You cannot afford it and you don’t need the hassle of buying, carrying, and cleaning up after. Furthermore, there is no upside. And for the record, I have never given anything other than a ride and I am currently in my 11th straight week of ONLY 5-star ratings. I recently told a rider that Uber is discouraging handing out water because of a poisoning incident in London.
The difference is that IRS doesn’t give you $5 to buy a case of water, they just allow you not to pay taxes on $5 that you have to earn with your time, sweat and fuel, before you waste your time buying it.
I am a new driver (as of last year) but last year I wrote the water off as a small business expense so…I did not see any expense difference Or later tax credit however you want to put it, lol. Kept receipts and applied it to my small business tax write off/credit
No water. Too bad, so sad. Maybe this summer when DC UberX rates increase to $3.oo base + $1.40/mile + $0.29/minute price of 2014. Not at existing rate of $2.00 base + $1.02/mile + $0.20/minute.
Are you shittin me!? First of all, if you pull up and she’s 16, keep right on driving. Second of all, never get pax anything. Not on your dime, not on Ubers, not on anyone’s unless your profiting from it. You are competing with the city bus. Do not help give the impression that these rates are accompanied with ANY sort of amenities.
Small business tax breaks are for people that have to make ends meet and work two jobs or start a second business. I wrote it off. No problems.
If you want to debate who gets help from the government and gets breaks start a political post, I’m broke, it got wrote off people are happy. Not sure how that’s a bad thing lol. Big businesses write off millions of dollars and you want to gripe about water? Lol
You being broke is the point. You lost money on the water, pure and simple. Riders aren’t going to pay you more for giving them water. Uber isn’t going to pay you more for giving pax water. You spent out of your own broke pocket with zero return and a net loss.
The point is, the water is still costing you, even if you report it as an expense. You’re simply lowering your tax liability, not getting the water for free. Seriously, there is no upside to providing freebies to paxs.
I agree. But that doesn’t place any burden upon me to charge pax’s phones. If the pax got into my car with a nearly dead phone, he/she will get out of my car with a more depleted phone battery. That’s just not my problem to solve.
YES! Ask yourself this question, would a city bus driver (who by the way undoubtedly earns more than you) buy water for their riders? Of course not, for the exact same reasons that you shouldn’t be.
But it is an expense to you. The water isn’t free, after all. Plus, you have the inconvenience and cost of purchasing it, cooling it, transporting it, and cleaning up the empties. There’s just no upside in this scenario, financially speaking.
I will post my tax forms and how it costed me nothing, and it’s legal If audited. But I’m sure negativity will still resume in replies lol. If you want to give out water don’t listen to negative opinions and do it for free if cost is the issue.