Amazon Flex taxes are owed on your profit, not on everything Amazon pays you. Take your block pay and any tips, subtract your mileage and other costs, and what’s left is self-employment income. You owe income tax on it and, once it passes about $433, 15.3% self-employment tax as well. Amazon doesn’t withhold any of it.
I drove Amazon Flex in California for about 18 months, from April 2025 to September 2026, nearly every day. Most of my blocks ran 4 to 4.5 hours and 100 miles or more. I made about $25,300 in 2025 and about $26,800 in 2026 through September, and I filed my Flex income myself. Everything else in this guide comes from Amazon’s Flex pages, IRS rules and my Amazon Flex tax calculator, so you can check each piece yourself.
Amazon Flex taxes, the short answer:
- Do you pay taxes on Amazon Flex? Yes, on your profit: your block pay and tips minus your mileage and other costs.
- Does Amazon Flex send a 1099? Yes, a 1099-NEC. I got mine by signing in to Amazon Tax Central with my Flex email and password. For 2026 pay, Amazon has to send one once it pays you $2,000 or more.
- Does Amazon take out taxes? No. Nothing is withheld once your tax info is on file.
- What’s the mileage deduction? 72.5 cents a mile through June 2026 and 76 cents from July 1. It was 70 cents for all of 2025.
- Are Flex tips taxed? Yes, but only some blocks have tips, and up to $25,000 of tips can come off your income for federal income tax.
- How much should you set aside? About 7% of each payout with no other income, and about 12% with a job in the 12% bracket, if you log your miles. Add your state’s rate on top.
Table of Contents
Do You Pay Taxes on Amazon Flex?
Yes. Amazon Flex delivery partners are independent contractors, and Amazon’s Flex FAQ says “you are responsible for your own expenses.” That makes your Flex work a business, and your Amazon Flex taxes come down to two federal taxes:
- Self-employment tax. You owe it when your net earnings from self-employment are $400 or more. Net earnings are 92.35% of your profit, so the line is about $433 of profit. The rate is 15.3%: 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare. W-2 workers split that with their employer, but Flex drivers pay both halves.
- Income tax. Only on income above your standard deduction, which is over $16,000 for single filers, over $32,000 for married couples filing jointly and over $24,000 for heads of household. It goes up with inflation each year. With a job, the standard deduction is usually used up already, so your Flex profit gets income tax from the first dollar.
How Amazon Flex Profit Is Figured
Amazon says most delivery partners earn $18 to $25 an hour. Here’s a year for a part-time driver who worked 150 four-hour blocks at $90 each:
| Step | Amount |
|---|---|
| Block pay | $13,500 |
| Mileage, January to June (4,500 miles × 72.5¢) | −$3,263 |
| Mileage, July to December (4,500 miles × 76¢) | −$3,420 |
| Phone and data (the share used for Flex) | −$300 |
| Amazon Flex profit | $6,518 |
Only the $6,518 is taxed. With no other income, that’s about $921 of self-employment tax and no income tax, about 7% of what Amazon paid. Without the mileage deduction, the same year would cost $1,865.
Where to Find Your Amazon Flex 1099-NEC
Amazon Flex sends a Form 1099-NEC, the form for contract pay. I got mine by signing in to Amazon Tax Central with the same email and password as my Flex account, and downloading it there.
Who gets one. The line for a 1099-NEC is $2,000 for payments in 2026, up from $600 through 2025. If you only did a few blocks, you may not get one, but every dollar still goes on your return.
When it counts. Flex pay counts in the year it’s paid to you. Amazon lets you pick your payment days, and blocks finished late in the week land on your next payment day, so a block at the end of December can be paid, and taxed, in January.
Nothing is withheld as long as Amazon has your tax info. Without it, payers have to hold back 24% as backup withholding.
Filing a 1099-NEC wasn’t new to me, since I’d filed Clickworker’s 1099-NEC several times before. If it’s your first one, the filing steps are below.
How I Tracked My Flex Miles and Earnings
Your mileage log is your proof if the IRS ever asks, and it’s up to you to keep one. Here’s the system I used for 18 months.
- A row for every day in a spreadsheet, with the date, what I earned, the hours I worked, what I spent on gas, the miles I drove and a notes column.
- A small script I wrote in Python that adds up any month I pick: total earnings, total miles, total gas and what I earned after gas, plus my daily averages for each.
- At tax time, the year’s miles times the IRS rate is my mileage deduction.
It paid off. I drove more than 25,000 miles in 2025 alone. At the 2025 rate of 70 cents a mile, that’s a deduction of more than $17,500, over two-thirds of what Amazon paid me that year. Without a log, it’s hard to prove.
The Amazon Flex Mileage Deduction
For most Flex drivers, miles are the biggest deduction. The IRS standard mileage rate is 72.5 cents a mile for January through June 2026 and 76 cents from July 1, after the IRS raised it midyear. It covers gas, insurance, repairs and depreciation, so you don’t deduct those on top. Parking and tolls you pay during your blocks do come off on top.
What counts. Your delivery route, the driving between stops and a trip back to the station to return packages.
The tricky part: the drive to the station. The IRS treats a trip from home to a regular work location as commuting, which isn’t deductible, unless your home is your principal place of business. IRS Publication 463 has the rules. If those miles are a big part of your total, ask a tax pro.
What doesn’t count. Personal driving, and gas, insurance or repairs on top of the mileage rate.
Standard rate or actual costs. You can deduct the business share of what your car really costs instead, but you have to keep every receipt. And for a car you own, the IRS says you have to use the standard rate in the first year you use the car for business if you ever want to use it. Flex requires a four-door sedan or larger, so the mileage rate works for any car Flex allows.
Other Amazon Flex Expenses You Can Deduct
Every cost of doing Flex comes off your profit before either tax is figured. I deducted my miles and part of my phone bill, and here’s what else counts:
- Parking and tolls, on top of the mileage rate.
- Your phone and plan, the share you use for Flex.
- A phone mount, a car charger and a hand truck or cart for heavy packages.
Gas, oil changes and car repairs aren’t separate deductions when you use the mileage rate, and parking tickets and your meals never are. Here are more deductions that lower side hustle taxes.
Amazon Flex Tips and the Tips Deduction
Only some Flex blocks have tips. Amazon says tip-eligible blocks show “$XX + tips,” and you keep 100% of the tips. I mainly did standard delivery routes, so I never had any, but if you do:
- Tips are income, whether or not they’re on your 1099. The IRS added boxes for tips to the 2026 Form 1099-NEC.
- They can count for the tips deduction. The IRS’s list of tipped occupations includes app-based delivery people, so up to $25,000 of tips a year comes off your income for federal income tax, from 2025 through 2028.
- It doesn’t lower self-employment tax, and it can’t be more than your Flex profit. You claim it on Schedule 1-A.
What You Really Make Per Hour on Amazon Flex
Amazon’s $18 to $25 an hour is before gas and before taxes. Here’s what’s left for a driver who works 600 hours, drives 9,000 miles and spends $1,600 on gas, in Texas:
| Amazon’s pay per hour | After gas | After gas and tax, no other income | After gas and tax, with a $40,000 job |
|---|---|---|---|
| $18.00 | $15.33 | $14.43 | $13.87 |
| $22.50 | $19.83 | $18.30 | $17.33 |
| $25.00 | $22.33 | $20.45 | $19.25 |
That still leaves out insurance, repairs and wear on your car, which the mileage rate covers for taxes but you still pay for. My calculator works out your own numbers when you enter your hours and gas.
How Much Tax Will You Owe on Amazon Flex?
Here’s what Amazon Flex taxes look like for a single filer in Texas, which has no state income tax. Each row assumes 2 miles for every $3 of block pay, split evenly across the year, no tips and $300 for a phone:
| Amazon Flex pay | No other income | With a $40,000 W-2 job | With a $90,000 W-2 job |
|---|---|---|---|
| $5,000 | $314 | $513 | $678 |
| $10,000 | $671 | $1,095 | $1,448 |
| $20,000 | $1,385 | $2,259 | $2,987 |
| $30,000 | $2,098 | $3,423 | $4,527 |
With no other income, it’s about 7% of what Amazon pays you, and it’s all self-employment tax. A $40,000 job puts your profit in the 12% bracket, so it’s about 11%. A $90,000 job puts it in the 22% bracket, so it’s about 15%.
So, out of each payout, set aside:
| Your situation | Set aside from each payout |
|---|---|
| Miles logged, no other income | About 7% |
| Miles logged, a job in the 12% bracket | About 12% |
| Miles logged, a job in the 22% bracket | About 15% |
| No mileage log, a job in the 12% bracket | About 23% |
Add your state’s rate on top. The Amazon Flex tax calculator works out yours, state included.
Do You Need to Pay Amazon Flex Taxes Quarterly?
If you drive a lot, probably. The IRS expects estimated tax payments when you’ll owe $1,000 or more when you file. With no other income, self-employment tax alone hits $1,000 at about $7,100 of profit, which is about $14,600 of block pay for a driver like the one above.
With a job, you can raise your W-4 withholding instead, so you don’t have to send payments. The safe harbor that keeps you penalty-free is in how quarterly payments work. If you’re in California, note that the state splits its payments differently.
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Amazon Flex Taxes: How to File
- Download your 1099-NEC from Amazon Tax Central, and add up the year in your mileage log.
- Report your block pay and tips on line 1 of Schedule C. Use what you were paid, even if you didn’t get a form.
- Enter your mileage as car and truck expenses on line 9, with your parking and tolls, and answer the questions about your car in Part IV.
- Add your phone and other costs in Part II, on the lines that fit.
- Pay self-employment tax on Schedule SE, claim any tips deduction on Schedule 1-A and subtract any estimated payments you made. Here’s how reporting side hustle income works, step by step.
I file with TaxAct. I added a Schedule C for Flex first, then entered Amazon’s 1099-NEC and assigned it to that Schedule C, so the IRS sees my pay and my costs together. My AI training work for Outlier went on its own Schedule C, since it’s a different business.
Special Situations
A few situations change your Amazon Flex taxes.
If you also drive for DoorDash, Uber Eats or Instacart
Each app sends its own forms, and all of it goes on your return. If it’s all the same kind of delivery work, it can go on one Schedule C. Count each mile once, even when two apps are open. If you also dash, here’s my DoorDash tax guide.
If you have a W-2 job
Your Flex profit is taxed from the first dollar, at your tax bracket. Raising your W-4 withholding at the job is the easiest way to cover it.
If you use the Amazon Flex Debit Card
Cash back you earn on purchases is generally treated as a discount, not income, so it doesn’t go on your return. Here’s my Amazon Flex Debit Card review.
If you drove at a loss
It’s rare with the mileage deduction, but if your costs are more than your Flex pay, the loss lowers the tax on your other income. Keep your mileage log in case the IRS asks.
If you live outside the US
Amazon Flex runs in other countries with their own tax rules. This guide and my calculator cover US drivers only.
Common Amazon Flex Tax Mistakes
These are the Amazon Flex tax mistakes I’d watch for:
- Not keeping a mileage log. It’s usually your biggest deduction, and it’s up to you to keep one.
- Counting the commute without checking. The drive between home and the station can be commuting.
- Deducting gas on top of the mileage rate. The rate already covers it.
- Leaving out pay that wasn’t on a 1099. All of it is income, form or not.
- Spending every payout. Nothing is withheld, so some of it is tax.
- Not keeping records. Save your 1099, your mileage log and receipts. The IRS says to keep records for 3 years after you file in most cases.
My Verdict: Do You Pay Taxes on Amazon Flex?
Yes, on your profit. Amazon Flex taxes start once your profit passes about $433, and with a job, from the first dollar. Get your 1099-NEC from Amazon Tax Central, report your pay on Schedule C and deduct your miles at 72.5 cents through June 2026 and 76 cents from July, plus parking, tolls and the Flex share of your phone. Keep a mileage log from your first block, because on Flex the miles add up fast. With a log, set aside about 7% of each payout with no other income, or about 12% with a job in the 12% bracket, plus your state’s rate.
The rules every side hustle shares, like quarterly payments, deductions and when you have to file, are in my side hustle taxes guide.
Want more ways to earn? See every platform I’ve used in How I make money online, or read my honest Outlier AI review.
FAQ
Do I have to pay taxes on Amazon Flex?
Yes, on your profit after mileage and other costs. With no other income, you owe nothing until your profit passes about $433. With a job, every dollar of profit is taxed.
Does Amazon Flex send a 1099?
Yes, a Form 1099-NEC. For 2026 pay, Amazon has to send one once it pays you $2,000 or more.
How do I get my Amazon Flex 1099?
Sign in to Amazon Tax Central (taxcentral.amazon.com) with the same email and password as your Flex account, and download it there.
Does Amazon Flex take out taxes?
No. Amazon doesn’t withhold taxes once your tax info is on file, so set money aside from each payout.
How much can I deduct for mileage on Amazon Flex?
72.5 cents a mile for miles you drove from January through June 2026, and 76 cents from July 1. For 2025, it was 70 cents.
Can I deduct the drive to the delivery station?
Maybe not. The IRS treats a trip from home to a regular work location as commuting, unless your home is your principal place of business. Ask a tax pro if those miles are a big part of your total.
Can I deduct gas for Amazon Flex?
Not if you use the mileage rate, since it already covers gas. You can deduct your real car costs instead, but then you need every receipt.
How much should I set aside for Amazon Flex taxes?
About 7% of each payout with no other income, and about 12% with a job in the 12% bracket, if you log your miles. Add your state’s rate.
Are Amazon Flex tips taxed?
Yes. They’re income and owe self-employment tax, but up to $25,000 of them can be deducted for federal income tax from 2025 through 2028.
I’m not a licensed financial advisor or tax professional. This guide is based on Amazon’s Flex pages, IRS rules and my own experience driving Amazon Flex and filing 1099 income. It’s for educational purposes and isn’t tax advice. Tax rules change, so check the links above or talk to a tax professional about your situation. I’m not affiliated with Amazon or TaxAct.
