Yes, Uber drivers can begin tracking miles as they leave their home to their first pick up if they have a home office. If you drove 50 miles to pick up a customer and they change their mind, yes you can deduct that. Just driving 50 miles without the objective of getting a customer is not deductible.
You do not only track when a customer is in the car, you also track the mileage going to pick the customer up or going to buy items for your car, such as snacks for your customer. However, you cannot get mileage from your regular job to home, only from the last customer to home.
Sample mileage recording;
1. Get up in the morning with a customer wanting a pick up before you go to your job. Write the address down where you are picking them up from and when you get in the car write your starting miles - drive to pick up the customer - take them where they are going and once they leave the car, record the address you took them to and the ending mileage on your car. If you subtract the ending miles from the starting miles that is the miles you record for that trip.
2. Now if you are going to your regular job or pick up another customer, again write starting mileage and starting address and once you get there, ending address and ending mileage.
3. At the end of the workday if you are at your regular job and going home, do not record those miles. however, if you had a pick up before you go home, record those miles from your last pick up to your home.
At the end of the year, you will add up all your miles and put those on your tax return, remember, Uber only begins tracking miles once you pick a customer up so you could lose a lot of miles if you rely on that for your return.
Another tip; at the beginning of the year, record the mileage on your car and at the end of the year record your mileage. Subtract the miles at the end of the year from miles at the beginning of the year. That is your yearly mileage. There are several apps etc that can help you track mileage easier, you can choose.
