For you / Delivery drivers

By NorseHorse. Updated October 16, 2026. General information, not legal or tax advice.

How delivery pay works

App delivery pay usually comes in pieces: what the app pays for each order or trip, the tips customers add in the app, now and then a cash tip at the door, and sometimes promotions. Each app sets its own pay rules, so don't assume two apps work the same way. Your app's earnings screen and yearly summary show how your money broke down.

This page assumes an app pays you as an independent contractor, not an employee. The IRS puts the difference plainly: an employer should withhold tax from an employee's paycheck, while a contractor doing gig work may have to pay quarterly estimated taxes. If you're not sure which you are, the IRS suggests asking the business or checking your worker status.

If you deliver as an employee instead, for a pizza place or a grocery store for example, you get a W-2 and the employee rules apply: you report tips of $20 or more a month to your employer by the 10th of the next month, and tax is withheld. See reporting tips to your employer. The rest of this page is about contractor work.

2026 taxes for app drivers

What forms you'll get

You have to report all your gig income, whether or not an app sends you a form. For 2026, a business has to send a Form 1099-NEC when it pays you $2,000 or more, and a payment platform has to send a Form 1099-K when your payments exceed $20,000 and 200 transactions. You can still get a 1099-K below that line. Which form an app uses depends on how it pays you, so you might get one, both or neither. If a form looks wrong, see what to do with an unexpected 1099-NEC.

No Tax on Tips for contractors

"Goods delivery people" are on the Treasury list of tipped occupations as code 804, and the examples include app or platform based delivery people, along with pizza and grocery delivery drivers. So app tips can qualify for the federal deduction of up to $25,000 a year, for 2025 through 2028. Three rules hit contractors hard:

• The tips have to be on a 1099. The 2026 forms have tip boxes: 1099-NEC box 1b (with your occupation code in box 1c), 1099-MISC box 13a and 1099-K box 1c. Tips that aren't separately reported to you on one of these don't qualify, so a cash tip at the door that no payer reports isn't deductible. It's still taxable.
• The deduction can't exceed your net profit from the business where you earned the tips. If an app reports $9,000 in tips but your mileage and other costs leave $6,000 of profit, you can deduct $6,000.
• It doesn't cut self-employment tax. The deduction goes on Schedule 1-A, not Schedule C, so your tips still carry self-employment tax.

More in No Tax on Tips when you're self-employed.

Self-employment tax and quarterly payments

Self-employment tax is 15.3 percent (12.4 percent Social Security, 2.9 percent Medicare) on 92.35 percent of your net profit, owed once your net earnings from self-employment reach $400. You deduct half of it when you figure adjusted gross income. You generally have to make estimated payments if you expect to owe at least $1,000 for the year after withholding and credits. The 2026 due dates are April 15, June 15 and September 15, 2026, and January 15, 2027. The quarterly tax calculator estimates what to send, and quarterly taxes on tips explains how.

Miles

The IRS business rate for 2026 is 72.5 cents a mile from January 1 through June 30 and 76 cents from July 1. You can use the standard mileage rate or your actual car expenses, but to use the standard rate on a car you own, you have to choose it in the first year the car is available for business use. Business parking fees and tolls are deductible on top of either method. Self-employed car expenses go on Schedule C, which asks how many miles were business, commuting and other, and whether you have written evidence. The mileage calculator applies both 2026 rates.

What to track

• For each block: hours, the app, what it paid, and tips, in-app and cash kept apart.
• Business miles for every shift, with the date. A written log is what Schedule C asks about.
• Parking, tolls and other business costs, with receipts.
• Every estimated payment you make: date and amount.
• Each app's yearly summary and 1099s, to check the tip boxes against your totals.

How Cashout helps

Cashout is free on Android and iPhone, works offline, and doesn't need an account. Everything below works on both unless it says otherwise.

• Shifts. Make each app its own job and log hours, pay, Card Tips for in-app tips and Cash Tips for door tips. Shifts are built around hours and an hourly rate, with no separate per-trip pay field, so enter what the app paid for a block as that block's rate (pay divided by hours). On Android you can mark a job as paid on a 1099. Insights then compares your apps per hour.
• Mileage. Log miles by hand, on their own or with a shift. On Android each trip is valued at the IRS rate for its date, so 2026 trips use 72.5 or 76 cents; on iPhone the current version uses a flat 70 cents a mile. There's no GPS tracking and no automatic import from any app. See the mileage tracker.
• Work Expenses and Scan Receipt. Add costs by hand or from a receipt photo read on your phone. Expenses aren't tied to a job, so on Android every expense you log comes off 1099 profit in the estimate; leave personal costs out. See the expense tracker.
• Taxes (self-employment estimates on Android only). On Android, jobs marked 1099 get a self-employment tax estimate and quarterly amounts and a countdown to the next payment date, with logged business miles and expenses taken off profit. On iPhone the tax estimate covers W-2 pay only. Neither includes the No Tax on Tips deduction yet. See tax estimates.
• Tax Savings. After each shift, a suggested amount to set aside, and a jar to track what you actually saved. Cashout doesn't move money.
• Export Shifts. CSV or PDF of your shifts, plus a year-end tax summary PDF with income, mileage and expenses for you or your preparer. See reports.

What it doesn't do: Cashout doesn't connect to delivery apps; pay, tips and miles are entered by hand. Its Effective Rate is pay plus tips divided by hours and doesn't subtract gas or miles.

Common questions

Are cash tips at the door deductible under No Tax on Tips?

Not for 2026, unless a payer reports them to you on a 1099. They're still income, so report them.

Do I have to pay quarterly if I only deliver part time?

Generally, yes, if you expect to owe at least $1,000 for the year after withholding and credits. If you also have a W-2 job, you can have more withheld from that paycheck to cover tax on your delivery income; the IRS withholding estimator helps figure how much.

Standard mileage rate or actual expenses?

The IRS suggests figuring your deduction both ways before you choose, if you qualify for both. Just remember that to use the standard rate on a car you own, you have to pick it in the first year the car is used for business. Either way, keep your own mileage log.

Track it all with Cashout. Shifts, tips, unpaid breaks, taxes, and mileage, logged in seconds. iPhone · Android