Tax help for landscapers and lawn care crews
You cut, plant, haul, and bill. We prepare the return, sort out the equipment write offs, and keep the paperwork that comes with a crew straight.
Nothing is due today. Personal returns start at $250.
Landscaping money moves in two directions at the same time. Payments come in from a route of small customers, in cash, checks, and apps, and money goes right back out for equipment, fuel, mulch, dump fees, and the help you bring on for the busy months. A return that gets this trade right has to sort out what is a tool, what is a customer's material, and who on your crew belongs on a 1099.
What landscapers can usually deduct
Ordinary and necessary costs of your work. Rules and dollar limits change year to year, so we confirm every one of these against the current year when we prepare your return.
Mowers and power equipment
Zero turn and walk behind mowers, string trimmers, backpack blowers, hedge trimmers, chainsaws, aerators, sod cutters, and stump grinders. Larger machines go on a depreciation schedule, and there are elections that can let you take much or all of the cost in the year you put the machine to work.
Financing does not change what you deduct. You write off the cost of the machine on the schedule you elect, not the monthly payment, and the interest portion of the loan is a separate deduction. The elections are not interchangeable: one of them is capped by your business income and cannot create a loss, and another one is not, so which fits depends on your year.
Trailers and equipment racks
Open and enclosed trailers, ramps, trimmer and blower racks, locking toolboxes, and water tanks. These are assets, so we set them up with the date you started using them. Hitch and wiring work done on the truck itself follows the vehicle rules instead.
When you sell or trade a trailer, truck, or mower you already wrote off, some or all of what you get back is taxable. Tell us what left the fleet, not only what came in.
Business miles in your truck
Driving between customers, to the supply yard, to the dump, and to the dealer for parts. You can use the IRS standard mileage rate for the year or your actual truck costs. What you choose in the first year the truck goes into service affects whether you can switch later, so tell us when the truck went to work.
The drive from your house to the first yard of the day is normally commuting and is not deductible. That changes only when your home qualifies as the principal place of business, which takes more than parking the trailer in the driveway. Either way you need a log with dates, destinations, business purpose, and mileage.
Fuel for mowers and equipment
Gasoline and diesel burned in mowers, blowers, and trimmers, plus the two cycle mix you buy by the case. Keep these receipts apart from truck fuel.
If you use the standard mileage rate for the truck, truck gas is already inside that rate and cannot be deducted again. Equipment fuel is separate. Federal excise tax paid on gasoline used off the highway in your business can sometimes be claimed as a fuel tax credit when you tracked the gallons, so save those receipts and we will check whether it applies to you.
Mulch, sod, plants, and stone
Mulch, topsoil, sod, seed, trees and shrubs, pavers, gravel, edging, landscape fabric, irrigation heads and pipe, fertilizer, and chemicals bought for a job.
When a customer pays you back for material, that reimbursement is income. Report the full amount the customer paid you and deduct what the material cost. Netting the two together understates your gross receipts and makes the return hard to defend.
Blades, belts, and trimmer line
Blades and blade sharpening, belts, spark plugs, air filters, chains and bar oil, trimmer line, tires, deck repairs, and hand tools like rakes, shovels, and pruners. These are running costs rather than assets.
Small tools that last more than a year are technically capital items, but an election exists that lets you expense low cost purchases right away. It depends on having a written policy in place before the year starts and on making the election on the return, so tell us how you buy small tools.
Dump and disposal fees
Landfill and transfer station tipping fees, green waste and yard waste dumping, debris hauling, and the roll off container you rent for a tear out or a big clean up.
Save the scale tickets. Dump fees get paid at a window in cash or on a card, and they are the easiest real expense in this trade to lose.
Crew, day labor, and subs
What you pay helpers, seasonal crew, and specialty subs such as tree removal, irrigation techs, and licensed sprayers. Payroll taxes and payroll service fees belong here too when you run a real payroll.
Get a signed Form W-9 before the first payment, not in January. Unincorporated helpers you pay above the annual reporting threshold need a Form 1099-NEC. If you set the hours, supply the equipment, and direct how the work gets done, that person is likely an employee who belongs on payroll, and calling them a sub does not change it.
Applicator licenses and training
Pesticide and herbicide applicator licensing, fertilizer certification, continuing education hours, state contractor registration, local business tax receipts, and trade association dues.
Training that keeps or improves a license you already hold is treated differently from training that qualifies you for a brand new line of work. Tell us which one a course was.
Liability and equipment insurance
General liability, commercial auto on the truck, inland marine coverage for mowers and the trailer, any bond your city requires, and workers compensation for your crew.
Your own health insurance is not a business expense line for a sole proprietor. It is handled in a different place on the return when you qualify, so send us the premiums even though they end up somewhere else.
Truck lettering and yard signs
Lettering or a wrap on the truck and trailer, lawn signs staked at a finished job, door hangers, shirts printed with your business name, your website, and paid ads for spring signups.
The wrap is advertising. The truck underneath it is still a vehicle and follows the vehicle rules.
Safety gear and work boots
Chainsaw chaps, hearing protection, safety glasses and face shields, a respirator for spraying, cut resistant gloves, steel toe boots, and high visibility vests for road frontage work.
Clothing counts only when it is not suitable for everyday wear. Chaps, a respirator, hearing protection, and steel toe boots generally qualify. The jeans, plain t shirts, and sneakers you wear on the route do not, even though you only wear them for work and they get destroyed.
A one person landscaping business files on Schedule C, and that is where many stay for years. The conversation about an LLC taxed as an S corporation comes up when profit is steady and large enough that self employment tax on all of it stings, or when you add employees, take on a partner, or start bidding commercial work that asks for an entity.
What to bring us
You do not need all of it to start. Send what you have and your checklist shows what is still open.
- Any Form 1099-NEC or Form 1099-K you received from property managers, HOAs, builders, or payment apps
- Your own total of what customers paid you for the year, including cash, checks, Zelle, Venmo, and Cash App
- All business bank and credit card statements for the full year, January through December
- Purchase invoices for equipment, trailers, and trucks showing the date and price, plus anything you sold or traded in
- Financing paperwork for equipment and vehicles, including the year end interest statement
- Your mileage log or app export, with the odometer reading at the start and the end of the year
- Supplier invoices for mulch, sod, plants, irrigation parts, fertilizer, and chemicals
- Fuel receipts, kept separate for the truck and for mowers and other off road equipment
- A signed Form W-9 for every helper or sub you paid, with the total you paid each one
- Insurance premiums, license and certification renewals, dump receipts, and rent for a shop or storage lot
What trips people up
Paying the crew in cash with nothing written down.
Collect a signed Form W-9 before anyone's first day and pay by check or transfer when you can. A payment you cannot document is a payment you cannot defend, and the penalty for missed information returns applies per form.
Deducting the whole truck or mower payment.
On a loan, the payment is part interest and part principal, and principal is not an expense. Deduct the interest, then deduct the equipment itself through depreciation or a write off election. A true lease works differently, so tell us whether you bought or leased.
Writing off lunch on the route.
Your own lunch between yards is personal. Meals count only in specific situations, such as an out of town job with an overnight stay, and even then only part of the cost is deductible. Keep those receipts in their own pile so we can test them.
Running the business and the house through one account.
Open a separate business checking account and card and put every job payment and supply run through it. It is the simplest bookkeeping step you can take, and it is what turns a shoebox into a return that holds up.
Skipping estimated payments during the busy season.
Self employment tax lands on top of income tax and catches people in their first strong year. We calculate quarterly estimates so the spring bill is not a shock and so you have a real chance to avoid an underpayment penalty on top of it.
What it costs
Our published list, the same one everyone sees. Prices marked "from" are starting points, and your exact number is confirmed in writing before any work begins.
$0 is due today. You pay when you sign, or you can have your fee come out of your refund, so it can be $0 out of pocket.
Questions we get from your trade
Most of my customers pay cash or Zelle. Do I still have to report it?+
Yes. Business income is reportable whether or not anyone sends you a form. Some payment apps issue a Form 1099-K and the IRS gets a copy, while cash, checks, and certain bank to bank transfers produce no form at all. That does not make them any less reportable. What belongs on the return is your own total of what customers paid you, not only the amounts that happened to show up on paper.
Do I have to send 1099s to the guys who help me?+
If you pay an unincorporated helper or sub for services and the year's total crosses the reporting threshold, yes, that person gets a Form 1099-NEC and it is due early in the following year. Collect a Form W-9 up front so you are not chasing a taxpayer number in January. Payments you made by credit card or through a payment app are reported by the processor rather than by you, so those come off your list. And if someone works only for you, on your schedule, with your equipment, the bigger question is whether they should be on payroll instead.
Can I write off a new mower all in one year?+
Sometimes. There are elections that can let you deduct much or all of the cost of equipment in the year you place it in service instead of spreading it across several years. Which one fits depends on your profit, because one of them is limited by your business income and cannot create a loss while another is not limited that way. Spreading the deduction out is sometimes worth more than taking it all at once. We run it both ways before choosing.
What about the lot where I park the trailer, or an office at home?+
Rent on a shop, yard, or storage unit used for the business is a straight deduction. A home office is stricter. The space has to be used regularly and only for business, so the kitchen table where the family also eats does not qualify, while a spare room used only for scheduling, invoicing, and paperwork can.
Should I be an LLC or an S corp?+
An LLC by itself does not change your federal taxes, and a single member LLC with no election still files on Schedule C. An S corporation election can change how much of your profit is exposed to self employment tax, but it requires paying yourself reasonable wages through real payroll, filing a separate business return, and carrying more cost and paperwork every year. Whether it comes out ahead depends on your numbers, so it is worth pricing out once profit is steady rather than assuming it saves money on day one.
I only work eight or nine months a year. Do I still pay quarterly?+
Estimated tax is generally due through the year even when the income is seasonal. The payments do not have to be four identical amounts. There is a method that lets the installments follow what you actually earned in each period, which fits a spring and summer heavy route much better.
Let us take the tax part off your plate.
Tell us what you need and see your price. A real person on your team replies within one business day.