Filing Your Tax Return as Self-Employed
Key Takeaways
- As a self-employed gardener or landscaper, you must report business income and deductions on your tax returns using Schedule C.
- You must pay self-employment tax in addition to income tax, which includes taxes to fund Social Security and Medicare.
- Consider taking business deductions for all of the expenses that are ordinary and necessary for operating your gardening or landscaping business.
- You can deduct larger items, like a lawnmower, over time through depreciation.
If you are in business for yourself as a gardener or landscaper, the IRS will consider you to be a self-employed business person. That means you need to report business income and deductions on your tax returns. Use Schedule C to report your income.
Self-Employment Tax
Since you are self-employed as a gardener or landscaper, you must pay self-employment tax in addition to income tax. Use Schedule SE to calculate what you owe.
Self-employment tax includes taxes to fund Social Security and Medicare.
- It is set at a rate of 15.3%.
- The Social Security portion is 12.4% and the Medicare portion is 2.9%.
Remember to file your quarterly estimated tax payments during the year according to the time schedule set by the IRS.
TurboTax Tip:
If you sometimes use your work vehicle for personal transportation, you can take a vehicle business deduction as long as you keep detailed records of the miles driven for business versus personal.
Business Tax Deductions
Consider taking business deductions for all of the expenses that are ordinary and necessary for operating your gardening or landscaping business. Examples include:
- wages you pay to employees or helpers
- tools
- machinery
- other materials
Keeping clear records is critical because it's easy to forget small deductions over time, such as the fuel used to power your lawnmower. Keep receipts for all business-related costs to show the IRS in case you are audited.
You can deduct larger items, like a lawnmower, over time because it is considered a “capital purchase”. You can spread the deduction of a "capital purchase" over the number of years you expect the item to last. This is called depreciation. As a simplified example, if a tractor lawn mower costing $5,000 is expected to last five years:
- $5,000 x 20% = $1,000
- $1,000 is the depreciation deduction you can claim each year for five years.
Capital purchases are business assets you buy such as machinery, cars, buildings and other "capital" items. Instead of depreciation over the useful life of the asset, you can typically take bonus depreciation and/or Sec 179 depreciation that allows you to expense all or a large portion of you capital purchases in the year that you buy them.
Vehicle Use Tax Deductions
If you sometimes use your work vehicle for personal transportation, that doesn't necessarily mean you can't take a vehicle business deduction.
As long as you keep detailed records of the miles you drive the vehicle for business versus the miles driven for personal, you should be able to claim a portion of the costs as a business expense. The IRS allows you to take the standard mileage rate, which is 70 cents per mile for 2025 (72.5 cents per mile for the first half of 2026, and 76 cents per mile for the second half of 2026).
Tip Deduction
In addition to business expenses, gardeners and landscapers may also be able to deduct up to $25,000 of "qualified tips" for the 2025 through 2028 tax years. If you qualify, you can claim the deduction on Schedule 1-A.
You must satisfy a few requirements to deduct tips earned during the year. For instance, you need a Social Security number that's valid for employment and issued before the due date of your return (including extensions). You also must file a joint return if you're married.
Other rules might reduce the amount of your deduction. For example, the deduction is gradually phased-out if your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) is greater than $150,000 ($300,000 for joint filers).
If you're self-employed, the deduction also can't be greater than your net income (without regard to the deduction) from the business through which your tips were earned. If you own multiple businesses, the limitation applies separately to each business.
In addition, if you're married, the $25,000 limit applies to the combined total of you and your spouse's qualified tips. It's not a per-spouse limit.
For more information about this valuable tax break, see our Guide to the Tip Deduction.
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