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Taxes for DoorDash and Instacart drivers in Hawaii: the three to know

Delivering for DoorDash or Instacart in Hawaii brings three taxes: federal income tax with self-employment tax, Hawaii income tax, and Hawaii’s General Excise Tax, which the apps’ own tax pages don’t mention. Here’s what each one is and when it’s due, from the IRS’s, the apps’ and the Department of Taxation’s own pages.

General information from the IRS’s, DoorDash’s, Instacart’s and the Department of Taxation’s own pages, not advice for your situation. Ask a tax professional about your own taxes.

The three at a glance

Tax	Taxed on	The return
Federal income tax and self-employment taxto the IRS	Your profit: what you earned, less business expenses	Form 1040, with Schedules C and SE, by April 15
Hawaii income taxto the Department of Taxation	Your Hawaii income, your delivery profit included	Form N‑11 (residents), by April 20
General Excise Tax (GET)to the Department of Taxation	Your gross income from deliveries: nothing comes off for expenses	Forms G‑45 through the year, and G‑49 by April 20

Dates are for a calendar year’s return, due the next spring; one on a weekend or holiday moves to the next business day. As an independent contractor, nothing is taken out of your pay for any of the three, so each can mean payments during the year.

1. Federal income tax and self-employment tax

The IRS calls delivering for an app “gig work”. Done as an independent contractor, it makes you self-employed. From the IRS’s page on gig work:

All of it is income. Gig income must be reported even if no Form 1099 shows it, and whether it’s paid through the app or in cash.
A return from $400. You must file one if your net earnings from self-employment are $400 or more.
Self-employment tax is Social Security and Medicare for the self-employed. Its rate is 15.3%: 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare.
The forms: Form 1040, with Schedule C for your business’s profit or loss and Schedule SE for the self-employment tax. It’s due April 15.
Expenses lower it. Deducting certain business expenses lowers what you owe, so the IRS says to keep your records and receipts through the year. Its Publication 463 covers car expenses.
Estimated tax. If you expect to owe $1,000 or more when you file, you generally pay estimated tax four times a year, on Form 1040-ES: April 15, June 15, September 15 and January 15.

What the apps say about it, on their own pages:

DoorDash says it “does not automatically withhold taxes”, and that as an independent contractor you are “responsible for keeping track of your earnings and accurately reporting them in tax filings”. Once your earnings for the year pass its reporting threshold, it sends a Form 1099-NEC through Stripe, available in the Dasher app by January 31. Its Dasher Guide to Taxes has the details, and says DoorDash can’t give tax advice.
Instacart’s shopper agreement says shoppers are independent contractors, not employees “for any purpose whatsoever, including purposes relating to taxes”, and are “responsible for the payment and remittance of all taxes”. Its help center explains the tax forms it sends.

2. Hawaii income tax

From the instructions for Form N-11, the return for Hawaii residents:

The return: Form N-11, due April 20. Filing is extended six months automatically, but the tax is still due April 20.
Estimated tax: self-employment income isn’t subject to withholding, so you may have to pay during the year. In most cases you must if you expect to owe at least $500 after withholding and credits, and those will cover less than 60% of this year’s tax or 100% of last year’s, whichever is smaller.
When: April 20, June 20, September 20 and January 20, each with Form N-200V, or online at Hawaii Tax Online.

3. The General Excise Tax

Hawaii’s tax on doing business, and the one the apps’ tax pages leave out. It isn’t an income tax: it’s owed on gross income, so nothing comes off for gas, the car or your phone. The Department’s Tax Information Release 2019-03 lists “food delivery service marketplaces” among the marketplace facilitators, which pay GET on what the customer pays; what a driver earns through one is a sale at wholesale, taxed at 0.5%. In its news release of March 3, 2026, the Department said rideshare drivers must file returns and pay GET on their gross income, tips included, and that drivers for food delivery service marketplaces “are treated similarly”. GETdone taxes delivery pay at 0.5% and tips and promotions at 4.5%, as Tax Information Release 2025-01 sets out for rideshare tips. You need a GE license, and you file G-45s through the year and a G-49 after it.

How they differ

Expenses lower your federal and Hawaii income taxes. They don’t lower your GET, which is on what you take in.
The calendars overlap. April 20 brings both the Hawaii income tax return and the year’s G-49, and January 20 a Hawaii estimated payment and, for drivers who file twice a year, the July to December G-45.
Where you file: the federal return with the IRS; both Hawaii taxes on Hawaii Tax Online.

Where GETdone fits

GETdone works out your General Excise Tax. You type in what DoorDash or Instacart paid you for each return’s months, with the tips and promotions, from the earnings screens in their apps; if you also drive for Uber, it reads Uber’s documents. It doesn’t work out income taxes. Its summary for your tax professional lists your income by month, which they can use for the income taxes too. For your income taxes, ask a tax professional, or start at the pages listed below.

Start with the one only Hawaii has

Type in what the apps paid you, and GETdone works out your GET for every period, free. Nothing is uploaded.

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Sources

Read on October 8, 2026. The IRS’s and the Department’s pages are the final word: check them, and your tax professional, before you file.

This guide sets out what the IRS, the apps and the Department of Taxation say, in plain words. It isn’t tax or legal advice, and GETdone isn’t affiliated with DoorDash, Instacart, Uber, Lyft, HoloHolo, the IRS or the State of Hawaii.