Keep more of your profits and pay less taxes by tracking your mileage. The free Stride Tax App makes it easy.

As rideshare drivers, we have a lot on our plates and an on our minds, but one thing we shouldn’t have to worry about is tracking our miles so we can get our tax deductions. Enter Stride, an app that’s made for you to take care of what you need. Stride is a free tax app and mileage tracker that makes it easy to save money come tax time.

Want to get started with Stride? Download the Stride tax app and mileage tracker.

What is the Stride Tax App?

The Stride Tax app is 100% free and runs in the background to track your mileage for you. All of your miles while working as a rideshare driver for companies like Uber, Lyft, and Via are tax deductible, including the miles from home to your starting point and back home again at the end of your shift or day.

Stride lets you track other important information such as if/when you pay for music or other paid apps that help you in your duties as a driver. Also, it helps you track your gas and other car-related expenses.

You can even link your bank account to categorize transactions as they happen. This isn’t always 100% accurate, so it’s smart to go back in once a month — or more frequently if need be — to clean it up and move transactions to their correct categories.

Along the way, Stride will show you how much of a deduction your mileage and other expenses are worth, making it easier for you to plan for taxes each year.

See how to use the Stride mileage tracker in this video:

Best of all, it’s available for iOS and Android phones.

Get the Stride app and get started tracking!

How Can I Track My Business Expenses with Stride?

As rideshare drivers, we have a lot of miscellaneous expenses that add up throughout the year. Aside from the obvious like gas and maintenance on your vehicle (that is already included in the standard mileage rate automatically calculated within the Stride app), there’s also music app subscriptions, airport permits, vehicle inspections, your cell phone bill, dash cams and more to account for — and that’s not even if you go the extra mile to provide water or candy or extras like that for your passengers.

If you’re anything like me, I’m not a bookkeeper. I can barely balance my checkbook let alone keep track of all my expenses on my own. Luckily, Stride helps out with that. As you make those purchases, you can immediately upload the receipt along with the information as far as how much the expense was and you can categorize it accordingly.

How Stride Helps Drivers Track Mileage & Expenses

As soon as you sign up for Stride, they will ask you what self-employment you participate in so that it can help you determine categories and deductions you may be eligible for. I put in that I’m a rideshare driver. Within the app it compiled categories of expenses that may be applicable for rideshare drivers:

Simply click on the appropriate category, add your expense and Stride will tell you how much you can deduct for that expense and keep track of it for you so it’s in one easy spot for you come tax time.

Notice at the bottom it has the grayed out box that says “What about gas & maintenance?” These items are part of the standard deduction and Stride automatically tracks these as it tracks your mileage. The standard mileage deduction also includes Rideshare car insurance, so that is another item you don’t need to track individually. This is one reason why we recommend the Stride mileage tracker as one of our top recommended mileage trackers for drivers.

The miles you’ll be tracking is important, because while Uber and Lyft track your “on-trip” mileage, other instances can count toward your mileage deductions also. When you’re driving toward a destination because you’re waiting for an event to let out or you’re in a dead zone and need to get to a more hopping location, that can be tracked.

You can also track when you go offline to drive toward a restroom or to get snacks or get gas while you’re “on the clock”. All of this rideshare driving-related mileage can and should be tracked because it is deductible. If you’re not tracking your mileage, you are missing out on savings.

Get the Stride app and get started tracking!

When you’re ready to do anything within the app, the main page, directs you to start saving.

Once you click on the green plus sign, it takes you to a screen that lets you choose if you want to start tracking mileage, add an expense or add income. From there, when you choose “Add an expense” that’s when the list of categories is compiled for you to choose from as shown above.

When you choose “Start a drive”, you simply press the “Start” button and it starts tracking your miles in the background as you drive. When you’re done with your rideshare driving for the day or need to do a personal driving task, simply go back into the app and press the “Stop” button and Stride will show you what your standard deduction is for that driving period.

Stride is one of the easiest mileage trackers out there – and it’s free. Download the Stride app today.

If you forget to track your miles at any point, there’s also the option within the app to add those in manually. It simply asks you to record the distance, the date of the trip and you can add a note to describe the purpose of your trip as well as the starting and ending locations.

What Else Does Stride Do?

More than just tracking mileage and expenses, Stride can be there for you in several other ways. Through the Stride app you can get dental, vision and health insurance, which comes in handy as rideshare drivers as Uber and Lyft don’t offer their drivers those kind of benefits.

For the health insurance aspect of it, you start by typing in your zip code so they know what is available in your area. From there, it asks more personal questions such as who you need coverage for (yourself, spouse, dependents, etc.), age and gender. It even allows you to specify if there’s a specific doctor you want covered by the plan you sign up for. So, if you work with a specialist or love your general practitioner, you can find a plan that includes their services.

After entering my general practitioner, Stride let me know that there are 10 plans that are accepted by my medical team. That let’s me know I will have 10 options to choose from, and hopefully one fits my needs.

From there, you can enter your prescription drugs you take on a regular basis. This helps narrow down plans that will suit your basic health needs. It also asks about some basic medical conditions where you can check off the ones you have. It’ll then ask how much you estimate you will earn in the coming year in very general terms — either less than or more than $35,000.

As they specify, this should be income before taxes but after deductions. If you’re unsure of what that might look like, a good practice would be to look at your taxes from last year to give a guesstimate, especially if you’re thinking you’ll earn similarly to your past.

For me, Stride showed me the top three choices they found for me that work with my conditions, are accepted by my general practitioner and are commensurate with my income. They broke those three options down by their recommended option, the lowest price and a similar plan. It even let me know what the estimated fill cost is for drugs as well as the pertinent information like the price per month, deductible per year and estimated out of pocket costs.

Ready to get started with Stride? You can sign up and start tracking your mileage (and more) with Stride here.

You can then click on each plan to learn more or look at all the plans that you qualify for so you can make your own informed decision. Under each plan, it’ll break down into more information that you need to know such as how the plan handles surgery and treatment, emergency care, pregnancy and more.

Once you decide, you can pick the plan that’s best for you, create an account and they’ll walk you through the rest from there.

Hear from Harry and the Stride Health CEO, Noah Lang, to learn even more about the amazing features of this app.

Does Stride Integrate with Tax Programs?

Stride has launched a partnership with H&R Block that allows Stride users 20% off online filing when using H&R Block’s Self-Employed product. Otherwise, if you still want to file your own taxes, you can access all the information that Stride has compiled for you within the app.

All you have to do is choose the tax year you need, type in the email address you want the form delivered to and Stride does the rest.

Overall, you get everything you need with Stride without having to pay a dime (unless you want extra features like health insurance). Track your rideshare expenses, mileage and more all in one place. It’s super convenient and easy to use.

Sign up and get started tracking your mileage with Stride!

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-RSG team