There were also some real POS Maseratis during the Chrysler era, basically rebadged Chryslers.
2 Likes
I kind of assumed they were all a bit shit. But it looked nice.
They definitely moved downmarket after the Chrysler merger.
It occurs to me every time I’m in an Uber that their vehicle is nicer than mine.
I wouldn’t want an Uber drive to have an unreliable POS, but I have suspicions that driving a $60k SUV for Uber just isn’t a great rate of return.
Uber rates are $45-65 right now to get from my house to the airport. They are 10 minutes away and the trip will take about 35 minutes. So $60-87 an hour. 100k a year in revenue seems achievable (net of the share Uber gets)
IRS mileage on that trip is about 1/3…so 67k net with 33k going towards operating cost of the vehicle. Is there any limit to deducting the standard mileage? As in if I buy a 35k Camry and have another 20k of gas/maintenance over 3 years while driving, can I still deduct the 99k even if my costs are about half that?
It seems like the math could at least support driving a nicer car…if you are spending a lot of time doing this, do you want to spend it in a smallish sedan or a comfy SUV?
Uber Black usually has nicer cars.
Thats been my experience in UK and Brazil.
Not sure about the US now as its been a while.
What does this mean? 1/3 is neither the mileage rate nor, I presume, the number of miles driven, nor the product of the two.
No
Your lack of units has me utterly confused as to which of the numbers is number of miles driven and which is dollars here. Also I have no clue how you’re computing 99k to even ascertain whether it might represent miles, miles * IRS rate, something else…
How many miles did you drive?
You may deduct, without limit, either:
-
Actual business miles driven * IRS mileage rate + tolls + parking
-
Actual expenses (including depreciation) prorated by the portion that is business use for stuff like depreciation & registration & insurance. (If there is an insurance surcharge for driving for Uber than the prorated base + all of the surcharge would be deductible.)
The more expensive the vehicle the more likely it is that you should deduct actual expenses. The IRS rate includes average depreciation.
The IRS rate is pretty generous for a less expensive vehicle.
Still, if you’re in the 22% tax bracket and you use a Maserati 90% for Uber or DoorDash and you depreciate the cost of the vehicle that you purchased brand new, it essentially makes the Maserati cost you only (1-.22*.9) = 80.2% of what you actually paid for it. Less if there’s state & local income taxes.
Oh, and see the exchange between me & Klaymen about actual business miles.
I think very few ride share drivers make 100k driving after all expenses. I’d guess single digit percentages of drivers at best, and maybe 1% or fewer.
This ride share driver does the math:
His conclusion is that “It will take at least 60-65 hours a week of driving full time using multiple rideshare apps, taking advantage of all the Incentives, CRBs, Boost, and definitely Surge in order to make $100,000 as a rideshare driver.”
His assumptions include driving “the right car”, one with low expenses and old enough to experience minimal depreciation grinding out miles.
There are plenty of drivers in the comments arguing it’s not possible.
Often when surge is active in the app, traffic stinks so ride share drivers can still take a hit in hourly pay if stuck.
1 Like
I was observing that the IRS mileage deduction appeared to be about 1/3 of the Uber ride fee.
$60 an hour x 2000 hours - 20% (Uber fees) = 100k. 33k is mileage, 67k is income. You can make all that more precise if you want, I’m just ballparking some numbers.
yeah, my 100k was revenue, not income, but seems to agree with the 60+ hours back of the envelope to get there after all expenses.
1 Like
The initial thought is that driving for Uber or Amazon could just be a means to generate a bit of income for someone semi-retired or a stay at home spouse. Seems like you could do either 15-20 hours a week and cover the payment of a pretty nice car if that is your only goal.
Like in 5 years I probably have enough saved to ultimately retire, but my two major expenses would be health insurance and a car, assuming I am mortgage free. If my spouse is working, I can get insurance covered, which leaves the car funding to part time Uber driving. After that, 5k a month feels pretty comfortable. So then how much do I need saved outside of retirement accounts to get to 59.5. 600k gets me 10 years assuming I sit on a pile of cash. That feels plenty achievable from where I am at now.
Are you saying that for $100,000 of 1099 non-employee compensation you will have a mileage deduction of $33,000?
It would super help if you used dollar signs.
How are you arriving at the $33,000 figure if my understanding of your claim is correct?
I think rideshare drivers generally hit $30/hour on the high end
1 Like
Yeah, I could also see doing it strategically. For a spell STBX was essentially working in a city 800 miles from our house. He drove his car there to have there, and we were a one-car family when he was home. He’d drive me to work and pick me up if he had the day off and I was constantly running him to/from the airport.
It occurred to me that I could strategically pick up an Uber / Lyft passenger in the opposite direction if I didn’t have Mini Me. Like if I was picking him up, find someone that lived sort of near me that wanted a ride to the airport sort of close to when I had to pick him up. Very little additional wear & tear on the vehicle so mostly just profit.
Or when I dropped him off, see who wanted a ride to someplace sort of near the house.
Would be maybe 4 rides a month or something but virtually no actual expenses, just paper expenses.
But I almost always had Mini Me with me so this was never really feasible. I can see for others in a slightly different boat this might make a lot more sense.
A friend got laid off, and was doing a little rideshare on the side for a while. He concluded he made more money doing other part time jobs. However, he definitely wasn’t maximizing all incentives and optimal hours like that rideshare guy article above mentions.
2 Likes
I genuinely enjoy substitute teaching and for the number of hours you’re actually working the pay isn’t terrible. Maybe $100 - $120 to be on the premises for 7 hours. Of that 7 hours, 30 minutes is lunch and 47 minutes is a planning period during which you can take care of personal business. So basically only 5.75 hours of real actual work. Works out to about $20 an hour which is better than a lot of super part-time gigs.
You do have to show up pretty early in the morning so it’s not a good gig for parents with school-age children.
1 Like
After people spend money during the holidays things slow down in January. The offers seem worse than usual, and maybe less of them. Probably lower demand but same supply of drivers. I like to try cherry picking the good ones but I probably turn down 19 of every 20 offers. I did get a nice one last week, got a full cart of groceries drove 2 miles and brought it into their house since they were disabled. About 75 minutes, made $50 but only about $30 post tax. I like helping people and I get some exercise. Not because I think it’s right up there with actuarying I would rather work full time at Walmart than be at the whim of Uber and instacart payouts.
2 Likes
I have a perennially down on her luck friend… burns through 3-4 real jobs a year as she gets fired 1-5 months into every single job she gets. (Usually as a dog groomer, sometimes waiting tables.)
Between jobs she supports herself with Instacart income. The nice thing about that is that she basically cannot get fired from that. I don’t know what people like her did before the prevalence of pickup gigs like Instacart and DoorDash.
1 Like
She would be sleeping on your couch and asking you for a bit of $ to tide her over. She’ll pay you back when she finds a new job.
3 Likes