Uber and Lyft don't send you a W-2. As an independent contractor, you get a 1099, and which kind you get, and what it actually reports, trips up a lot of drivers at tax time. This is general information, not tax advice. Confirm anything specific to your situation with a tax professional.
The two forms you might see
1099-K reports the gross amount processed through the platform, generally the total a rider paid, before the platform's fees and commissions come out. This is important: the number on a 1099-K is usually higher than what actually landed in your bank account, because it hasn't been reduced by the fees the platform charged you.
1099-NEC reports nonemployee compensation, things like referral bonuses or incentive payments that aren't part of the fare itself.
Depending on your platform, your state, and how much you earned, you might receive one, both, or in some cases neither if you're below a reporting threshold. Not receiving a form doesn't mean the income isn't taxable; all your driving income is reportable regardless of whether a 1099 shows up.
Why the 1099-K number doesn't match your bank account
This is the single most common point of confusion. If your 1099-K shows $30,000 and you know you didn't take home anywhere close to that, you're not wrong: the platform's fees, and in some cases other deductions taken before payout, are included in that gross figure. Your actual take-home pay is lower, and your deductible expenses (mileage, platform fees, and everything covered in DriveLens's guide to rideshare tax deductions) are what bring your taxable income back down to something closer to reality.
Reconciling it against your own records
The right way to handle this is to treat the 1099 as one data point, not the whole picture. Your own records, shift totals, individual ride payouts, and expense logs, are what actually determine your taxable income once deductions are applied. If a 1099 arrives with a number that doesn't match what you tracked yourself, don't just take the form's number at face value or panic that you're missing income. Reconcile it: check what fees or adjustments account for the gap, and keep your own documentation to support the numbers you actually report.
This is exactly why keeping your own shift and earnings history matters, independent of whatever the platform sends you. DriveLens keeps that history automatically, so you have your own record to check a 1099 against instead of trusting a single form to tell the whole story.