
[976]
this 20% business deduction
[978]
that everybody is talking about.
[980]
So what that is, it's a 20% deduction
[984]
off of your actual taxable income.
[986]
So if you otherwise qualify,
[987]
and I'm not gonna get into it right now
[988]
because it's a very complex tax topic,
[991]
but if your income's
within a certain range,
[993]
you don't have employees, et cetera,
[995]
you will be able to qualify
[996]
for that 20% deduction
[998]
so that's a great question.
[999]
- It's more money in your pocket.
[1001]
Yeah.
[1002]
Alright, last one.
[1004]
I have a supplemental insurance policy
[1006]
required for my rideshare driving gig.
[1008]
Is that deductible?
[1010]
- Okay.
[1011]
So your supplemental insurance policy.
[1012]
A lot of rideshare companies,
[1013]
actually I think all of them,
[1015]
require supplemental
policies if you actually
[1017]
have passengers driving in your car.
[1019]
So since you only have
that supplemental policy
[1021]
because you're a rideshare driver,
[1023]
yes, go ahead and write
off that entire amount.
[1025]
- Alright, that about sums it up.
[1027]
- We have no more time for questions
[1029]
but if I didn't get to yours,
[1030]
or if you have any additional questions,
[1032]
go ahead and put it in the channel.
[1033]
And thank you so much
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