Deactivation, and the records you lose with it
Deactivation is discussed as an income problem. It is also a records problem, and that half is the one nobody prepares for.
When account access ends, the in-app earnings history and any trip records generally go with it. You are still responsible for reporting the income for the year, and the material that would have supported your figures may no longer be retrievable.
What survives is whatever you exported, plus your bank statements.
So the preparation is one habit: export the earnings summaries once a year, and after any unusual period. Export is only available while you have access, which is a sentence worth sitting with.
Two practical details that get overlooked:
Keep an email address and a postal address you still control on the account. Tax forms are generally still issued for income paid, and delivery depends on contact details you may no longer be able to update.
Keep the mileage log outside the platform. A log that only ever existed inside an account you can lose is a log you can lose. That is one of the strongest practical arguments for an independent tracker with a real export.
What to export, and when
Once a year in January, and after any period you would struggle to reconstruct:
1. Annual earnings summary, per platform.
2. Weekly or monthly breakdowns, if available.
3. Delivery or trip history, if it can be exported.
4. Any tax documents already issued.
5. A screenshot of the account details and support contact route.Save them as files, in a folder named for the tax year, in two places. What records to keep and for how long.
"The app has it" is only true while the app has you.
If it has already happened
Reconstruct, in this order, and keep evidence of the method:
1. Bank deposits. The strongest available source. Dates and amounts, and platform names usually visible in the descriptions.
2. Your own mileage log, if you kept one. This is the moment it pays for itself twice: once as the deduction, once as the only per-day record of when you worked.
3. Any emails or notifications the platform sent: weekly summaries, payment notices, receipts.
4. Phone location history, for the days you know you drove.
5. Messages and photos that place you somewhere at a time.
Write down what you used and how you arrived at the figures, at the time you do it. A documented reconstruction is materially stronger than an estimate, and it is the difference between a considered position and a guess. What to do if you did not track your miles. · What happens if the IRS questions your mileage.
What does not change
The income is reportable. Whether or not you can still see it in an app, whether or not a form arrives, whether or not the deactivation was fair.
The deductions still apply. Mileage, phone, parking, tolls, equipment. Schedule C for gig drivers.
The forms may still arrive, so check whatever portal the platform uses and keep your contact details current. If a form does not arrive, your own totals are the reference. What to do if your 1099 is wrong.
The wider point
This is the same argument as the phone one, in a different costume: records that live only in a system somebody else controls are records you hold at their discretion.
That applies to a platform account, and it applies to a mileage tracker whose subscription lapses, and it applies to a phone that gets stolen. The fix in all three cases is an annual export to a file you keep.
Twenty minutes, once a year. It is the cheapest insurance available in this work and it is the one most drivers only discover the value of afterwards.
The end-of-year checklist. · What a log has to contain. · The four numbers every gig driver should know.
This page describes record-keeping, not employment law. Whether a deactivation was correct, and what recourse exists, varies by platform and by jurisdiction and is a separate question from the tax one.
More in this section
- Walmart Spark: mileage, trip types, and what an offer really pays
- W-2 job plus gig driving: which miles count, and where the money goes on the return
- Unpaid miles are still deductible
- Which gig driving miles are actually deductible?
- Uber Eats mileage deduction in 2026
- Uber and Lyft mileage deduction in 2026
About MileTruth
MileTruth is an iOS app from Baker Ventures LLC that tracks deductible business mileage for gig and delivery drivers and shows true net pay: what is left after mileage, fuel and self-employment tax, not what the platform showed you at acceptance. It is built for people driving several platforms in the same shift, and for anyone who needs a mileage log that would hold up if the IRS asked for it. The app is in development.
Everything on this site is free and needs no account: the mileage deduction calculator, the per-platform pay breakdowns, and the answers, each one linked to the IRS publication or platform document it came from. MileTruth publishes the source for every number, including the 2026 split-year standard mileage rate, because a deduction you cannot substantiate is not a deduction.
Questions and answers
What happens to your earnings history if a delivery platform deactivates you?
Access to the app typically ends, which means the in-app earnings history and any trip records go with it. You are still responsible for reporting the income, and the records that would have supported your figures may no longer be retrievable.
Will I still get a 1099 if I am deactivated?
Platforms generally still issue tax forms for the income paid during the year, though delivery depends on your contact details being current and your ability to access whatever portal they use. That is a reason to keep an address and email you still control on the account.
What should I export before anything happens?
Annual and weekly earnings summaries, trip or delivery history if it is exportable, and your account details. Do it once a year and after any significant period, because export is only available while you have access.
What if I have already lost access?
Reconstruct from bank deposits, which show the amounts and dates, then from your own mileage log, messages and location history. Keep a note of the method you used, because a documented reconstruction is much stronger than an undocumented estimate.
Does deactivation change what I owe?
No. Income earned is reportable whether or not you can still see it in an app, and deductions still apply. What changes is how easy it is to substantiate either.
How does this affect the mileage deduction?
The mileage log is yours if you kept it outside the platform, which is one of the strongest arguments for a tracker and an annual export. A log that only ever existed inside a platform account is a log you can lose with the account.
MileTruth. “Deactivation, and the records you lose with it.” Baker Ventures LLC, September 7, 2026. https://miletruth.bakerventuresstudio.com/answers/what-happens-to-your-records-if-you-are-deactivated/