Amazon Flex tax deductions: mileage and what you can write off

Amazon Flex pays you as an independent contractor, so no tax is withheld and your biggest write-off is almost always your miles. For 2026 the IRS lets you deduct 72.5 cents for every business mile you drive. Amazon reports what it paid you, but it does not track your costs. That job is yours, and the driver who keeps a mileage log usually pays tax on a much smaller number.

Source: IRS, "IRS sets 2026 business standard mileage rate at 72.5 cents per mile" (irs.gov).

Your tax status as a Flex driver

When you deliver for Amazon Flex you are not an employee. You are a self-employed independent contractor. Amazon does not withhold income tax, Social Security, or Medicare from your blocks, and you do not get a W-2.

Instead, if you were paid enough, you receive a 1099-NEC for direct pay or a 1099-K if payments ran through a card or third-party settlement network. For the 2026 tax year, a third-party settlement organization only has to send a 1099-K once payments to you exceed $20,000 and 200 transactions. Here is the part drivers miss: the threshold decides whether a form gets mailed, not whether the income is taxable. You report every dollar you earned on Schedule C, form or no form.

The mileage deduction - your biggest write-off

Most Flex drivers put a lot of miles on their own car, and those miles are where the deduction lives. The IRS standard mileage rate for 2026 is 72.5 cents per business mile, effective January 1, 2026. You multiply your business miles by that rate and subtract the result from your income.

Not every mile counts. Business miles are the ones you drive while working:

• Driving from the delivery station to your first stop and along your delivery route
• Driving between stops on a block
• Driving between two blocks when you pick up back-to-back work
• Trips to buy supplies for the work, like a phone mount or delivery bags

Personal driving does not count, and the classic non-deductible trip is your commute - the drive from home to the station and back at the end of the day is generally treated as personal commuting, not business. The miles you log once you are on the clock and moving packages are the deductible ones. If you only drive for Flex part of the time, you can only deduct the business share, which is why a log that separates the two matters.

Standard mileage vs. actual expenses

There are two ways to deduct your car, and you pick one per vehicle per year. You cannot use both.

• Standard mileage: business miles x 72.5 cents. This one number already covers gas, oil, repairs, tires, insurance, and depreciation, so you do not deduct those separately on top of it.
• Actual expenses: you add up what the car actually cost you - gas, maintenance, insurance, registration, depreciation, lease payments - and deduct the business-use percentage.

For most Flex drivers in an older, paid-off car, standard mileage comes out higher and is far less work to track. Actual expenses can win if you drive an expensive vehicle or one that burns fuel and repairs fast. If you want the option to compare, you generally have to choose standard mileage in the first year you use the car for the business. Two things you can add on top of either method: tolls and parking fees paid while working.

A worked example

Say you earn $22,000 from Flex in 2026 and your mileage log shows 14,000 business miles for the year. Using the standard mileage method:

• Mileage deduction: 14,000 miles x $0.725 = $10,150
• Income minus mileage: $22,000 - $10,150 = $11,850
• That $11,850 is roughly your taxable profit before any other write-offs

Without the log, you would be taxed on the full $22,000. The miles cut the taxable number by more than $10,000 in this example. That is the whole game, and it only works if you can show the miles.

Other deductions Flex drivers can take

Beyond the car, ordinary and necessary costs of doing the work are deductible on Schedule C. Common ones for Flex:

• The business-use portion of your phone and data plan - the app runs on your phone
• A phone mount, charger, or car cradle
• Tolls and parking paid during a block
• Insulated bags, hand trucks, and other delivery gear
• The business share of car insurance and registration - but only if you use the actual-expense method, since standard mileage already includes them

Keep the split honest. If your phone is 60 percent personal, only the business 40 percent is deductible.

Self-employment tax

Because no tax comes out of your blocks, you owe self-employment tax on your Flex profit. The rate is 15.3 percent - 12.4 percent for Social Security on income up to the 2026 wage base of $184,500, plus 2.9 percent for Medicare with no cap. This is on top of regular income tax.

Two things soften it. You can deduct one-half of your self-employment tax when figuring your income tax, and every business mile and expense you deduct lowers the profit that this 15.3 percent is charged on. If you expect to owe $1,000 or more, the IRS generally wants quarterly estimated payments rather than one bill in April.

Recordkeeping

The deduction is only as good as your records. If the IRS asks, a bank statement is not a mileage log. For each business trip you want the date, the miles, and the purpose, plus your total miles for the year. Receipts back up the non-car expenses. A mileage log that runs automatically in the background removes the main failure point, which is forgetting to write it down after a long day of blocks.

Do I still owe tax if Amazon never sends me a 1099?

Yes. The 1099-NEC and 1099-K thresholds decide whether a form is mailed, not whether the money is taxable. You report all Flex income on Schedule C regardless of which forms show up.

Can I deduct the drive from home to the delivery station?

Generally no. The trip between your home and your regular work location is treated as a personal commute, which is not deductible. The business miles start once you are working - the route, the stops, and driving between blocks.

Should I use standard mileage or actual expenses?

It depends on your car. Standard mileage (72.5 cents) usually wins for an older, efficient, paid-off vehicle and is simpler to track. Actual expenses can be larger for a costly or heavy-driving vehicle. Choosing standard mileage in the car's first business year keeps both options open for later years.

See what your miles are worth before tax season with the TruMile mileage deduction calculator, or let TruMile log every Flex block automatically so the number is ready when you file.

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