Yes. If you cleared $400 of profit dashing in 2026, you owe DoorDash taxes on it — self-employment tax, specifically — and nobody withheld it for you. That catches nearly every first-year Dasher off guard. The good news: your miles are worth real money, and a little tracking turns April into a non-event.

Do I really owe DoorDash taxes if I earned less than the standard deduction?

Yes. Self-employment tax runs on your first dollar of net profit over $400, completely separate from income tax. The 2026 standard deduction for a single filer is $16,100, and it can wipe out your income tax entirely — but it does not touch self-employment tax. That is the single most common first-year misunderstanding.

Here is the mechanics behind the answer. Per Schedule SE, you multiply your net profit by 92.35%, then pay 15.3% on that amount — 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare. The 12.4% piece stops at the 2026 wage base of $184,500, which almost no Dasher will reach; the 2.9% Medicare piece never stops. You also deduct half of the SE tax on Schedule 1, which softens the income-tax side. Our self-employment tax explainer for 1099 workers walks through every line of that math.

How much should I set aside from each DoorDash payout?

Set aside 25% to 30% of your net income — profit after mileage and other deductions, never gross payouts. That is the advice I give every first-year self-employed client who sits across from me: sweep 25 to 30 cents of every net dollar into a separate tax account the day it lands. Use 25% in a no-income-tax state, 30% in California, and more in an unusually profitable year. I make the same point in our self-employed and 1099 tax planning work — treat the tax account like a bill that comes due every week, not a surprise that arrives every April.

The arithmetic backs it up. SE tax works out to roughly 14.1% of net profit (15.3% × 92.35%). A single Dasher's 2026 income tax on typical gig earnings falls mostly in the 10% and 12% brackets after the $16,100 standard deduction and the half-SE-tax deduction. Add state tax and 25–30% of net covers the year with margin. Run your own numbers:

One more thing worth knowing: below the 2026 §199A threshold ($201,750 single), most Dashers also qualify for the qualified business income deduction — a 20% cut off your profit before income tax is figured — on top of everything above. It is automatic on a Schedule C return — just make sure whoever prepares your return claims it.

What can a Dasher deduct in 2026?

The big one is mileage: 72.5 cents per business mile in 2026, up 2.5 cents from 2025. Ten thousand business miles is $7,250 off your taxable profit, and that deduction lowers your SE tax too, not just income tax. The rate applies to electric, hybrid, and gas vehicles alike.

• What counts: miles with the app on — driving to pickups, carrying deliveries, repositioning between orders.
• What doesn't: commuting from home to your “starting zone,” or personal driving between dashes.
• Beyond mileage: the business share of your phone bill, hot bags and delivery gear, tolls, and parking (tolls and parking are deductible in addition to the mileage rate). Our guide to 1099 tax write-offs for gig workers lists each one with where it goes on Schedule C.
• The alternative: you may deduct actual vehicle costs instead of the standard rate, but for most Dashers with a paid-off car, the mileage rate wins and is far simpler; the records rules above are what matter either way. Our guide to tracking mileage for taxes was written for the same first-year driver and walks through the log line by line.

What records do I have to keep for my miles?

Four things, per §274(d): the amount (miles driven), the time and place, and the business purpose of each trip. Vehicle deductions are one of the few places where the IRS will not accept estimates — no records, no deduction, even if the driving obviously happened.

That record-keeping question is exactly what a first-year Dasher asked on the TurboTax community:

“Hi I started working full time as a Doordash/UberEats delivery driver this year. Doordash informed me they will send me a 1099 form for tax purposes. This might be a loaded question, but what things regarding paying my taxes do I need to look out for? (quarterly filing, etc.). This is my first time being self-employed and I want to know what to keep track of so I can file my taxes accurately. Thank you!”

— aedrees96, TurboTax Community

A Tax Court case from February 2025 shows what skipping the records costs in practice. A driver who earned income from Uber and DoorDash on his 2021 return was hit with a deficiency of $6,828 — the extra tax the IRS said he owed — plus a $1,366 penalty, and about $5,000 was still in dispute at trial, nearly all of it riding on his mileage. He told the court that when he filed, he had an app on his phone showing total miles that “would have wiped out all of his income,” but he chose not to use those miles because he didn't think he owed any tax — and he admitted he no longer had that information. The record contained no mileage log and no specific testimony about his miles. The court said it was inappropriate to simply guess, and allowed only the mileage the IRS had already conceded (Taylor v. Commissioner, Docket No. 2699-24).

The same statute sank a handyman in Eze v. Commissioner (T.C. Memo. 2022-83), whose annotated calendars never recorded miles or per-trip purpose. The Taylor court noted that even where the strict substantiation rules of §274(d) don't apply to vehicles used to transport people for pay (§280F(d)(4)(C)), “there must be sufficient evidence to determine the appropriate mileage” — and since Taylor was a bench opinion, a ruling the judge read aloud at trial in one driver's case, it sets no precedent beyond his facts.

Here is what I tell every new Dasher: track every business mile from day one and keep the export. DoorDash's year-end mileage estimate is a starting point, not a record — it undercounts (it misses repositioning miles) and it does not capture the four required elements. A free mileage-tracking app running in the background captures all of it automatically; a notebook works too if you write it down the same day. The deduction is only as real as the record.

Do I have to pay quarterly estimated taxes?

Yes, if you expect to owe at least $1,000 in tax for 2026 after withholding and credits. Per Form 1040-ES, the 2026 due dates are April 15, June 15, and September 15 of 2026, and January 15, 2027.

Two safety valves matter for a first-year Dasher. First, if you had no tax liability for 2025 (a full 12-month year), no 2026 estimated payments are required at all — though you should still set the money aside, because the bill itself is coming. Second, the safe harbor: pay 100% of last year's total tax in four installments (110% if your 2025 adjusted gross income — AGI, your income after certain adjustments — was over $150,000) and the underpayment penalty is off the table no matter how the year goes. Our guide to paying quarterly taxes for the first time walks through the four 2026 dates and how to pay; how much to set aside covers the percentage side.

What if DoorDash doesn't send me a 1099?

You owe the tax anyway. For payments made in 2026, platforms only have to issue a 1099-NEC once they pay you at least $2,000 — up from the $600 floor that applied to 2025 payments. The form threshold changed; the tax did not. Income under $2,000 with no form is still taxable income, and your own records (the app's earnings dashboard, bank deposits) are what you file from.

Want your first year of self-employment to end without a surprise bill? N&T Tax & Advisory Group helps gig workers and first-year sole proprietors set up quarterly payments, mileage records, and a set-aside system that holds up — by phone or video, nationwide. Book a meeting with our team here.