Side Hustle Reality Check

Free, no signupIRS tax-return dataEvery figure sourced

The pitch

“Drive whenever you like and make $1,000 a week.”

RayAcross 1,302,820 tax returns, 6 cents of every dollar taken was left as profit. The pitch quotes the dollar.

What the tax returns say

US sole traders report their business on Schedule C, and the IRS adds the returns up by business type. For 2023: 1,302,820 returns under “Taxi, limousine service, and ridesharing service”.

Average takings$33,949a year, per return

Average profit$2,141a year, after costs

Made any profit69%of returns

Profit, if they made one$11,202average

6% of every dollar taken was left as profit, against 18% across all 31,125,909 sole traders.

Averages include part-timers and people who stopped during the year, and the top earners pull them up, so a typical return shows less. Figures from the IRS Statistics of Income, Nonfarm Sole Proprietorships, Table 1, tax year 2023 (published March 2026), business code 485300 per the Schedule C instructions.

What the pitch leaves out

The car: fuel, insurance, repairs, tyres and the value it loses every mile.
The miles driven with nobody in the car, to the pick-up and home again.
Self-employment tax and income tax on the profit.
Hours waiting for a ride, which the hourly figure usually skips.

Test the pitch with your own week

What the app paid you this week

Hours logged in, including waiting

hrs

Miles driven, including empty miles

The pitch, per hour: $22.22
Car, at 76¢ a mile: −$532
Self-employment tax: −$66
What you keep, per hour: $8.93

The car cost uses the IRS standard mileage rate, the government’s own figure for what a business mile costs to run. Income tax comes on top and depends on your other income.

The rules, word for word

The IRS standard mileage rate for business driving in 2026 is 72.5 cents a mile to 30 June and 76 cents from 1 July. Self-employed and business: 76 cents/mile IRS, Standard mileage rates (2026, July 1 to Dec. 31)
Self-employed people also pay self-employment tax on their profit. The self-employment tax rate is 15.3%. IRS, Self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare taxes)

A business that is not paid by the mile: the AI Automation Agency

US data. Tax-return figures from the IRS Statistics of Income, tax year 2023, published March 2026; platform figures from each company’s own filing or help pages. All checked 25 September 2026. The pitches are the common shape of the claim, not quotes from any person or company. This checks the arithmetic of a claim, never the people who make a living this way.

Pick a popular money-making pitch, from rideshare and delivery to Etsy, YouTube and consulting, and see what the published primary data says people really keep: the IRS’s own count of US tax returns for that line of work, the platform’s own filings and fee rules, and the costs the pitch leaves out. Then test the pitch with your own numbers.

Questions

How much do rideshare drivers really make?

According to the IRS’s count of 2023 tax returns, the 1.3 million US sole traders filing under taxi, limousine and ridesharing service took in about $33,900 each on average and were left with about $2,100 of profit after costs. About 69% made any profit at all. Averages include part-timers, so treat them as a floor for full-timers and a warning about costs.

Where do the numbers come from?

Tax-return figures come from the IRS Statistics of Income tables for sole proprietorships, tax year 2023, published in March 2026. Etsy figures come from Etsy’s own 2025 annual report to the SEC. YouTube’s thresholds and revenue shares come from YouTube’s own help pages. Each figure links to its source.

Is this saying these side hustles are scams?

No. Plenty of people earn well from each of them. It says the usual pitch is incomplete: it quotes what comes in, not what is left after the car, the fees, the materials and the tax. The tool checks the arithmetic of the claim, not the people who make a living this way.

Why is it US data only?

Because the IRS publishes tax-return totals for detailed business types, including ridesharing and couriers, which few tax authorities do. The fee rules apply wherever the platforms operate.

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