The BrewGig blog
Practical records-keeping for every kind of gig work: mileage logs that hold up, invoices that get paid, income tracked across platforms, and the deductions the records earn you. No hype, no invented numbers.
How to keep a mileage log that survives an audit
What tax auditors actually ask a mileage log for — contemporaneous records, business purpose, endpoints and routes — and the habits that keep a log defensible.
· 5 min read
Automatic vs manual mileage tracking: what actually gets logged
Manual mileage logs shrink because remembering is the failure point. What automatic GPS tracking records, how park-anchoring keeps trips honest, and what the battery myth gets wrong.
· 5 min read
Business, commuting or personal? Classifying gig-work drives correctly
The three categories every mileage system expects, why commuting is not business driving, and how to classify multi-app days and mixed trips without guesswork.
· 5 min read
Gig worker taxes 101: deductions you’re probably leaving on the table
How deductions actually reduce a gig worker’s tax bill, why mileage is usually the biggest one, and the phone, supplies and platform fees that commonly go unclaimed.
· 5 min read
The two-minute end-of-shift routine that keeps your records clean
A concrete end-of-shift habit for gig workers: swipe the trip queue, add earnings and tips while you remember them, and back it with a weekly export.
· 4 min read
How to invoice as a freelancer: what every invoice needs (and what gets you paid faster)
The fields an invoice must carry before anyone can approve it, why numbering and dates do the heavy lifting, and the habits that shorten the wait between sending and being paid.
· 5 min read
Rideshare vs delivery vs freelance: how your tax picture differs
Self-employment tax fundamentals are shared, but what dominates the numbers differs: vehicle costs for drivers, equipment and invoicing for freelancers, and mixed cases in between.
· 5 min read
Tracking income across five gig apps without losing your mind
Why per-app dashboards can never show your real income, what a single cross-platform ledger changes, and the per-job fields that make the combined numbers mean something.
· 5 min read
What counts as a business expense when you work for yourself
The general test tax systems apply to business expenses, the categories gig workers use most, how mixed-use costs are apportioned, and the records that make a claim real.
· 5 min read
Receipts: why photos beat shoeboxes, and how long to keep them
Why a photo taken at the till beats a shoebox of fading paper, what tax authorities generally require of digital copies, and how long receipt records need to survive.
· 4 min read
Your effective hourly rate: the number gig apps hide from you
What an effective hourly rate is, why platform dashboards never show it, which costs belong in the calculation, and how to use the result to choose better work.
· 5 min read
Separating business and personal finances when you’re a one-person operation
Why financial separation matters even for a sole operator, whether you need a business bank account, handling mixed purchases, and paying yourself on purpose.
· 4 min read
Setting an earnings goal you will actually hit (pacing beats wishing)
Why annual earnings goals fail without pacing, how to set a target from your own trailing records instead of a round number, and what to do in the weeks you fall behind.
· 4 min read
Quarterly-style tax planning for gig workers: never be surprised in April
Why self-employed tax arrives as a shock, how a quarterly checkpoint keeps you ahead of it, and the short review that makes filing season an export instead of an emergency.
· 5 min read
End of tax year checklist for the self-employed
A jurisdiction-neutral end-of-year routine: reconcile income across platforms, sweep for missed deductions, archive the evidence, and set up an easier next year.
· 5 min read
DoorDash taxes: what a driver can actually claim
What a DoorDash driver can write off, why mileage is almost always the largest deduction, the two taxes a self-employed driver owes, and where every claim lands on Schedule C.
· 6 min read
Amazon Flex and Spark Driver: what a block means at tax time
Block-based delivery work raises one question per-order work does not: do the miles to the station count? How Flex and Spark blocks are taxed, which miles qualify, and how to record a block cleanly.
· 5 min read
Instacart and Shipt: the costs a shopper can claim
Shopping is not just driving. Which costs a self-employed grocery shopper can claim, how the store-to-customer miles are treated, why in-store time is not a deduction, and how tips and order money complicate the income side.
· 5 min read
You didn’t get a 1099. Do you still owe tax?
No 1099 from your delivery app does not mean no tax. What the 1099-NEC and 1099-K actually are, why a form might never arrive, why your own record is the authoritative one, and what to do when the numbers disagree.
· 5 min read
Multi-apping: one set of records across three apps
Running DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub at once means one car, one tax return and three statements. Which app a shared mile belongs to, how to keep one continuous mileage log, and how to reconcile three income figures into one.
· 5 min read
Uber and Lyft: the deductions rideshare drivers miss
Mileage is the obvious deduction. The commissions withheld before payout, the unreimbursed tolls, the mount, the water and the car wash are the ones that quietly go unclaimed — and the business-use test each has to pass.
· 6 min read
Are the miles between rides deductible?
The three phases of a rideshare driver’s time, which of them produce business miles, why waiting with the app on is treated differently from driving home, and why the log has to tell them apart at the time.
· 5 min read
Your Uber tax summary and your 1099 disagree. Which one do I use?
Why a rideshare tax summary and the 1099 filed to the IRS almost never match, which number belongs on Schedule C, and how to reconcile the two so the gap becomes deductions rather than a mystery.
· 5 min read
Driving for Uber in the UK: what HMRC expects
Registering as self-employed, getting a UTR, filing Self Assessment, choosing between the mileage allowance and actual running costs, and the private hire licensing costs that are deductible.
· 6 min read
Bolt and FREENOW: your first Self Assessment
A first-timer’s walkthrough of the UK Self Assessment return for private hire drivers — the tax year’s shape, the deadlines, what the return asks for, what to have ready, and driving alongside a PAYE job.
· 6 min read
Deliveroo rider tax: do you pay it, and how do you file?
Deliveroo riders are self-employed, so the tax is yours to declare: when to register with HMRC, what the Self Assessment return contains, and what a rider on a bike can claim versus one in a car.
· 6 min read
Just Eat couriers and Self Assessment: what you file depends on how you were taken on
Delivery work arranged through a courier partner is taxed differently from straightforward self-employment. How to tell which you are, what each one means you file, and the records that serve both.
· 5 min read
Uber Eats in the UK: what to record as you go
The end-of-shift habit for UK couriers: what to capture while you remember it, why the mileage log is the one part you cannot rebuild later, and how the 6 April tax year decides which shifts land in which return.
· 6 min read
Evri and parcel rounds: keeping records on a self-employed round
A parcel round is a different tax shape from food delivery: a depot, a fixed route, a van that may be hired. What to record on the depot drive, the round itself and the vehicle, and why repetition makes an automatic log more valuable.
· 6 min read
Should you claim mileage or your actual running costs?
The UK vehicle-expense decision for couriers and drivers: how the simplified mileage basis compares with claiming actual costs and a business-use fraction, what each one requires you to have kept, and why the choice is sticky for a vehicle.
· 6 min read
Do I need to track my miles as a delivery driver?
Yes — because business mileage is usually worth more than every other deduction a driver has combined, and it is the only one that cannot be rebuilt after the fact.
· 5 min read
Where do the orders actually come from?
Delivery demand clusters around kitchen and store density, time of day, weather and events — and the map of where orders start is not the map of where tips are earned.
· 5 min read
Why doesn’t my mileage app match my odometer?
A GPS tracker sums straight lines between position fixes; an odometer counts wheel rotations. Here is where the gap comes from, which direction is safe for a tax record, and what to do when the two disagree badly.
· 5 min read
Does the car you drive change what you keep?
Cost per mile is the number that decides it. Why the standard mileage deduction is the same whatever you drive, what that implies for a cheap car versus an expensive one, and how a delivery duty cycle punishes the wrong vehicle.
· 5 min read
How to change phone or mileage app without losing your records
Export before you switch, not after. Why the mileage log is the hardest record to rebuild, how to match old data to new without double-counting, and what to check once the move is done.
· 5 min read