Tax help for painting contractors
We know what a paint store run looks like on a bank statement. Bring us the year and we will work through the materials, the sundries, and the miles you actually drove so they land where they belong.
Nothing is due today. Personal returns start at $250.
A painting business runs on materials, and that is what makes the tax side different. Paint, sundries, and spray equipment move through your hands in a way that a preparer who rarely sees contractor returns may not be set up to handle. Add subcontracted crews, 1099s from general contractors, lift rentals, and a truck that is half tool crib, and the return has more moving parts than people assume.
What painters 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.
Paint, primer, and coatings
Every gallon of paint, primer, sealer, stain, elastomeric, and epoxy you buy for jobs is a deductible cost. So are thinner, acetone, TSP, and stripper.
How you deduct paint depends on whether you buy it per job or carry it on a shelf. Paint bought and used on a specific job is a job cost. A stocked shelf you draw from all year may need to be handled differently, so tell us how you buy.
Sundries and consumables
Brushes, roller covers and frames, drop cloths, plastic sheeting, blue tape, masking paper, caulk, spackle, joint compound, sandpaper, rags, and buckets. These wear out constantly and are a real cost over a year.
The receipts are small and easy to lose, and a year of quick supply runs adds up to a number worth capturing. Photograph the receipt at the counter before it goes in the truck.
Sprayers and spray equipment
Airless sprayers, HVLP units, texture rigs, spray tips, guns, hoses, filters, and pump repair kits. A sprayer purchase is usually a depreciable asset, and there are elections that can let you deduct more of the cost in the year you place it in service if you qualify.
Tips, filters, and packing kits are supplies you write off right away. The sprayer itself is equipment. Keep the purchase invoice separate from the parts receipts so we can treat each correctly.
Ladders, scaffold, and lifts
Extension ladders, step ladders, planks, pump jacks, scaffold sections, and ladder racks. Rented boom lifts, scissor lifts, and swing stages for high exterior work are deductible as rent.
Rented lift equipment is a rent deduction. Purchased scaffold is an asset that gets depreciated, though shorter lived items may be written off sooner. The same job can produce both, so keep rental invoices and purchase invoices apart.
Prep and surface equipment
Pressure washers, sanders, grinders, heat guns, shop vacs with HEPA filters, dustless sanding systems, and the wands, nozzles, and abrasives that feed them.
If you touch housing built before 1978, your EPA lead-safe renovation containment supplies and HEPA gear are ordinary business costs. Keep those separate so the record shows you were complying, not just buying tools.
Work truck and van costs
You may be able to choose between the IRS standard mileage rate published for that year and your actual costs such as gas, oil, tires, insurance, repairs, and depreciation. Ladder racks, shelving, and pipe racks added to the van are business costs as well, usually treated as part of the vehicle or as separate equipment.
Driving from home to the same job site every day is commuting and is not deductible. Driving from your first stop to a second job, to the paint store, or to a walkthrough is business mileage. Log the odometer or run an app, because a guess will not hold up. Which method you can use depends on how the vehicle was placed in service and what you claimed the first year, so bring the history.
Subcontracted painters and helpers
What you pay crews and day help you hire as contractors is deductible. So is what you pay a drywall finisher, a wallpaper hanger, or a pressure-washing subcontractor on a job you are running.
If you pay a subcontractor who is not a corporation more than the annual reporting threshold set by the IRS, you have to issue Form 1099-NEC. Collect a Form W-9 before you hand over the first check, not in January when you cannot reach them.
Licenses, bond, and insurance
Your contractor or painting license, city and county registration, your surety bond, general liability premiums, and workers compensation premiums are all deductible business costs.
Health insurance for you as the owner is not a Schedule C expense. It may be deductible elsewhere on your return if you qualify, so bring the premium statements even though they do not go on the business page.
Safety gear and respirators
Respirators and cartridges, fit testing, Tyvek suits, harnesses and lanyards, safety glasses, knee pads, gloves, and lead-safe or OSHA training courses that keep your certification current.
Safety gear you would never wear off a job site is deductible. Jeans, boots, and a t-shirt with paint on them are not, because they are suitable for everyday wear. Shirts carrying your company logo are generally treated as advertising or a uniform, so keep those receipts separate.
Estimating, invoicing, and job software
Estimating and takeoff software, invoicing apps, color matching and visualizer subscriptions, scheduling tools, mileage trackers, and your cloud storage for job photos.
Split the personal share out of anything you also use personally. Your phone bill and your truck are the two that draw the most scrutiny.
Advertising and getting work
Truck lettering and wraps, yard signs, door hangers, business cards, website and hosting, Google or Angi lead fees, and the sample or color board materials you leave with a homeowner.
Truck lettering is advertising when it is applied. Having a lettered truck does not make the truck itself deductible, and it does not turn your commute into a business drive.
Storage, shop, and home office
Rent on a shop or storage unit where you keep sprayers, scaffold, and paint stock is deductible. If you run the business from home, a home office deduction may be available.
The home office has to be used regularly and only for business. A garage bay where you also park the family car and keep the kids' bikes does not qualify, and a rented storage unit that only holds job equipment is a cleaner deduction anyway.
Many painters start on Schedule C and that is often the right place to be. Once your net profit is steady and large enough that self-employment tax is your biggest single tax line, and you can pay yourself a reasonable wage and still leave profit in the business, an S-corp election is worth pricing out. It adds payroll, a separate return, and real cost, so we run the numbers on your actual figures before recommending it rather than the other way around.
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.
- Every Form 1099-NEC you received from general contractors, builders, or property managers
- Your bank and credit card statements for the full year, business and any personal account you ran jobs through
- Paint store and supply house statements or account history, since many stores can print the whole year at once
- Purchase invoices for sprayers, pressure washers, scaffold, ladders, or a truck you bought or financed during the year
- Rental invoices for lifts, scaffold, or swing stages, kept apart from your equipment purchases
- Your mileage log or tracking app export, plus the odometer reading at the start and end of the year
- A list of every subcontractor and helper you paid, with the amount, and a signed Form W-9 for each one
- Insurance and license paperwork: general liability, workers compensation, your bond, and your contractor or painting license renewal
- Any estimated tax payments you already made, with the dates and amounts
- Last year's tax return, and any IRS or state notice you received even if you think it was handled
What trips people up
Throwing away the small paint store receipts
Those quick runs for tape, covers, and caulk are easy to lose and easy to forget by filing time. Photograph the receipt at the counter, or run one card for the business so the statement backs up every purchase.
Not collecting a W-9 before the first check
Get the Form W-9 signed when you hire the helper or the sub, before any money moves. Once the job is over and they have moved on, you will be trying to file a Form 1099-NEC with no address and no tax ID, and that is when the deduction gets shaky.
Running everything through one personal account
Open a business checking account and a card used only for the business. It is a small step and it turns a shoebox into a record you can stand behind if anyone ever asks.
Deducting the whole truck payment
The payment itself is not the deduction. Depending on what you are eligible for, you either take the IRS standard mileage rate published for that year or you take actual costs including a depreciation piece. Bring the purchase paperwork, the loan statement, and your mileage log, and we will look at both and use the one you legitimately qualify for.
Counting work clothes as a uniform
Jeans and boots you could wear anywhere are not deductible, no matter how much overspray is on them. Company shirts with your logo, respirators, and harnesses are treated differently. Keep those purchases separate so the ones that qualify are not buried with the ones that do not.
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
I got a Form 1099-NEC from a general contractor for less than what they actually paid me. What do I do?+
Report what you actually received, not just what the form says, and tell us about the gap. GCs sometimes report on a different cutoff than your books, or they net out retainage or backcharges. Bring your own deposit records and we will reconcile the two. The IRS matches those forms to your return, so a difference that is explained in your records is workable and a difference that is ignored is not.
Some customers pay me cash. Does that need to go on the return?+
Yes. Income is income no matter how it arrives, and leaving it off is a filing problem, not a gray area. There is a practical side too, because understated income can work against you on a mortgage application, a truck loan, or a bonding line. If you are worried about what reporting it does to your tax bill, the place to look is whether every legitimate cost you paid is actually being captured, and that is what we sort out with you.
Do I owe sales tax on the paint I buy for a job?+
It depends entirely on your state, because this is a state rule and not a federal one. Some states treat a painting contractor who buys materials and applies them to real property as the final consumer, so you pay sales tax when you buy the paint rather than charging it to the homeowner. Other states, and some kinds of work, are handled differently. Tell us where you work and we will confirm how your state treats it.
Why do I owe self-employment tax when I already had a rough year?+
Self-employment tax is figured on your net earnings from the business and is separate from income tax, so it can show up even when your income tax is small or zero. It covers the Social Security and Medicare that would otherwise be split between an employer and an employee, and it is reported on Schedule SE. It applies once your net earnings reach the minimum amount set in the law. The way to keep it in check is to make sure every legitimate cost, especially your mileage and your sundries, is actually captured.
I paint a lot of new construction and get paid on long draws. Does that change my taxes?+
It can. When jobs run across a year end, when you carry material inventory, or when retainage sits unpaid for months, the accounting method you use starts to matter. Some contractors are eligible for cash basis and some are not, and long term contracts have their own rules. Bring your contracts and your draw schedules and we will tell you which method you are actually eligible for.
Should I be making quarterly payments?+
Often yes, once the business is producing steady profit. Nobody is withholding from your draws, so the whole year's tax comes due at once unless you pay in during the year, and there can be a penalty for underpaying along the way. Painting income is seasonal, so we set the estimates against your real cash rhythm rather than dividing one number by four.
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.