The Complete Guide to Filing Your Taskrabbit 1099 Taxes

How taxes work for Taskers

When you work for Taskrabbit, you're not classified as a regular W-2 employee. Instead, you’re considered a contractor or gig worker. While you might secure gigs through Taskrabbit, the IRS considers you to be a self-employed person running their own business — also known as a “sole proprietor.”

As an independent contractor, your taxes aren’t withheld — you’re responsible for filing them yourself. That's why, at the beginning of the year, you'll receive a 1099 form that documents your income.

What does this mean for your taxes? Let’s break down exactly what the IRS expects from you.

Self-employment taxes

Also known as FICA (Federal Income Insurance Contributions Act), self-employment taxes are how freelancers pay Social Security and Medicare taxes.

W-2 employees also pay these taxes: 6.2% of their income goes to Social Security, while 1.45% goes to Medicare. That adds up to 7.65%, which their employers match. 

As a sole proprietor, though, you are your own boss. And that means you’re seen by the IRS as an employer and an employee — making you responsible for both portions of your FICA tax. This brings your total self-employment tax rate up to 15.3%.

Luckily, you can write off the employer portion of your FICA taxes on your income taxes — which, sadly, you also have to pay.

Income taxes

This includes state and federal taxes. Your rate will depend on factors such as where you live, your marital status, and your income tax bracket.

To find out exactly how much your income tax bill is, give our income tax calculator a whirl.

Now that you know the types of Taskrabbit taxes you’re expected to pay, let’s cover the forms you’ll need to file on Tax Day.

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The Taskrabbit 1099 forms you need to file your taxes

If you earned at least $20,000 as a Tasker over the last year, Taskrabbit should send you a 1099 form that documents your income, helping you properly file your self-employment taxes. (More on that below!)

These are due by January 31. The exact types of tax forms you receive will depend on a couple of factors.

If you earned more than $20,000, for at least 200 Tasks

You’ll receive a form 1099-K. This will list the total amount you were paid for each Task.

Originally, 1099-K forms were set to be sent out to any Tasker who earned more than $600 in 2023. But the IRS decided to delay this rule change. For 2023, the old rules will apply.

Keep in mind: You'll have to file taxes for your Taskrabbit earnings even if you don't get a 1099-K from the platform.

Earned less than $20,000? You can still grab your income information from your own bank statements.

If you earned more than $600 for referral or bonus income

You'll receive a form 1099-NEC for any income you make from Taskrabbit outside of actual Tasks, such as referral payments or bonuses. These days, referral rewards are capped at $500, so 1099-NECs from Taskrabbit are pretty rare. Still, they’ll be handled on this form if they do pop up.

To those familiar with contracting and freelancing, Form 1099-NEC replaced 1099-MISC in 2020.

If you made less than $600 through Taskrabbit

You won't receive a 1099 form — the reporting requirements mean Taskrabbit doesn't have to send you one.

Every Tasker, however, should receive a tax summary from Taskrabbit that states their annual gross earnings.

This isn’t an official tax document, but it contains helpful information for filing your taxes — which you have to do whether you earned below or above $600!

What to do if you don't receive your 1099 from Taskrabbit

Companies like Taskrabbit should provide all contractors who earned $600 or more with 1099 forms. This might be a hard copy sent through snail mail or a digital copy sent by email or accessed through the platform dashboard.

If you don’t receive one, ensure your address on file is up to date and reach out to the Taskrabbit support team. (You can also contact them on the Taskrabbit website.)

If you’re still unable to get your hands on a 1099 form, there is a way for you to determine your total income without one: your transaction history.

Here’s how to find your transaction history:

• Open the app and select the “My Business” menu
• Click on the month you're in
• At the top left, click on the download button and select the last calendar year
• Choose to send a PDF version to your email

Once you've received your transaction history, open it and look for total earnings. That's your gross income!

But don’t file just yet. First, you should deduct eligible business expenses from your gross income to find your taxable income. This will lower the amount you need to pay tax on.

The write-offs can you deduct as a Tasker

All of the business expenses you incur as a Tasker can be fully (or sometimes partially) deducted from your income before you pay taxes. Properly tracking and writing off these expenses lets you max out the amount of income you can keep in your pocket! 

The equipment you need to do your business is deductible. So are any other expenses you come across while working. Common Taskrabbit write-offs include:

• 🔨 Tools and equipment
• 🗜️Tape, markers, wall anchors, and other supplies for assembling Ikea furniture
• 📱A portion of your cell phone and phone bill
• 💰Taskrabbit service charges, commissions, and fees
• 🚲 A bike and helmet

A separate category that deserves its own mention is car-related expenses. All the driving around you do as a Tasker can put a strain on your wallet. Good thing all these expenses are deductible!

• 🛡️ Car insurance
• 📄 Car registration
• 🚗 Lease payments
• ⛽ Gas
• 🛂 Parking
• 💲 Toll fees
• 📉 Depreciation of your car
• 🛠️ Repairs and maintenance 

Keep in mind: You can only deduct the portion of these expenses used for Taskrabbit purposes. 

For example, if you use a piece of equipment — like your car — 70% of the time as a Tasker and 30% for personal reasons, you can only deduct 70% of the related costs.

To claim any of these tax deductions, you’ll need to keep good records of your transactions and hang on to them for three years. The good news is, you don’t have to do it with paper receipts.  At Keeper, we store all of your receipts digitally and organize them for you — no need for bulky filing cabinets!

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Our 1099 expense tracker can also automatically scan all of your annual transactions to ensure you’re not missing out on any potential savings.

How to file your Taskrabbit 1099 taxes

With your Taskrabbit 1099 forms (or bank statements) and expenses records gathered, you’re ready to file. Luckily, this is as easy as one, two, three. 

Step #1: Fill out your Schedule C

This is where you list all of your write-offs and deduct them from your total taxable income. Check out our guide to filling out a Schedule C for a step-by-step breakdown of how this form works.

Step #2: Complete your Schedule SE 

This form is used to calculate the amount of self-employment tax you owe. If you don’t want any surprises, give our 1099 tax calculator a try before you fill in your Schedule SE!

Step #3. Attach both forms to your 1040

All individual taxpayers use form 1040 to report their taxable income. The final step of filing is to attach both your Schedule C and Schedule SE to this form and send it off to the IRS.

Of course, there is another option that’s simpler than doing your own business taxes. Upload your data to the Keeper app and we can do the filing for you!

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When to file Taskrabbit 1099 taxes

For people new to gig work, it can come as a surprise to discover that Tax Day isn’t just once a year in April. Instead, it comes four times a tax year.

You can thank quarterly taxes. Any self-employed person who expects to owe the IRS at least $1,000 needs to file and pay their taxes in four installments.

Quarterly taxes are due on:

• Q1: April 15th 
• Q2: June 15th
• Q3: September 15th
• Q4: January 15th

Note that the quarterly payments are estimates. While you want to get the amount you send as close to right as possible, the IRS does give quarterly filers a 10% buffer in case they're slightly off.

That’s said, it’s a good idea to be generous with the IRS in your estimates. If you overpay on your quarterly tax payments, you'll get that extra money back as a tax refund. If you underpay by more than 10%, you could end up having to pay the IRS late fees and penalties.

To determine how much you should pay for each quarter, you can divide your total amount of taxes owed by four or use Keeper’s handy quarterly tax payment calculator.

Filing taxes as a contractor may seem intimidating at first. But once you break each step down to the basics, it’s really not that complicated!

And the good news is that once you understand how to file your Taskrabbit taxes, you’ll be all set to file for any other 1099 gigs you might have — whether that’s with Uber, Postmates, Amazon Flex, or anywhere else.

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