She'd been shopping for two years. Never claimed half the deductions she was owed. One afternoon with the right checklist changed everything. Here's exactly what she found — and how you can do the same thing before your next tax season.
Maria had been shopping for Instacart for almost two years when she finally sat down and looked at what she actually owed in taxes.
The number on her 1099 was $38,400. She'd mentally budgeted to owe around $9,000 — roughly 25% of her gross income, the number she'd heard floating around gig worker forums. Her accountant ran the numbers. The first estimate came back at $8,700.
Then she spent one afternoon going through the GigExit write-offs checklist.
The second estimate — after properly documenting everything she was already spending on her business but had never formally claimed — came back at $7,600. A difference of $1,100 she very nearly left on the table simply because nobody had ever handed her a complete list and said these are yours, claim them.
This isn't a story about finding loopholes or gaming the system. Every dollar of that $1,100 came from legitimate, IRS-approved deductions that Maria had been legally entitled to for two full years. She just hadn't known to claim them.
Maria's situation is more common than most drivers realize. When you start gig work, nobody hands you a tax guide. The platform sends you a 1099 in January and wishes you luck. Most new drivers do one of two things — they either panic and overpay, or they claim mileage and nothing else, leaving hundreds or thousands of dollars in legitimate deductions unclaimed every year.
Here are the specific categories where Maria found the most money — and where most Instacart shoppers leave the most on the table:
*The SE tax deduction reduces taxable income rather than directly reducing her tax bill by that amount. The $1,100 figure reflects the combined impact on her actual tax liability after all deductions were properly applied.
Mileage is the biggest deduction for most gig workers, and it's also the one most consistently undercounted. Instacart's app tracks miles from the store to the customer's door. That's it.
What it doesn't count: the drive to the store, driving between stores on a multi-store batch, and the drive home after your last delivery. For an active shopper doing 15-20 hours a week, these uncounted miles can add up to 20-30% more than what Instacart tracks.
At the 2026 IRS rate of 72.5 cents per mile, every 100 uncounted miles is $72.50 in missed deductions. Over the course of a year, that adds up quietly into real money.
You don't need to wait for tax season to do this. You can do it right now with whatever records you have, and then build better tracking habits going forward so next year's version of this conversation is even more valuable.
The same 40 write-offs that helped Maria find $1,100. Go through them, check what applies to you, and use the worksheet at the bottom to estimate your total deductions.
Get the 40 Write-Offs →Maria's story doesn't end with a lower tax bill. It ends with a different relationship to her own business.
After that afternoon, she started keeping a simple weekly log — miles driven, expenses paid, gross earnings. Not because it was required, but because having that information made her feel like she was actually running something instead of just grinding through it. The anxiety around tax season — that creeping dread that builds every January — disappeared almost entirely once she understood what she owed and why.
She also started running her real hourly rate every week. Knowing her actual net — after taxes and expenses — helped her decide which batches were worth accepting and which ones were quietly eating her time without paying for it.
One afternoon of paperwork. Twelve months of clarity.
The money was always there. It just needed someone to show her where to look.
GigExit Pro logs your mileage, saves your runs week over week, and generates a tax-ready export at year end. Everything Maria did manually — done automatically.
⚡ Try GigExit Pro Free for 7 Days →Instacart shoppers can claim vehicle expenses, mileage, phone and internet costs, equipment purchases, home office space, insurance, and app-related fees. Maria discovered she was eligible for many of these deductions that she hadnt been formally documenting, which reduced her taxable income significantly.
The amount varies based on your spending and income, but Maria saved $1,100 in one afternoon by properly documenting expenses she was already incurring. Most gig workers are leaving money on the table by not claiming all eligible write-offs they are legally entitled to claim.
While accountants can help, you don't necessarily need one to identify deductions. Using a detailed write-offs checklist like GigExit provides can help you find eligible expenses on your own before meeting with a tax professional.
No, you can amend previous tax returns to claim deductions you missed in prior years. Maria had been shopping for two years before discovering her missed deductions, demonstrating that it is never too late to correct your tax filings and claim what you are owed.