Can I Input Lyft Driver's Net Income as Business Income instead of Lyft's Gross Earnings

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
February 29, 2024
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I am Lyft Driver. The Lyft Driver summary report does not provide single figure of net YTD deposits in my bank. There is discrepancy in actual net deposits in my bank account and calculated net deposit derived my Lyft's driver summary report. Lyft is unable to provide support to resolve this discrepancy. So I prefer to input the net deposits in my bank account from Lyft as my "Gross Earnings" and my mileage log total as my Expenses. This is instead of inputting Lyft's gross earnings and Lyft's expenses such as platform and service fees from their summary report. Ultimately the net result is same and theortically the Lyft's reported earnings in their summary report are not my earnings. My earnings are equal to what Lyft deposited in my bank account. So is it okay to disregard Lyft's earnings and simply input net of deposits I received as my income ?

TurboTax Online

Vanessa A

No, you cannot report your net earnings. The IRS wants to know how you come up with the numbers for your self-employment income. So you will need to use the amount you actually earned as your income. Then you will need to enter your mileage and such as your expenses.

When you start out in TurboTax in the business section, TurboTax has a guided interview section for Lyft and Uber. You will also be able to deduct the fees that Lyft charges as well, but you must start with the FULL amount you earned. Then you can start deducting expenses.

Lyft Drivers TurboTax

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ajartaxAuthor

Correct - the amount I actually earned is equal to exact amount Lyft deposited in my account. Can I use that as gross earnings instead of Lyft's gross earnings in their summary report which include the platform fee, service fee, app fee etc. Essentially if we report Lyft's gross earnings from their summary report, then we need to subtract their fees from their summary report as expense to arrive at net earnings.

Vanessa A

Can I use that as gross earnings instead of Lyft's gross earnings in their summary report which include the platform fee, service fee, app fee etc. No, you need to use the amount that Lyft sent you on their summary report. Then you will report their fees as commissions. This is the amount that they would have reported to the IRS. If you report a different amount, then this may delay your refund or have the IRS contact you as the numbers wouldn't match.

Did they not send you a 1099-NEC? Just the summary report?

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