Uber Eats does not provide paystubs or employment verification for their delivery drivers. This is because Uber Eats delivery drivers are self-employed independent contractors and not employees.
That doesn't mean you're out of luck. It just means that you have to provide different kinds of records.
So how do you prove you deliver for Uber? How do you know what you made?
While you can't verify employment when you're not an employee, you can verify that you're running a business and making money with Uber Eats as your customer. After all, that's technically what's happening: you're providing delivery services as a business.
We'll talk about all of this here. We'll discuss how to know what you made on Uber Eats and how to document it when needed. In the rest of this post, we'll look at:
- Why there’s no pay stub with Uber Eats
- Why Uber's 1099 forms can hurt you more than it helps.
- Uber Eats income documentation options
- How income and employment verification is different for independent contractors
- How to create your own verification as an Uber Eats contractor
Please note: This is about delivering for Uber Eats in the U.S. and Canada, with any tax implications discussed related to United States independent contractor taxes. Also, understand that this is only for educational purposes. If you need any tax advice, you should seek it from a tax professional who can advise you based on your personal situation.
Why there’s no pay stub with Uber Eats
Uber Eats cannot give you a paystub because you are not an employee. As a delivery contractor, you provide delivery services as a business. You have a business-to-business relationship with Uber, not an employee-employer one.
Therefore it's impossible to get employment verification if you're not an employee. Instead, you must focus on proving your self-employment and documenting that your business is making money.
Another issue is that when you are self-employed, the money you receive from Uber Eats is not your income. It's your business's income. Your profits (what's left over after expenses) become your true income.
Finally, because you're self-employed, you're on your own for your Uber Eats related taxes. An employee paycheck normally has state and federal income taxes withheld, as well as FICA taxes (Social Security and Mediare). You're responsible to do this for yourself.
Why Uber's 1099 forms may not help you.
If you need to prove your income for previous years, your Uber 1099 forms may not be your best option. That is because Uber does things differently with their 1099 forms.
Uber uses two different 1099 forms to report income. Most of your earnings (delivery pay and customer tips) are reported using form 1099-K. For past years, form 1099-K was not sent out unless you made more than $20,000 on the Uber platform.
Some miscellaneous earnings, mostly incentive pay, were reported on form 1099-NEC.
As a result, unless you delivered full-time, your Uber Eats 1099s may not reflect the entirety of what you received for the previous year. If you made $10,000 last year on the Uber Eats platform but you only have a 1099-NEC showing $800, that won't look very good.
Uber Eats income documentation options
The good news is that Uber does have other documentation options available that reflect the total of what you earned. There are three different reports you can download.
The first option is your annual tax summary. You can get this through the driver app by tapping the menu bars, selecting Account, Tax Info, and then Tax Summaries. You can also get this on a desktop browser by logging into your Uber Account, then choosing tax documents.
The tax summary will give you the total amount you earned while delivering for Uber Eats for the year. The amount under “Your Net Payment the amount you received for your deliveries.
A second option you have is to download monthly earnings summaries. Access those the same way you do your annual tax summary, but instead, look for the monthly option.
Finally, you can get a summary of your weekly earnings. In the driver app, you can select Earnings under the menu and tap “See Earnings Activity.” From there, you can choose the week to get a report. You can also select the Payment Statements tab from a web browser, choose the week, and either view a statement or download a PDF.
How income and employment verification is different for independent contractors
The critical thing to remember is that income for an employee is very different from income for a self-employed individual. The amount an employee is paid is their income. For that reason, a pay stub works perfectly for income verification purposes.
However, as an independent contractor, the money you get from Uber Eats is not your personal income. Instead, it belongs to your business. When you are self-employed, your profit (what's left over after expenses) is your personal income.
When lenders, landlords, and other creditors need to see your income, they need more information when you're running a business. Whether it feels like you're operating a business or not, that is what's happening when you're a gig economy independent contractor.
The money coming into your business often isn't enough to satisfy them. Creditors need to know that you'll have enough money left over after deducting the cost of doing business.
If you delivered for Uber Eats in the past or had other self-employment income, they will pay more attention to your Schedule C than your 1099 forms. That's because Schedule C is the form the IRS uses to determine your income as a business owner.
In other words, they're now evaluating not only your personal finances but your business finances as well.
How to create your own verification as an Uber Eats contractor
You can't provide employment verification when you deliver for Uber Eats because you're not an employee. However, you can prove your self-employment. And you can verify your income. You can do this by:
- Using tax documents to prove income for previous years
- Providing a profit and loss statement to show your current earnings
- Giving documentation that verifies your business income
Using tax documents to prove income for previous years
Tax records for previous years are generally accepted as proof of prior income.
Your W2 forms are one way of documenting your income, so we think our 1099 forms would do the same. But this is where the difference between income for employment versus self-employment comes in.
Form Schedule C is the form that reports business income and expenses to the IRS. It's the business profit on that form that determines your taxable income.
Profit is a better indication of your actual income as an independent contractor. As a result, creditors will pay more attention to this form than your 1099 forms.
For this reason, you need to be aware that your tax forms can work against you. It's beneficial from a tax standpoint to write off 62.5 cents per mile (second half of 2022). However, it can also appear to creditors that we aren't genuinely making any money. Be aware that if you can write off all or most of your income, it may be harder to prove that you made money when income verification is needed.
Providing a profit and loss statement to show your current earnings
Here's the deal: You're trying to get approval for a loan, an apartment, or something based on your income, or you're trying to prove that you were self-employed. This means you're relying on your income as a business owner.
For someone to take you seriously as a business owner, you must provide information consistent with you operating a business. In other words, you need to provide business reports.
One of the most important forms of verification is actually something you can provide. It's called a profit and loss statement.
We mentioned Schedule C earlier. That is a form of profit and loss statement you provide to the US Government. Your profit and loss statement does the same: it provides income and expenses details.
The easiest way to get a profit and loss statement is to track your income and expenses in a bookkeeping app like Hurdlr or Quickbooks Self-Employed. Make sure the program you use can provide reports. Some basic programs don't have that functionality.
You can have the program produce a profit and loss report from there. Usually, you'll want to have it create a report from the first of the year through the last day of the previous month.
You could also create your own profit and loss report by typing it out. On the top half of the report, you'd list whatever income you received for your business. If you work with multiple delivery services, list the total for each one.
In the next part, you'll list your expenses. You don't have to list every individual purchase but total them in categories. Put a line item down for supplies, another for your car expenses, and so on. Total those up, subtract expenses from income, and show the difference as your profit (or loss).
Documentation that verifies your business income
Anyone can make up numbers. You can tell your banker you're making a million dollars a year, but they're not going to loan you money if you can't back it up.
You can provide two things: Documentation from a third party and your bank records.
We discussed the income reports you can get from your Uber driver account earlier. Those can be very helpful in proving you made the money you said you made.
If you work for other gig apps, you may not be able to get the same kind of documentation from them. Doordash doesn't provide any actual form for you, and Grubhub only sends emails with an earnings report.
The best way to show that you received the money you claimed to make is to show it with bank records. If money was deposited into your bank account, that's pretty good evidence of your income.
The best way to do this is with a bank account just for your business. All your earnings come into that account, and all your expenses are paid out of it. When you don't have to also wade through your personal transactions, it is easier to document your business activity.
Wrapping it up
This is all about proving that Uber Eats is a source of income. A lender wants to know if you can make the payments. A landlord wants to believe that you will continue to pay the rent.
If you're looking for employment and need to show experience, sometimes showing that you operated a business is even better than just another job on the resume.
You can't prove you were employed by a company when you weren't an employee. You can't get a pay stub if you weren't on Uber's payroll.
The focus shifted from employment verification to documenting your business when you became an independent contractor. That's the kind of thing a lender or creditor is looking for.
This is why it's critical to think like a business owner. Provide your documentation accordingly, and you can offset any lack of pay stubs or employment verification
