Tax for gardeners and landscapers: what to claim and when to file

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On this page · 9 sections

1. Are you self-employed, and do you have to file?
2. How much tax will you actually pay?
3. How do you handle a seasonal income?
4. What can you claim?
5. The one that catches people out
6. Making Tax Digital: does it apply to you, and when?
7. How to file, step by step
8. When you don't need us
9. Common questions

Are you self-employed, and do you have to file?

If you cut lawns, maintain borders or build patios for your own customers, you are self-employed. Being paid in cash, working part of the year, or doing it alongside another job makes no difference to that.

Register with HMRC by 5 October following the end of the tax year you started in. Someone who began gardening in the 2026/27 year registers by 5 October 2027.

The trading allowance gives £1,000 of gross trading income tax free. If a neighbour pays you £300 across the summer to keep their hedge down and that is the whole of it, you have nothing to register and nothing to file. The £1,000 is measured on gross takings across all your self-employed work added together, before any costs. A rise to £3,000 has been announced but no start date has been confirmed, so £1,000 still applies.

Once you pass £1,000, you file — even in a year where you owe no tax at all, as the example below shows.

How much tax will you actually pay?

Here is a full year for a one-person maintenance round with a small van, claiming mileage.

Profit of £11,185 sits below the £12,570 personal allowance, so no income tax and no Class 4 National Insurance are due. The return still has to be filed by 31 January 2028.

There is a second point hiding in that zero. Profit of £11,185 is above the Small Profits Threshold of £7,105, so Class 2 National Insurance is treated as paid at nil cost and the year counts towards your state pension. Had profit come in below £7,105, nothing would be due — but the year would not count unless you chose to pay voluntary Class 2 at £3.65 a week. For a gardener with a quiet year, that is a decision worth making deliberately rather than by accident.

How do you handle a seasonal income?

Gardening income is not spread evenly, and the tax system does not care — it looks at the tax year as a whole, 6 April to 5 April. A strong April to September and a thin winter produce one annual profit figure.

Two practical consequences.

Set money aside in the busy months. If you are going to owe tax, you will owe it in January, which is usually your leanest month. A rough rule is to put aside a share of every payment from the moment profit passes the personal allowance, in a separate account you do not dip into.

Watch for the year that tips you over a threshold. A single large landscaping job — a patio, a fence run, a full redesign — can add several thousand to turnover in one summer. That can take you over the personal allowance for the first time, and it can also take your qualifying income over a Making Tax Digital threshold, which then sets your obligations for the following year even if that year is quiet again.

Also keep the composition of a big job straight. If you buy £3,000 of paving and recharge it to the customer, the £3,000 you charge is turnover and the £3,000 you paid is an expense. The profit effect may be nil, but your turnover jumps by £3,000 and thresholds are tested on turnover.

What can you claim?

The one that catches people out

Machinery bought as an expense when it is really capital.

A £2,400 ride-on mower is not a running cost. It is a capital asset that will work for years, so it goes through capital allowances rather than straight into the expenses column. Put it in as an ordinary expense and the profit figure for that year is wrong, and so is every year after it.

The line is not always obvious. Sharpening a blade is a repair. Replacing the blade is a repair. Replacing the whole mower is capital. Repairing a chipper is a repair; buying a second chipper is capital. The question to ask is whether you are keeping an existing asset working or acquiring a new one.

It matters most in the year you kit yourself out. A gardener starting up might spend several thousand on machinery in one spring. Treated as an expense that can create a loss that does not reflect reality; treated as capital and claimed properly, the relief is still available and the figures hold up. If the amounts are significant, it is worth getting the treatment right the first time rather than restating it later.

Making Tax Digital: does it apply to you, and when?

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax replaces one annual return with four quarterly updates plus a final declaration. Whether you are in depends on your qualifying income — gross self-employment turnover plus gross property income added together, before expenses — on the previous year's return.

• Over £50,000 tested on the 2024–25 return: in from 6 April 2026.
• Over £30,000 tested on the 2025–26 return: in from 6 April 2027.
• Over £20,000 tested on the 2026–27 return: in from 6 April 2028.

Anyone whose qualifying income is £20,000 or below is outside Making Tax Digital. The gardener in the example, with £19,400 of turnover, is under that line and continues to file an ordinary annual return.

Do not treat that as settled, though. The test runs on each year's return, so a summer with one large landscaping job can lift turnover above £20,000 and bring you in from the following April. And because the test is on gross turnover, materials you buy and recharge count towards it even though they add nothing to your profit.

If you do come in, the quarterly deadlines are 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May, each update cumulative from 6 April rather than covering the quarter alone. The final declaration stays on 31 January. Records must be in compatible software and kept for at least five years after that deadline. Missed updates cost penalty points: £200 at four points, and £200 for each miss after that.

How to file, step by step

1. Register with HMRC as self-employed by 5 October after the tax year you started.
2. Total your takings for the year, 6 April to 5 April, including cash. Bank everything you can so there is a record.
3. Add any materials you recharged to customers into turnover, and the purchase cost into expenses.
4. Total your costs by category, keeping machinery purchases separate from machinery repairs.
5. Pull your business mileage and apply 55p to the first 10,000 miles and 25p above, or use actual van costs if you have kept receipts and they come to more.
6. Work out profit. If it is below £12,570, no income tax or Class 4 NI is due, but the return is still required.
7. Check your profit against the £7,105 Small Profits Threshold and decide about voluntary Class 2 if you are below it.
8. File online by 31 January. The paper deadline is 31 October, and 30 December if you want tax collected through a PAYE code.

When you don't need us

If your gross takings for the year were £1,000 or less, the trading allowance covers you and there is nothing to register or file.

If you have a small round, one van, no employees and figures that fit on a single page, HMRC's free online return will do the job. That is a real option and you should take it if it suits you.

If you work for a landscaping firm on PAYE with tax already deducted, you are not self-employed for that work and there is likely nothing to file.

And if you need help with a Construction Industry Scheme registration because your landscaping work has moved into groundworks and site construction, say so before you engage anyone — that is a different set of obligations and you want to be sure it is covered.

Common questions