Creating Categories for Tax Purposes on MileIQ - EVERYTHING You MUST Know!!

If you’re a gig worker, delivery driver, freelancer, or small business owner, categorizing your drives is going to make your tax season way easier for you and your tax professional.  

Categories don’t just keep you organized as a gig worker, they also make your reports IRS-compliant and save you headaches when you hand everything over to your CPA, bookkeeper, or tax prep service.

That said, not all categories are listed in your mileage tracker so you will need to know how to actually create new ones that line up with your Schedule C, which is why we are going to talk more about that and will be using MileIQ to demonstrate.

So in this video, We are talking about:

• EVERYTHING You MUST Know about Creating Categories on MileIQ

• How it ACTUALLY is for Gig Workers who are tracking their miles

• Everything in between!

Disclaimer: The content of this video does not contain and is never intended to be legal, business, financial, tax, or health advice of any kind, This video is for entertainment purposes only. It is advised that you conduct your own research and consult with qualified professionals before applying anything you find online. 

I also want to be clear that everything we are going to go over is very market dependent, and what applies to me and my market may not apply to you.

DrivenWyld/YouTube

Also keep in mind, I am using an app called MileIQ to demonstrate all of this so if you haven’t signed up already, make sure to check the link in the description to follow along or if you don’t already have a mileage tracking app at your service!

Built-In Categories Overview

Access Your Categories in your Settings under Custom Purposes

]MileIQ actually comes with some built-in categories for broader explanations of what business you were conducting:

For the business side, we have.

• Customer Visit

• Between offices

• Meeting

• Errand/Supplies

• Meals/Entertain

• Temporary Site

• Airport/Travel

These are pretty solid choices for certain professions but that doesn't actually cover everything that gig workers would do, which is why there is a custom category section.

The personal side is more broad but there are still ways you can write off the mileage. Personal mileage categories include:

• Medical

• Commute

• Charity

• Moving

While most personal expenses aren’t tax write offs there are some things here that would count towards your taxes. For example, The standard mileage rate for charity for 2025 is 14 cents per mile while medical reasons can allow you to write off 21 cents per mile. 

Moving doesn’t always count as a mileage deduction but if you are a member of the military, you can write off 21 cents per mile. 

Commutes do not typically account for any kind of write off, but there are exceptions such as:

• Your home being your principal place of business

• Traveling to a temporary workplace

• Traveling between two different work places

That said, there are sections in the business categories for the latter two and it would be wise to also capitalize on home office tax deductions to truly maximize your tax savings.

Creating Custom Categories

Green are a couple of categories I made for myself, and Blue is what they already gave me

The built in categories are great and add some necessary components to your tracker to notate specific activities that you conduct in your business that are beyond what most corporations will notate. 

As this page is built for gig workers, let’s use courier work as an example. Courier work is not a default option but is very niche and accounts for a significant amount of our tax write-offs, whether you are using the standard mileage or the actual expense method. 

So what you would want to do is create a separate mileage category for Courier work, and when you have to categorize your miles, you use that category.

But Joe, I only use the app to track my miles because I only do gig work. Do I still need to categorize them?

I would, especially if you plan to do any other kind of work in the future. I didn’t think I would need to create another category for mileage purposes and then I started doing in person sales and reaching out to potential clients for my DSP.

That is up to you though, I would consult with a qualified tax professional regardless to see what would be best for your Schedule C expense groups. The goal with categorizing your miles is to stay IRS compliant and to make things easier for your CPA or tax professional. 

And if you are looking for a tax professional who is going to help you at DIY rates for Gig Workers, make sure to check out GigTax!

As someone who has ventured into self-employment via food delivery apps, the income is promising. That said, you are also faced with challenges in navigating taxes as a self-employed person and transforming your “gig” into a sustainable business.

GigTax was founded by Joseph Mayo, a seasoned Gig Worker with over 7000 deliveries across 7 platforms since 2020, and they understand the challenges of freelancers, rideshare drivers, couriers, online sellers and gig workers of all kinds! 

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You know, I used ChatGPT to ask how I should categorize my drives and it said to use the names of the companies, not just a broad courier work category. 

Hey, if you have such a short gig portfolio that this isn’t a concern for you, go for it. But I have a challenge with being able to tell the difference between each delivery app route when I use multiple platforms. 

This is also important if you want to level up as a courier from being a food delivery driver, to grocery delivery, package delivery, court document delivery, medical or pharmacy delivery and more!

Also, this will make it much easier to work with your tax professional rather than trying to explain all the different versions of your work when it is essentially the same thing but on different platforms. 

That said, if you need to analyze and determine which apps are making you the most money, it is good to lay it all out on paper, and see which app is doing the most for you and adjust accordingly. 

Regardless, you are free to track however you want during the year, but always check in with your CPA before tax time to make sure your reports match their preferred method. 

Remember, when you work with a Tax Professional, you are working as a team so help them help you by working with them, not just assigning them work.

If you would like to add some other perspective to Creating Custom Categories for Tax Purposes on MileIQ, feel free to email me: drivenwyld@gmail.com and who knows? Maybe your email or perspective and be featured in a post as well!