Written for landscapers and lawn care routes, grounds maintenance contractors, tree services and arborists, irrigation, hardscape and fencing installers, and landscape firms that sell snow and ice work, in any US state.
The short version
- Check your state's rule for each service.Some states tax lawn care as a service, some tax only the materials. What competitors charge proves nothing.
- Sort every job: maintenance or install.Decide before you quote or invoice. Sales tax, lien rights and licensing all turn on the answer.
- Collect W-9s and file 1099-NECs.Get a W-9 before paying any sub. Non-corporate subs paid $2,000 or more in 2026 need a 1099-NEC by January 31 (As of Oct 2026).
Landscaping sits awkwardly in sales tax law. Some states tax lawn care as a service to real property, some tax only the materials, and Texas and New York treat building a wall or installing sprinklers differently from mowing. Get it wrong and the tax you never collected becomes your problem.
Four states, four answers
- Texas taxes landscaping and lawn care as a real property service at 6.25% state plus local tax up to 2%. Work on new residential construction, with the builder's certificate, is exempt, and so is a self-employed person working alone, with no employees or helpers, who had $5,000 or less of lawn and landscaping receipts in the last four calendar quarters. Building decks, retaining walls, fences or pools, and installing underground sprinklers, are construction or repair and remodeling work, taxed under those rules instead. As of Oct 2026.
- New York taxes maintenance and repair of real property, including lawn and landscape maintenance, but not a capital improvement when the customer gives you Form ST-124.
- California does not tax the service. A landscaper installing plants and materials is a construction contractor who pays tax on the materials when buying them.
- Florida generally does not tax residential lawn maintenance; check with the Department of Revenue for mixed contracts.
Where the rules come from
Texas taxes landscaping and lawn care as a real property service, with the exemptions the Comptroller publishes. New York taxes maintenance and repair of real property, including lawn and landscape maintenance.
Texas Tax Code sec. 151.0048; Comptroller publication 94-112; New York Tax Law sec. 1105(c)(5)
| Monthly maintenance contract | $1,200 |
| Sales tax at 8.25% | $99 |
| Monthly invoice | $1,299 |
| Tax collected and remitted over a year | $1,188 |
$99.00 x 12
The question is what your state's law says about the service, not what competitors do.
1099s: the threshold moved
File Form 1099-NEC by January 31 for each non-employee paid $2,000 or more for services in the year, for payments made from January 1, 2026; it was $600 through 2025. Collect a W-9 first, and backup-withhold 24% if a sub gives no valid taxpayer ID. Payments to corporations are generally exempt, except payments to attorneys. As of Oct 2026.
Say you paid a tree sub $1,850 in 2026 and $2,400 to a stump grinder who works as a sole proprietor: only the stump grinder needs a 1099-NEC. Collect W-9s from both before you pay either of them again.
Equipment and miles
Section 179, bonus depreciation and heavy vehicles
For tax years beginning in 2026, Section 179 allows up to $2,560,000 of qualifying property, reduced dollar for dollar once Section 179 property placed in service passes $4,090,000. Permanent 100% bonus depreciation generally applies to qualified property acquired and placed in service after January 19, 2025. California does not conform to federal bonus depreciation. Heavy SUVs and certain other primarily passenger vehicles over 6,000 lb and not over 14,000 lb GVWR are capped at $32,000 under Section 179 in 2026, with exceptions for some cargo and passenger configurations. As of Oct 2026.
Rev. Proc. 2025-32 sec. 4.24; IRC 168(k); IRS Publication 946, chapter 2
The business standard mileage rate is 72.5 cents a mile for January 1 to June 30, 2026 and 76 cents from July 1, 2026, so your 2026 mileage log needs two totals. As of Oct 2026.
The question that decides most of this is whether a job is maintenance or an installation. Ask it of every job before you quote or invoice, because sales tax, lien rights and licensing all turn on it.
Asked in Greymill
At the full 8.25% rate (6.25% state plus up to 2% local, As of Oct 2026):
Contract: $1,200.00
Sales tax: $99.00
Invoice: $1,299.00
That's $1,188 a year you aren't collecting, and uncollected tax becomes your problem.
Start charging and filing now, and review the back periods (what you never charged) with your CPA.
Your subs: for payments from January 1, 2026, the 1099-NEC kicks in at $2,000, up from $600 (As of Oct 2026).
Stump grinder, $2,400: needs one by January 31, unless it's a corporation, which is generally exempt
Tree sub, $1,850: doesn't
Get W-9s from both before you pay either again.
One more check: a retaining wall or underground sprinkler install falls under different Texas rules than mowing. Ask "maintenance or install?" before every invoice.
Ask it about your own business
Paste this into Greymill with your own figures, and Tax & Bookkeeping works it through for your business.
I run a landscaping or gardening business in [state], in the US. We work in [city]. I sell [maintenance, installs, tree work, irrigation] to [residential or commercial] clients, and paid these subs in 2026: [names and amounts]. Tell me which of my services are taxable where I work and at what rate, whether I may owe anything for past periods, and which subs need a 1099-NEC.
More for landscaping and gardening in the US
- Pricing a crew hour and a mowing stop so the drive time is paid forBuild your rate from a burdened, billable crew hour, then price each stop by the minutes on site plus the minutes driving to it, because route density is where the margin is.Read the lesson
- Making it through the winter when the mowing stops and payroll does notLate-winter payroll, equipment and materials come before the first spring payments, so smooth your income, take lawful deposits and line up credit in the fall.Read the lesson
- Can my crew spray the weeds, build the patio and dig the irrigation line without a license?Pesticides, installs, irrigation and digging each have their own state or local license or notice rule, and in California an unlicensed contractor cannot sue to collect.Read the lesson
- Snow contracts, plant warranties and lien waivers: the clauses that leave you holding the billSnow and ice work brings slip-and-fall suits that name both the owner and the contractor, where the contract, the trigger and the log decide who pays, and installs carry four clauses of their own to fix.Read the lesson
- Paying crews a day rate and bringing in H-2B workers without owing back wagesLandscaping is not agriculture, so crews are owed overtime even on a day rate, and H-2B adds wage, hours and travel duties of its own.Read the lesson
- Winning HOA and commercial maintenance bids, and keeping the account at renewalCommercial and HOA work is won on the paperwork that comes with the price: certificates, endorsements, a site plan, and terms that survive renewal.Read the lesson
- A trench, a power line or a crew member down in the heat: what to do on the dayTrenches, overhead lines, heat and mowers on slopes each have strict rules, and so does reporting when someone is hurt.Read the lesson
Open the interactive lesson · Every landscaping and gardening lesson · What Greymill knows about the trade
Sources
The primary sources behind this lesson, checked Oct 2026.
- Tax Code secs. 151.0048, 151.0101(a)(11), 151.056 (Tax: sales tax, 1099S, depreciation and estimates)
- TB-ST landscapers; Tax Law 1105(c)(5) (Tax: sales tax, 1099S, depreciation and estimates)
- Regulation 1521 (Tax: sales tax, 1099S, depreciation and estimates)
- Instructions (2026) (Tax: sales tax, 1099S, depreciation and estimates)
- Rev. Proc. 2025-32 sec. 4.24; Publication 946, What's New for 2026 (Tax: sales tax, 1099S, depreciation and estimates)
- Publication 946 chapter 3, qualified property acquired after January 19, 2025; Notice 2026-11 secs. 2.02(1), 3.06 to 3.07 (Tax: sales tax, 1099S, depreciation and estimates)
- 29 U.S.C. 255(a), 216(b) (Hard cases: money, CONTRACTS and PEOPLE)
- 29 U.S.C. 216(b), 255(a) (Hard cases: money, CONTRACTS and PEOPLE)
- Texas Property Code 53.021(4); actual parties and work dates require construction-counsel review (Hard cases: money, CONTRACTS and PEOPLE)
- General Obligations Law 5-903(2) to (3) (Hard cases: money, CONTRACTS and PEOPLE)
- ANSI Z133 and A300 (Read the user, federal, state or local, and adjacent regimes)