You made money delivering food last year. The CRA wants their cut. What most new delivery drivers don’t realize is that you’re self-employed, and self-employed people get to deduct a LOT of expenses that regular employees can’t touch.
Your first T2125 feels intimidating, but it’s really just a form that says “here’s what I earned, here’s what I spent to earn it, here’s the difference.” That difference is what you actually owe taxes on, and for most delivery drivers, it’s way less than the gross number on your Uber summary.
The document checklist (gather these first)
Before you open any tax software, pull together these documents. Missing even one can cost you deductions:
- T4 slips from your day job (if you have one). Your employer mails these by the end of February
- Platform tax summaries from Uber Eats, DoorDash, Skip the Dishes, or whatever apps you drove for. Usually available in the app’s tax section or driver portal by March
- Mileage log. If you kept one, great. If not, don’t panic. We’ll cover how to reconstruct it below
- Phone bill. You used your phone for every single delivery, and part of that bill is deductible
- Gas receipts, insurance, and maintenance records: oil changes, tire rotations, anything you spent on your car
- Delivery bags, phone mounts, car chargers. These are all deductible equipment
- Parking receipts. Paid parking while picking up orders counts
How T4 and T2125 work together
If you have a day job AND deliver on the side, you’re filing one tax return with two income sources. Your T4 income (the day job) goes on your T1 return the normal way. Your employer already deducted taxes, CPP, and EI from your paycheques.
Your delivery income goes on Form T2125 (Statement of Business or Professional Activities). The T2125 attaches to your same T1 return. One return, two income streams.
The key difference: your employer handled all the withholding on your T4 income. Nobody withheld anything on your delivery income. That’s why you might owe money at tax time, and why deductions matter so much.
Filling out the T2125 for delivery work
The T2125 is where the real action happens. Here’s the simplified version.
Line 8299, Gross income: Add up everything you earned from ALL delivery platforms. Uber Eats, DoorDash, Skip, Instacart. All of it goes here. Use your platform tax summaries. If the numbers look wrong, cross-check against your bank deposits.
Lines 8521-8760, Expenses: This is where you list vehicle costs, phone, supplies, and other business expenses. Each category gets its own line.
Line 9946, Net income: Gross minus expenses. This is the number that actually gets taxed.
If you earned $28,000 gross from delivery but had $12,000 in legitimate expenses, you’re only paying tax on $16,000. That’s a massive difference. For a deeper walkthrough of the T2125, see our freelance taxes guide.
Vehicle expenses: the big one
For most delivery drivers, vehicle costs are 60–80% of total deductions. You have two methods:
Simplified (per-kilometre) method: The CRA lets you claim $0.73/km for the first 5,000 business kilometres and $0.67/km after that (2026 rates). If you drove 20,000 km for deliveries, that’s $3,650 + $10,050 = $13,700 in deductions with zero receipt tracking. Simple.
Actual expense method: Add up every dollar you spent on gas, insurance, maintenance, repairs, licence/registration, lease payments, and depreciation (CCA). Then multiply by your business-use percentage, the portion of your total driving that was for work. If 60% of your kilometres were deliveries, you claim 60% of actual costs. This method requires more paperwork but often yields a bigger deduction if you drive a lot for personal use too.
Either way, you need a mileage log. Check out our vehicle expenses guide for the full breakdown on both methods.
”I didn’t keep a mileage log”
Most first-year drivers didn’t. You can reconstruct one.
Uber and DoorDash trip history shows the date, pickup, and dropoff for every delivery. Export it. That gives you the number of trips and approximate distances.
Google Maps Timeline (if you had location history turned on) records everywhere your phone went, with dates. It’s not perfect, but it’s a reasonable reconstruction the CRA will generally accept, especially if it lines up with your trip history from the apps.
Go through month by month. Estimate your business kilometres from the trip data, estimate your total kilometres from the odometer or Google Timeline, and calculate your business-use percentage. Document your method. The CRA doesn’t expect perfection from a first-year driver. They expect a reasonable effort.
Phone and data plan
You used your phone for every delivery. Navigation, order notifications, customer messages. It’s a core business tool. But you also used it for personal stuff, so you can only deduct the business-use percentage.
A common split for delivery drivers is 50–70% business use. If your monthly plan is $85/month ($1,020/year) and you estimate 60% business use, that’s $612 in deductions. Keep your phone bills as proof.
Other deductions people forget
- Insulated delivery bags. If you bought a hot/cold bag for deliveries, that’s a supply expense. Even the $30 one from Amazon counts
- Phone mount and car charger. Small but legitimate. You bought them for work
- Car washes. Yes, really. If you wash your car to maintain it for delivery work, the business portion is deductible
- Parking fees. Paid parking while picking up orders from restaurants. Not parking tickets, though. Those are never deductible
- Safety vest or rain gear. If you deliver by bike or on foot
These individually small deductions add up to a few hundred dollars. Don’t leave them on the table.
The GST/HST check
Something that catches multi-platform drivers off guard: the $30,000 GST/HST registration threshold applies to your combined income from ALL platforms and all self-employed work, not per platform.
If you earned $18,000 from Uber Eats and $14,000 from DoorDash in a rolling 12-month period, you’ve crossed $30,000 and you’re required to register for a GST/HST number and start collecting and remitting.
If you’re under $30,000, registration is optional, but it can actually save you money through input tax credits. Worth looking into if you’re close.
The CPP surprise
This is the part that shocks most first-time filers. When you’re employed, your employer pays half your CPP contributions and you pay the other half. When you’re self-employed, you pay both halves.
That’s 11.9% of your net self-employment income (2026 rate) between the base and CPP2 contributions, up to the annual maximum. On $16,000 of net delivery income, that works out to roughly $1,904 in CPP alone, on top of income tax.
This is exactly why setting aside 25–30% of your delivery income as you earn it is so critical. The CPP bill alone eats a big chunk.
Deadlines (these are different for you)
Because you’re self-employed, you get a later filing deadline but the same payment deadline:
| Deadline | Date | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Payment due | April 30 | Any tax you owe must be paid by this date or interest starts accumulating |
| Filing due | June 15 | Self-employed filers get until June 15 to submit their return |
The trap: you have until June 15 to file, but you still owe interest on any unpaid balance after April 30. So if you think you owe money, pay an estimate by April 30 even if you’re not ready to file yet. You can always adjust later.
Your first T2125 in 15 minutes
Your first T2125 doesn’t have to be a weekend-long ordeal. Accountly is built for exactly this: Canadian gig workers filing their first self-employed taxes. Connect your platforms, categorize your expenses, and generate your T2125 numbers without digging through spreadsheets. Try it free before the April 30 payment deadline.
FAQ
Do I have to file taxes if I only made a few hundred dollars delivering?
Yes. The CRA requires you to report all self-employment income regardless of the amount. There’s no minimum threshold. The upside: if your expenses exceed your income, you can actually claim a business loss that reduces tax on your other income.
Can I use the simplified mileage rate if I also use my car for a day job commute?
Yes, but you can only claim kilometres driven specifically for deliveries, not your commute to a day job, not personal errands. The simplified rate applies only to business kilometres. Your commute from home to a regular workplace is always personal.
What if I drove for multiple platforms? Do I file a separate T2125 for each?
You can file one T2125 that combines all your delivery platform income. Add up gross earnings from Uber Eats, DoorDash, Skip, and any others. List them all under one business activity (e.g., “food delivery services”). Your expenses are shared across all platforms too.
Will the CRA know if I don’t report my delivery income?
Platforms like Uber and DoorDash report payments to the CRA. If your tax return doesn’t include income that the CRA already knows about, you’ll get a reassessment, plus interest and potentially penalties. It’s not worth the risk.
Can I deduct the cost of food I buy while on a delivery shift?
Meals you buy for yourself while working are not deductible, even if you’re eating between deliveries. The CRA considers personal meals a personal expense regardless of where you are when you eat them.
Should I register for GST/HST even if I’m under $30,000?
It depends. Voluntary registration lets you claim input tax credits on your business expenses (getting GST/HST back on gas, phone, equipment). But it also means charging GST/HST on your services and filing regular returns. For most drivers under $30,000, the paperwork outweighs the benefit. If you’re spending a lot on vehicle costs, though, it might be worth it. Read our GST/HST registration guide for the full math.
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