Glad you’re making some money; Uber isn’t - at least, not yet: Uber bleeding money, said to have lost at least US$1.2 billion in first half of 2016 | Financial Post
When you’re not driving it yourself, there are now services that let you rent your car out. I saw signs for one (Getaround | Book and Share Cars Easily & Conveniently) last week.
Not sure I’d be willing to go for that, myself (then again, I doubt anyone would WANT To rent my 10 year old CRV).
Wish I’d known about this when I first lost the ability to drive. My car has been sitting idle for close to six months.
I am coming up on my own 6 months anniversary - as a regular passenger. While I’ve met some fascinating people and my experiences have been overwhelmingly positive, it’s expensive as hell ($50 roundtrip for me to get into work) and I’m looking forward to being able to drive again on September 21st. Still I would have been absolutely screwed without this kind of service and I think it must be a lifesaver for people who are too disabled to drive on a permanent basis.
That’s a pretty horrible analysis. For one, it only looks at the base mileage rate and doesn’t consider the per minute rate or the minimum fare rate. Second, it doesn’t take surge into account. Third, it doesn’t mention that you can deduct car depreciation from your taxes or that the federal depreciation rate is an average rate and not what it actually costs to maintain your individual car.
That being said, it was always obvious from the very beginning that uber would aggressively cut rates until they reached exactly what would be the bare minimum compensation to have sufficient drivers on the road. Of course that rate’s going to be low because driving a car is not a highly skilled job and there are many people willing to do it.
Glad it’s working out for you, and that you enjoy it!
What about if you only work during Surge time? That would change the outcome quite a bit and I bet there is quite a few drivers that do just that.
Driving for Uber. Playing video games and drinking beer. So that’s definitely an either/or situation is it?
Rules.
All they have to do is burn through drivers until self-driving cars take over and then it’s all money in the bank for Uber.
But that will mean Uber has to invest billions of dollars: to buy fleets of cars in every city in the world, hire mechanics to service them , and janitors to clean them.
How will that work?
Right now, Uber is just a service company, with zero physical assets, and no overhead.
What is a “badger”? (My dogs want to know)
Here you go: Badger (comics) - Wikipedia
“Slang word created by a late night/early morning taxi driver in reference to the female genetalia,” according to the urban dictionary.
Have you submitted your federal taxes yet? I’d be interested in getting an update once you know what the real tax implications are.
That’s good that you enjoy it and it is making you some money. I’m curious if you looked into driving for Lyft. Are they basically the same from a driver’s perspective?
This is a badger.
Tax day came and went. Any chance of an update?
The OP is in Madison, Wisconsin - home of the University of Wisconsin which has the badger as its mascot.
I cannot fathom driving Uber for 6 months in that town without pickup up university students so I too am wondering what he meant by this. Maybe he just hasn’t picked up someone wearing the Bucky the Badger school mascot outfit?
Of maybe it was a typo and he hasn’t received any badges from Uber yet?
It’s the six month anniversary of checking to see if my Uber driver is Boyo Jim.
If I do luck out, I have clever opening lines ready:
“Say, didn’t you once say you never travel anywhere without a parrot and a pillow?”
“This might be an odd question if I have the wrong guy, but, have you ever likened Britney Spears to a Roomba?”
Or, though it’d be too easy to reference his most famous line, “Is Gerald okay?”
Based on what he said, he’s looking at 15% x $4500 in SE taxes, unless he meets the social security max from his day job. Plus federal taxes at his tax rate. Plus any state and local taxes (some states have none, mine has like 4 different local income taxes).
Since my only job is self employment and I had a modest income, I got a refund with no withholding. Not any easy way to live, though. There were a lot of assumptions in this thread not based on the specifics, and since no one knows his day job income and deductions its hard to know the tax implications specifically, beyond the SE.
I’m interested in this because I’m considering doing Uber mostly just to cover a car payment and expect to possibly lose money. I’m self-employed, probably pretty much unemployable and lost my main client and car within 2 weeks of each other.
You can deduct things like Uber fees and supplies and then you can choose between the mileage deduction or actual expenses.