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How Much Money Can You Make Driving For Uber?

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How Much Money Can You Make Driving For Uber? Now that Uber is here, I can't help but think: Between taxes, fees, depreciation, and other driving costs, can you actually make any money driving for Uber?
A couple weeks ago, Iowa City entered the 21st century. The City Council, after much hemming and hawing, decided to approve Uber within city limits. In this booming college town known for some of the hardest partiers in the country, ridesharing services have been sorely missed. College students have needed to pay for expensive cabs, take circuitous buses, or stumble home. We’ve really missed the Uber option.

I’ve been waiting for this moment for years. I’ve been fantasizing about it. I would roll up in my Bentley, glide the window down, and chuck a half-smoked cigarette onto the curb. I’d peer over my Secret Service-style aviators and say, “Someone order an Uber?” Then, the fantasy would evanesce — including the Bentley, the smoking, and the aviators.

Now that Uber is here, I can’t help but think: Between taxes, fees, depreciation, and other driving costs, can you actually make any money driving for Uber?

In many ways, Uber is the perfect side income. It subsidizes the ownership and use of a car, pays for hours otherwise uncovered by other opportunities to make money, and is a fun, social method to make money.

Despite the many positives, Uber isn’t some sort of utopia. Passengers smoke cigarettes, vape, leave trash, and can be altogether rude — and that was just my first four rides. People can miss your phone calls, texts, and app notifications of your arrival, too — or cancel the request after a couple minutes of driving towards them.

This morning I had an extra 40 minutes and decided to “go online.” Within the Uber Partner app, I waited about 45 seconds and was called to pick up someone. That was quick, I thought. About 25 minutes later, after the Uber mafia had taken their cut (25% of every fare), I walked away with $9.17.

The couple I picked up were out-of-towners whose car had broken down in the city. They needed a lift to a dealership for auto repair. Being there to help them seemed important — a win-win for us both.

Searching for the real Uber income statistics

Plenty of news articles have noted Uber drivers’ incomes and attempted to get a net income, but it’s challenging to see how they do their math. I figured I’d do some math right here, and see what I found for both of our sakes.

Let’s estimate $1,000 for 2016 earnings. I haven’t made that much — yet — but intend to keep driving when fares surge due to increased demand. Maybe I’ll get there?

IRS Logo
Ah! The IRS!!!

At Uber, you’re considered an independent contractor. You are your own business in many ways. Many of the company’s risks and costs are displaced onto their drivers. You have to pay for medical and car insurance, and if you get in an accident, it’s on you.

Thus, the $1000 earned is called self-employment income. The IRS considers self-employment income for a couple special taxes: Social Security and Medicare. When Uber pays you — or other drivers — it doesn’t take out any money for income taxes. Thus, you have to give some of the money back to the government. Importantly, these taxes are only owed on earnings over $400.

Calculate your self-employment taxes

Currently, the self-employment tax rate is 15.3%. But like anything the IRS publishes, it’s complicated. Only 92.35% of income is considered taxable. Why? Again, call up the IRS — I’ve got no clue. Here’s what the math looks so far with the taxable income consideration and self-employment tax:

$1,000 total Uber earnings
x.9235 taxable income conversion
_____
$923.5 total taxable income
x.1530 self-employment tax
_____
$141.30 total taxes owed

In review, by calculating this initial taxation, I’m left with $1,000 minus $141.30. After all these calculations I’d be left with $858.70. Here’s where people tend to stop and say, “Hey, I think driving for Uber is worth it!”

Calculate your tax deductions

But wait a moment, okay? These initial calculation fail to account for business expenses and tax deductions. Tax deductions are usually expenses incurred in the process of making additional income. Over the last few weeks, I’ve calculated a few deductions because of the business.

Here are some quick examples of things I’ll be watching out for:

  • Tax deductible portion of self-employment taxes (50% of taxed self-employment income)
  • Mileage deduction ($0.54 per mile driven for business)
  • Parking (e.g., $5 thus far)

Meticulous drivers out there should try to keep track of all mileage driven for Uber. Pay close attention to every mile, as the IRS provides a $0.54 standard tax deduction per mile. What I’ve noticed is about a 40% per dollar to mile calculation on average. In Iowa City, which might differ compared to your local city, I’m out in the boonies for a long drive and then back into the city area for short trips. For the sake of this estimate, I’ll say $1,000 in income equates to 400 miles driven.

Here are my tax deductions:

400 miles driven
x.54 per mile deduction
_____
$216 tax deduction for standard mileage driven
+$70.65 deduction for self-employment tax (50% of taxes)
_____
$286.65 total tax deductions

Importantly, tax deductions are not money put directly in your pocket. They essentially are a method of reducing your tax burden on annual income. For instance, if I made $25,000 in combined income in 2016 — some of it receiving income taxes and others from self-employment — that would put me in the 15% tax bracket. With $286.65 in deductions, the IRS says I made only made $24,713.35 in adjusted gross income.

Now, here’s why I hate calculating taxes by hand…

Without deductions:
$25,000 combined annual income
x.15 tax bracket
_____
$3,750 in taxes

With deductions:
$25,000 combined annual income
-$286.65 total tax deductions
x.15 tax bracket
_____
$3,707 in taxes

Hold on, let me take a breather — this is a lot of math. Phew! Subtract $3,707 from $3,750, and you get $43 from the tax deductions. $43 that the federal government is essentially giving back to you because you drove for Uber.

Calculate your driving costs

You might’ve thought we were done. You might’ve thought, “Okay, now we can add and subtract — bada bing bada boom!”

You’d be wrong.

Before we can calculate a realistic number earned, we need to account for depreciation, registration, maintenance, and other fees associated with operating and owning a car. Driving all those miles, while accounted for in the IRS mileage deduction, still hits your wallet. Simply put, you still incur costs to driving that vehicle all around town.

AAA to the rescue!The best driving statistics come from AAA. Every year they publish their driving cost statistics, while accounting for gasoline, insurance, and other variable rates from year to year.

Based on a small sedan (that’s what I drive), driven about 15,000 miles per year, equates to 43.9 cents per mile in costs. Driving for school, work, or even Uber on the side costs the same amount: 43.9 cents per mile.

Here’s an estimate of driving costs:

$1000 income
x.40 rough estimate of dollars to miles
_____
400 miles driven
x.439 cents per mile
_____
$175.60 total driving cost based on AAA statistics

The final, Uber calculation and results

Starting from $1,000 in earnings, I lost some to self-employment taxes (-$141.30). I was fortunately able to reclaim some money through tax deductions ($43). But before I could make the final judgment, I calculated the driving costs (-$175.60).

In total, after all is said and done, $1,000 becomes $683.10 in take-home pay. And by “take-home,” I mean no one can touch it at this point. That’s after everything is paid off.

Throughout this article, I’ve made a number of calculations. With more time and statistics, I’d be able to report more accurate estimates. For now, the statistic equals 70% of what you see is what you get.

Every fare, surge, and ride time. Every cool conversation. and every drunk college student — you’ll make about 70 cents on every dollar earned.

I forgot one remaining variable: time. When you’re staring at 70 cents per dollar, you might wonder if Uber driving is worth your time. While an important question, this is what I fall back on: the money and market for ridesharing didn’t exist prior to Uber’s arrival. There were fewer ways to monetize free/down time. Now, every few moment or time off can be an opportunity to earn.

If you’re interested in becoming an Uber Partner, use my referral to gain an extra $100 to start. And if you’re an Uber passenger or want to be one, use this referral link to gain a fe ride!

There are many caveats and exceptions, it’s hard to clarify them all in this article. If you’ve driven for Uber, or have experience as a passenger, or are thinking about driving, let me know in the comments below! I’d love to include any additional insight you have into this article, as well.

Sometimes I Forget We’re At War

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Act Up on Berlin Wall - Cold War

We are spending all of this money for death and destruction, and not nearly enough money for life and constructive development…when the guns of war become a national obsession, social needs inevitably suffer.
– Martin Luther King

I leaned over to my girlfriend, and conspiratorially – by heart – recited the Pledge of Allegiance: “One Nation, under God, indivisible….” Even as I said the words, I was surprised by my own fluency. How could I remember this pledge? The answer was simple: I was a product of the American education system. Thus, I spent every morning of class – Kindergarten through 12th grade – up, at attention, and announcing allegiance to my country of birth, as if it was sensitive to my voice. Without my verbal confirmation of unwavering support, the class and country would look down upon me – not just because I’d be sitting down.

Amidst my puberty, horrible awkwardness with the opposite sex, and raging hormones displaced on parents, America fought wars. I vividly remember biology class in 6th grade, when the loudspeaker croaked alive – class would be cancelled. Then, teachers sobbed and kids went home. My parents hurried as fast as they could – to hug me and check to see if I was alright. Of course I was – this was Pittsburgh, mah! But we couldn’t stop watching the news for weeks. Over and over again, the World Trade Center towers fell.

I had stood atop those towers a year prior. My 12-year-old mind couldn’t compute how some of the tallest buildings in the world became shorter than our house – the great had fallen. I was more concerned and interested with rollerblading, biking, and playing videogames.

Our leader delivered rousing messages of revenge. They would pay. To us nincompoops, “they” was this exceedingly abstract term. Who were “they?” Could you be “they?” Could we be “they?” Then “they” became “terrorists.” The terrorists who would pay.

We were told the terrorists couldn’t accept our way of life. The terrorists couldn’t understand our freedoms. The terrorists couldn’t accept our Westernized culture where women could work, roam, and divorce as they please.

Across the Muslim-majority world, America aggressed. Afghanistan, Iraq, the Horn of Africa, Libya, and other sovereign nations felt the boot of U.S. military. We killed, slaughtered, massacred, bombed, shot, and burned. Thousands of service members and “enemy combatants” died. An unknown number of civilians also perished.

When I was 17, I almost enlisted in the U.S. Army. I wanted to be a 17X (“Seventeen x-ray”). This new position short-tracked enlisted folks into a Special Forces career. I idolized their bravery, willpower, and strength. But I backed down after considering what else I could do with my life – at least for the next few years. Nonetheless, I admired every other friend and neighbor that committed to this hard choice.

All these words – written in past tense – belie the reality of my childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. Sometimes I forget we’re still at war even today. Fifteen years and counting, the War on Terror remains unresolved and unsolved. We cannot completely write these tragedies in history books and say we’ve moved onto a new chapter. We cannot say this will be last combat troop found blown up by an improvised explosive device or dictator that suffers our wrath. We’re not finished yet.

In 2015, the War on Terror was estimated to cost at least $1.7 trillion. No, writing that word – “trillion” – doesn’t do it justice. Let me write out every zero behind it.

$1,700,000,000,000.

The first three zeros are for a great day’s work. The second three zeros give you a lawyers’ salary. The third three zeros will buy you a fleet of Airbus aircraft. The next three zeros give you a greater gross domestic product than countries. And the next digit – the number for trillion – buys you a country or two or three.

This level of wealth could’ve bought us a lot of influence in the world, rebuilt our crumbling infrastructure, provided greater humanitarian relief for refugees, and more. But we didn’t think twice within this representative democracy to vote in representatives who would vote in favor of war repeatedly. Those votes were easy in comparison to providing safe bridges, smooth roads, clean water, affordable education, universal healthcare, and/or subsidizing clean energy. The initiatives that would’ve directly impacted our lives for the better – those were the partisan battles of my adolescence. And even if we enacted all those plans, we would still have money leftover to feed the impoverished, house the homeless, and have a roaring economy.

We chose war.

This choice cost us every year as taxpayers, too. About 18-20% of the federal budget goes towards “National Defense” spending. For every dollar, we burn 20% with the goal of keeping us safe. If I snatched away one-fifth of every paycheck from you, wouldn’t you do something about it? Would you let me siphon off your hard-earned dollars?

But I don’t hate all taxes. In fact, I love them! They pay for libraries, fire and police departments, National Guard troops, family members’ disability payments, and Medicare. They provide for those in need; albeit, they could do better. They provide grants and funding for disadvantaged populations to go to college; albeit, they could do better. They provide unemployment support if we lose our jobs suddenly; albeit, they could do better.

We’ve spent 15 years punishing the Muslim-majority countries without resolution. If bloodshed is not enough, are we not sick of war’s economic costs for those at home and abroad? Are we not tired of losing one-fifth of our work? Are we not tired of our worldwide reputation of war before diplomacy?

Years passed where I dreamt of serving my leaders. I wanted to take care of soldiers in combat as a psychologist. I used to take great pride in our flag, to stand with allegiance, and be a good citizen. I loved when I unwrapped my U.S. passport for the first time to flip through the pages of history and read our proud declarations of freedom. But I’ve been changed by a war more than half my life.

Financial Strength Through Unity

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Union Strikers
Photo: Kheel Center/Flickr

We get paid to go to school?!

I had this misconception about graduate school. See, I thought that when I worked for the university, added to the research landscape, and taught undergraduate courses, my own tuition and student fees would be paid. Even when I entered the University of Iowa for graduate school, I didn’t completely understand the financial obligations that are placed on students.

My first year as an instructor and employee of the university, I was quarter-time. That meant I would get 25% of a salaried employee (just over $10,000 per year). Additionally, because of my graduate student status, I’d receive a “tuition waiver.” This benefit sealed the deal and made graduate school sort of “affordable.”

Across the graduate colleges at the university, the majority of students received a 100% tuition waiver. Inexplicably, my college didn’t receive that benefit. That meant that around $2,000 per year of my tuition would come from the “paychecks.” To make matters worse, student fees cost about $2,400 per year.

If you’re doing the math with me, that means that I was getting paid in my first year of being a graduate student: about $10,000 minus $2,000 for tuition and $2,400 for student fees. It equaled roughly $5,600. Now, that quarter-time salary was decimated. Money for rent, food, and regular budgetary expenses disappeared. I had to take out loans to live.

Aren’t we trying to “better” ourselves?

As the years passed, I was afforded more opportunities and a semi-living wage. I was able to pay off my debt with my side income and stay away from student loans through a better “paycheck.” But the tuition waiver gap and student fees meant that I still paid much of it back to the school.

Those pursuing higher educations and degrees for more competitive employment should be commended. Unfortunately, our society and system doesn’t necessarily allow for all those to succeed.

Considering the cost of a graduate degree and the years of minimized/lost wages, it is an expensive proposition. Inherently, that means that only a select class of privileged individuals are more able to pursue this education. The consequences of pursuing a graduate degree without funding and few assets can be horrific, and lead to massive student loans.

That’s why students sometimes need to collectively bargain, unionize, and ask for better treatment.

Hope for a more respectful future

Last week, the union for graduate students at the University of Iowa accomplished something amazing. After months of consternation, threats to the tuition waivers, and proposed student fee increases from higher ups, the union demanded respect. They wouldn’t budge.

They asked for a 100% student fee waiver. While they didn’t receive that, the bargain was a 25% student fee cut for those on assistantships (working for the university).

They asked for a real 100% tuition waiver for all graduate students across the colleges. And they received that! Now, certain colleges within the university system that charged more tuition will be equalized.

Additionally, the union lobbied to provide better health coverage for transgender individuals, single-parent households, and much more. It was a moment of hope — of acceptance for diverse populations and classes.

And just like that, I received a nearly $3,000 raise! Without the union, I would still be bitterly explaining — to everyone who’ll listen — that my $22,000 ($18,000 after taxes) salary doesn’t actually equal what I take home.

The importance of collective goals

Unions have been villainized recently. Take Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, who said, “In many cases, [unions] exploit and abuse the taxpayers.” These disparaging remarks undercut the importance of unions for actors, on-air talent, auto-workers, politicians, teachers, students, professors, and countless others.

Historically, collective bargaining and unionization helped employee wages, voting rights, and improved safety in some of the most dangerous industries. Businesses weren’t interested in helping workers, and they didn’t have incentives to change.

When workers came together, worked towards similar goals, and collectivized, employers listened. If history repeats itself, then we ought to reflect on this lesson. Change and respect for students and others across the world will come from the bottom-up — not the top-down.

I Owe $4,000 In Taxes!?

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Self-Employment Taxes Photo
Photo: Philip Taylor/Flickr

Frugaling my way out of debt

I’ve been a student of some sort nearly all my life. I never worried about ponying up extra funds for a tax payment until 2013. And honestly, when I created Frugaling, I had nearly $40,000 in debt from credit cards, a car loan, and student loans. There was no way the taxman would give me anything but a fat return.

Then, a financial miracle occurred. In the summer of 2013, I began to make thousands of dollars in affiliate/ad revenue from Frugaling. The money poured in, and I was giddy. Finally, I could begin paying off all the debt — in record time.

I dropped all of it into student loan debt, and paid off nearly everything (finished the rest in 2014). My nerves calmed, and I could suddenly see freedom and future. Cheesy, I know, but my loans had dampened my spirits. Suddenly, I was renewed.

Ugh, self-employment taxes

As this new influx of funds padded my wallet, I unfortunately realized that by the end of the year, the taxman would be knocking. All of these funds from Frugaling were coming in untaxed — no withholding. These are self-employment taxes. Ultimately, this income must be declared and taxed at a penalty rate to pay for social services (i.e., Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security).

After calculating all the money made and entering the numbers into TurboTax, the hypothetical refund reversed to a payment. The government wanted about $1,000. I sat there dumbfounded for a moment. All these advertisements and campaigns suggested I would “Get the biggest refund ever.” Those pesky self-employment taxes obliterated my student status.

It was a lesson in the difference between income and net worth. That year I had made over $30,000 between graduate student work and the website. I had barely any savings and negative net worth. Yet, I was being penalized for making money that could pay off financial aid faster. To me, it seemed preposterous that I was being taxed at a higher rate for this side income — with no net worth.

I owe Uncle Sam how much?!

In 2014, I paid off my remaining debt and my net worth has been hovering at a few thousand dollars. My stress over debt is non-existent, and I feel better than ever about my financial situation. But I’m not done with the struggle to make wealth while in graduate school.

I made over $20,000 “on the side” for Frugaling/business-related self-employment (I no longer make that kind of money, as I removed credit card affiliate links for now). After inserting my income and expenses into TurboTax, a shiver went down my spine. The numbers catapulted up over $4,000.

I’m fortunate that I’ve been saving for this moment. My savings account has enough to cover it, but my net worth will be swept away come mid-April. It feels awful to work this hard to save, make, and write. I have no net worth, and yet the funds I made will be disappearing.

But instead of letting this payment dampen my mood, I am more focused than ever on writing for you all, staying frugal and minimal, and building some real savings.

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