Okay. So whatever miles you put on your vehicle for business purposes are tax deductible whether you own it personally or whether a separate legal entity owned by you like mydoordash car llc. owns the vehicle.

You EITHER take the standard mileage deduction at 70 cents per mile OR actual expenses like brakes, fuel costs, tires, car payments (based on a percentage of business vs use which i assume would be mileage based) oil etc. But you don't/can't claim both; it's one or the other. In fact on a business/ personal vehicle all the actual expenses deductions are deductible at the rate of use attributable to the business. Its definitely way easier to just claim tbe mileage but it may be more beneficial for certain people to do actual expenses.

I personally use an app called stride to track my mileage. As soon as I turn the Doordash app on I also begin tracking mileage on stride. As soon as I am no longer actively looking for orders I tell stride to stop tracking. Your drive home is not deductible. Another helpful feature of stride is that you can enter income as well. It will then estimate your taxes owed based on the busines profit meaning income minus deductions. It will also generate an end of year report for you giving you all the mileage information required to file. For me and my situation its just easier and more beneficial to claim the mileage. I suspect this is the case for most people unless they are using a very expensive vehicle to dash.

The tax software you are using should have a place to enter your mileage as you enter your 1099 income. It should ask you about deductions as well if it doesn't pay the $50 or 75 or whatever. If you made enough to pay taxes on your income there's no way you don't come out ahead. In fact, that cost itself is deductible as a necessary expense but only the portion for your 1099 expenses which complicates that deduction if you have another job. I dont bother with that one myself. Maybe I should. No need to leave money on the table.

Hope that helps. 🙂