Tax Deductions for Food Delivery Drivers (DoorDash, Uber Eats, SkipTheDishes) in Canada

A T2125 tax guide for self-employed Canadian food delivery couriers: vehicle and bike costs, phone and bags, platform fees, and why the GST/HST rules differ from rideshare (no mandatory registration from the first dollar).

If you deliver food through DoorDash, Uber Eats, SkipTheDishes, or any similar app, the CRA treats you as carrying on a business in the platform economy, not as an employee of the app. You report on Form T2125 (Statement of Business or Professional Activities) filed with your personal T1 return: every delivery payout and tip as gross income, then your business expenses against it, with net income flowing to line 13500. No tax is withheld from a platform payout, so what you keep depends on tracking your costs. Your vehicle or bike is the core asset, and one rule sets food couriers apart from rideshare drivers: you are not automatically required to register for GST/HST from your first dollar.

You Are Self-Employed

The platform does not employ you. You are an independent contractor running a sole proprietorship:

You report income and expenses on the T2125, filed with your personal T1 return, with net income on line 13500
You report your gross earnings first (delivery fees plus tips, incentives, and bonuses, all taxable business income), then deduct the platform's fees and your costs against them, never just the net deposit
No tax is withheld, so you set money aside for income tax and CPP yourself. As a self-employed person you pay both halves of CPP, 11.9% combined for 2025, on your net business income up to the $71,300 ceiling, plus CPP2 at 8% on income between $71,300 and $81,200. See CPP contributions when self-employed
Your filing deadline is June 15, but any balance owing is due April 30, so interest runs from May 1. See self-employed tax deadlines
Once your net tax owing tops $3,000 (in the current year and either of the two prior years), the CRA expects quarterly instalments

If you are setting up the business side for the first time, what you can claim on the T2125 and reporting business income on the T2125 cover the groundwork.

Report Gross Earnings, Then Deduct the Platform's Cut

The apps may withhold or net out service fees before depositing your share, and your tips are income too. You report the gross amount you earned (delivery pay plus tips, incentives, and bonuses) as business income, then claim the platform's fees as a deductible expense.

Item	Where it goes
Delivery pay, tips, incentives, and bonuses	Gross business income
Platform service or partner fees withheld by the app	Management and administration fees, line 8871

Netting the two understates both your income and your expenses and is a classic trigger for a CRA review. Report them separately, using the annual earnings summary the app provides.

If You Drive: Vehicle Operating Costs (Your Biggest Deduction)

For drivers the car is the largest deduction, with two pools that both use the same business-use percentage from your logbook: day-to-day running costs on line 9281, and depreciation through CCA on line 9936.

Cost	Notes
Fuel and oil	Keep receipts or card statements
Maintenance and repairs	Oil changes, tires, brakes
Insurance	Your annual premium (tell your insurer you deliver)
Licence and registration	Annual provincial plate and registration fees
Interest on a car loan / lease payments	Capped for a passenger vehicle (per-day interest limit, monthly lease limit)

Multiply each cost by your business-use percentage, which is business kilometres divided by total kilometres in the year, from a logbook (Chart A on the T2125). A kilometre counts only when you are logged in and earning: heading to a restaurant or carrying an order. The drive from home to your start zone before you go online is generally personal, and commuting never counts. Parking and tolls paid while actively delivering are deductible, kept separate from the per-kilometre pool. See vehicle expense tracking for the self-employed.

The car through CCA

You cannot expense the purchase price in the year you buy the car. It is a capital asset deducted over time as CCA on line 9936, prorated by business use:

Vehicle	CCA class	Cost cap (2025)
Car costing $38,000 or less before tax	Class 10 (30%)	No per-vehicle cap
Car costing more than $38,000	Class 10.1 (30%)	Capital cost capped at $38,000 plus tax
Eligible zero-emission vehicle	Class 54 (30%)	Capped at $61,000 plus tax, possible enhanced first-year deduction

The mechanics of declining-balance CCA are in the capital cost allowance guide.

If You Deliver by Bike, E-Bike, or Scooter

City couriers often work by bicycle, e-bike, or scooter, and the costs are still deductible at the business-use share:

A bicycle, e-bike, or scooter used for the business is a capital asset, generally CCA Class 8 (20%), prorated for any personal use
Repairs, tune-ups, tires, batteries, and charging are deductible at the business-use portion
A transit pass used for deliveries can be deductible at the business-use share, but a pass you also use to commute is mixed and must be apportioned

A bike-based courier has no fuel or plate costs, so the phone, equipment, and gear below become a larger share of total deductions.

Phone, Bags, and Gear

Cost	How to claim it
Monthly phone plan and data	Telephone and utilities, line 9220, at the business-use percentage
The phone handset, if capitalized	Capital asset, CCA Class 50 (55%)
Insulated/thermal delivery bags, drink carriers, phone mount, cleaning supplies	Supplies, line 8811
Cold-weather delivery gear specific to the work	Supplies, business-use portion

The app runs on your phone, so the business-use portion of the plan and data is deductible on line 9220; the device itself is a Class 50 capital asset. Apportion for personal use rather than claiming 100%. See phone, internet, and utility deductions.

Meals Are Not Deductible

Buying your own food during a shift is a personal expense, not a business meal, and the CRA routinely disallows it. The 50% meals-and-entertainment rule is for genuinely business-related meals (entertaining a client, for example), which almost never applies to a delivery courier. Do not claim everyday food on the road.

GST/HST: The Big Difference From Rideshare

This is the rule food couriers most often get wrong by copying rideshare advice. Commercial ride-sharing drivers (Uber, Lyft) must register for GST/HST from their first fare, with no small-supplier threshold, because they carry passengers. Food delivery is different. A courier delivering goods (food) is not caught by that special taxi/ride-sharing rule, so you follow the normal small-supplier rules: you only have to register for GST/HST once your worldwide taxable revenue exceeds $30,000 in a single calendar quarter or over the previous four consecutive calendar quarters.

What that means in practice:

Below $30,000, you are a small supplier and are not required to register or charge GST/HST on your delivery services. Most part-time couriers stay under this.
You may still register voluntarily to claim input tax credits on the GST/HST you pay on fuel, repairs, the vehicle, and your phone, though for a low-revenue courier the paperwork often is not worth it.
Once you cross $30,000, registration becomes mandatory, like any other business. Track the rolling four-quarter total so you catch the moment you cross.
If you also drive rideshare, that passenger income is under the mandatory-from-first-dollar rule even though your delivery income is not, so a driver doing both typically has to register.

Because this depends on your numbers, confirm your own situation, but the headline is clear: food delivery does not trigger mandatory GST/HST registration the way rideshare does. For how credits work once you register, see GST/HST input tax credits.

Common Mistakes Food Delivery Drivers Make

Copying the rideshare GST rule. Food delivery is not subject to mandatory registration from the first dollar; the normal $30,000 small-supplier threshold applies.
Reporting only the net deposit. Report gross earnings (pay plus tips, incentives, bonuses) and deduct platform fees separately on line 8871.
Forgetting tips and incentives are taxable business income.
Keeping no mileage logbook. Vehicle operating costs and CCA are deductible only for the business-use percentage; without a logbook the whole claim is vulnerable.
Counting personal and commuting kilometres as business. Only kilometres while logged in and earning count.
Expensing the full cost of the car in one year instead of claiming CCA prorated for business use, and ignoring the Class 10.1 $38,000 cap.
Claiming 100% of the phone, data, or insurance instead of the business-use share.
Claiming everyday shift meals. They are personal and not deductible.
Forgetting both halves of CPP on net income, then being surprised by an April 30 balance.
Not telling your auto insurer you deliver, which is a coverage problem rather than a tax one, but worth fixing before a claim is denied.

What Good Records Look Like

For each tax year you should have your platform earnings summaries showing gross pay, tips, and fees withheld; a mileage logbook with trip dates, purposes, and kilometres plus odometer readings at the start and end of the year (or distance records if you deliver by bike); receipts for fuel, maintenance, insurance, parking, tolls, bags, and gear; your vehicle or bike purchase documents for CCA; your phone bills; and, if you registered, your GST/HST returns. Keep everything for six years from the end of the tax year.

Sources

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