Instacart Shopper Tax Deductions: The Complete Checklist

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Educational only, not tax advice. GigMoney Playbook explains general IRS rules in plain English. The author is not a CPA, enrolled agent, attorney, financial advisor, or tax preparer. The examples below are hypothetical, and your numbers will be different. Read our full disclaimer.

Last updated: October 26, 2026. All figures checked against IRS.gov on that date.

As an Instacart shopper paid as a contractor, you’re taxed on your profit, not on every dollar the app sends you. Deductions are the gap between the two. Here are the ones that usually matter, the ones that don’t, and the records you need.

Quick answer: For most shoppers, the biggest deduction by far is business mileage. For 2026 the IRS standard mileage rate is 72.5 cents per mile for January 1 – June 30 and 76 cents per mile for July 1 – December 31 (IRS: Standard mileage rates). After mileage, the main ones are business parking and tolls, the business share of your phone, insulated bags and similar supplies, and three deductions that aren’t on Schedule C at all: half of your self-employment tax, self-employed health insurance, and the QBI deduction.

First: are you paid as a contractor?

This checklist is for shoppers who are independent contractors and report their earnings on Schedule C. Instacart’s shopper site describes the full-service Shopper role as a “1099 position (contractor)” and says full-service shoppers use their own vehicle and pay for their own maintenance and fuel (Instacart Shoppers site). Its separate in-store role works differently. If a job pays you on a W-2, these deductions don’t apply to that pay.

To count, a business expense has to be both ordinary (common and accepted in your line of work) and necessary (helpful and appropriate). If something is partly business and partly personal, you can deduct only the business part (IRS Pub. 334 (2025), chapter 8). Keep that rule in mind for every item below.

The checklist at a glance

Deduction Where it goes Main catch
Business miles (standard rate) or actual car expenses Schedule C, line 9 Commuting miles don’t count. You need a mileage log.
Business parking and tolls Schedule C, line 9 Allowed on top of the standard rate. Tickets and fines aren’t deductible.
Phone and data plan Schedule C Only the business-use percentage.
Insulated bags and other supplies Schedule C Must be used for the work.
Home office Schedule C, line 30 Most shoppers won’t qualify.
Half of self-employment tax Schedule 1 Lowers income tax, not SE tax.
Self-employed health insurance Schedule 1 Not for months you could join a subsidized employer plan.
QBI deduction Form 1040 Figured on your profit. Limits apply.
“No tax on tips” deduction Schedule 1-A Lowers income tax only. Limits apply.

1. Mileage: the deduction that matters most

You can use either the standard mileage rate or actual car expenses (gas, repairs, insurance, depreciation, and so on, times your business-use percentage), not both in the same year. The standard rate replaces gas, repairs, insurance, and depreciation (IRS Pub. 463 (2025), chapter 4).

2026 has two rates. The IRS raised the business rate mid-year: 72.5 cents for miles driven January 1 – June 30, 2026, and 76 cents for July 1 – December 31, 2026 (IRS: Standard mileage rates). Your log needs dates, not just a yearly total.

Hypothetical example: a part-time shopper logs 2,800 business miles in the first half of 2026 and 3,200 in the second half, and pays $35 in business parking.

Item Math Amount
Jan. 1 – June 30 miles 2,800 × $0.725 $2,030.00
July 1 – Dec. 31 miles 3,200 × $0.76 $2,432.00
Business parking Added on top $35.00
Car deduction (Schedule C, line 9) $4,497.00

Because it reduces Schedule C profit, it lowers both income tax and self-employment tax. Our set-aside guide shows how profit becomes a tax bill.

Which miles count (and which don’t)

The IRS treats driving between home and your regular place of work as commuting, which isn’t deductible. For someone who has no regular office and no qualifying home office, Pub. 463 says the first business stop inside your metro area is treated as your office. The drive from home to that first stop, and from your last stop back home, is nondeductible commuting. Driving from one business stop to another is deductible (Pub. 463 (2025), chapter 4, “Examples of deductible transportation,” Example 3).

Store-to-customer and customer-to-next-store miles are the strongest. The IRS publications don’t spell out how this applies to app-based shoppers driving while waiting for a batch, so if those miles are a big share of your total, ask a tax professional. One exception: if your home office qualifies as your principal place of business, trips between home and other work locations can be deductible (Pub. 463, “Office in the home”), but most shoppers won’t qualify (see below).

Other car rules to know

  • Parking and tolls: business-related parking fees and tolls are deductible in addition to the standard mileage rate (Pub. 463; Schedule C instructions (2025), line 9).
  • Tickets: you can’t deduct fines for traffic violations (Pub. 463).
  • Car loan interest: if you’re self-employed, you can deduct the business-use share of car loan interest on Schedule C even with the standard mileage rate. Some personal-share interest may qualify on Schedule 1-A, but the same dollars can’t be deducted twice (Pub. 463, “Interest”; Schedule C instructions).
  • Pick a method carefully in year one. To use the standard rate for a car you own, you must choose it in the first year the car is used in your business. You can switch to actual expenses later, but generally not the other way around (Pub. 463, “Choosing the standard mileage rate”).

2. Your phone and data plan

Instacart’s shopper site lists a compatible smartphone as a requirement (Instacart Shoppers site), so your phone is a business tool. It’s also almost always a personal phone, so you deduct only the business share (Pub. 334, chapter 8). Hypothetical: a $70 monthly plan with a 40% business-use share is $70 × 12 × 40% = $336 for the year. Use a percentage you can explain, and write down how you got it.

A new phone is equipment, generally depreciated (IRS Pub. 946), though the de minimis safe harbor election lets many small businesses deduct items up to $2,500 per item or invoice right away (Pub. 334, “De Minimis Safe Harbor for Tangible Property”). Either way, only the business-use share counts.

3. Insulated bags and other supplies

Instacart’s shopper site says full-service shoppers need a set of insulated bags (Instacart Shoppers site). Gear bought for the work, like insulated bags, a phone mount, or a car charger, is a normal supplies expense. Keep the receipt, and deduct only the business share of anything you also use personally. One more that people forget: the cost of preparing the business part of your tax return is deductible on Schedule C (Pub. 334, “Tax preparation fees”).

4. Home office: probably not, and here’s why

The home office deduction requires a specific area used regularly and exclusively for your business, and generally as your principal place of business (IRS Pub. 587 (2025)). Shopping happens in stores and cars, so a kitchen table or shared spare room usually won’t pass. If you do qualify, the simplified method is $5 per square foot for up to 300 square feet, and the deduction can’t be more than your business’s gross income minus its other expenses (Pub. 587, “Using the Simplified Method”). The regular method uses Form 8829.

5. Deductions that aren’t on Schedule C

  • Half of your self-employment tax. Self-employment tax is 15.3%. You can deduct the employer-equivalent half when figuring adjusted gross income. It lowers income tax, but not the SE tax itself (IRS: Self-employment tax).
  • Self-employed health insurance. Medical, dental, and qualified long-term care premiums for you and your family may be deductible, limited by your business’s net earnings. Months when you could join a plan subsidized by your or your spouse’s employer don’t count, and Marketplace premium tax credits add extra rules (Instructions for Form 7206 (2025)).
  • QBI deduction. Eligible sole proprietors may deduct up to 20% of qualified business income, whether or not they itemize. For tax years beginning after 2025, the IRS describes a new minimum deduction for active qualified business income (IRS: QBI deduction).
  • “No tax on tips.” The IRS list of tipped occupations includes “grocery delivery driver” and “app/platform-based delivery person” under code 804, goods delivery people (IRS: Tipped occupations). Up to $25,000 of qualified tips may be deductible on Schedule 1-A, capped at your net income from that business for self-employed people, and phased out above $150,000 of modified AGI ($300,000 joint) (IRS: No tax on tips; Form 1040-ES (2026)). It lowers income tax only, and deducted tips don’t count as QBI (IRS: QBI deduction).

What you can’t deduct

  • Customers’ groceries. Shoppers check out with an Instacart payment card (Instacart Shoppers site), so the order isn’t your expense.
  • Commuting miles (see above), and personal trips, even short ones.
  • Traffic and parking tickets and other government fines (Pub. 463; Pub. 334).
  • Gas and repairs if you use the standard mileage rate. The rate already covers them (Pub. 463).

Records to keep

For car expenses, the IRS expects records of the mileage for each business use, the date, the destination, the business purpose, and your total miles for the year (Pub. 463, Table 5-1). A mileage log kept at the time beats one rebuilt from memory. You generally need to keep records for 3 years from the date you file the return (Pub. 463, “How Long To Keep Records and Receipts”). Save receipts in one folder, and compare the app’s yearly earnings summary with your bank deposits and any 1099 you receive.

About that 1099: for payments made in 2026, a business generally files a 1099-NEC only if it paid you at least $2,000, up from $600 (IRS: Am I required to file a Form 1099?). Smaller earners may get no form at all, but the income is still taxable. Our guides to earning under $600 (or $2,000) and the 1099-K threshold explain why.

FAQ

Can I deduct both mileage and gas?

Not with the standard mileage rate. The rate already covers gas, repairs, insurance, and depreciation. You can add business parking, tolls, and the business share of car loan interest (Pub. 463).

I forgot to track miles. Is it too late?

Start logging today. For past trips, rebuild what you can from app history and addresses. The IRS gives more weight to records made at the time (Pub. 463, chapter 5), so ask a tax pro how far to rely on a rebuilt log.

Do I need to make quarterly payments?

Generally yes, if you expect to owe $1,000 or more for the year (Form 1040-ES (2026)). The next due date is January 15, 2027. See our quarterly estimated taxes guide.

Sources

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