Deductible Business Expenses for a Landscaping Business

Posted by tbViews on October 31, 2008

Business expenses are basically anything that you spend in order to run your business.  You don’t have to justify necessity — for instance, the IRS is not going to argue with you over whether you really needed such and such advertisement — but they do need to be realistic expenses.  (i.e., The book you bought your daughter to keep her occupied while you work doesn’t count as a business expense.)

There are a lot of business expenses that a landscaping business can deduct from their gross income, such as:

• Equipment and machinery, such as an EZ Screen topsoil and gravel screening machine, or a compact portable screener.
• Your work truck and all gas, maintenance, etc. if you buy it new solely for business use.  If you use your personal truck, you would keep track of the mileage on the odometer at the beginning and end of every work day, multiply it by the IRS’s allowance per mile, and deduct that amount from your gross income as business use.
• All advertising expenses, including signs for your truck, door-to-door flyers, mailings, newspaper or magazine ads, website costs, etc.
• Uniforms that you and/or your employees wear.

As you can see, there are many business expenses that a landscaping business can deduct from its gross income in order to minimize its tax liability.  I highly recommend getting out a book and doing your research on the subject, or even consulting with a professional, before tax time rolls around.  The year is almost over!

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