SimpleReturns

Company tax returns for gardeners and landscapers

Reviewed by Lee Jones, Founder · Updated 17 July 2026
The short answer

If you cut grass, build gardens or look after grounds through a limited company, the filing job is the same as for every company in the country: a Company Tax Return to HMRC and a set of accounts to Companies House, even in a year you made a loss. Your version of it mixes regular rounds with big one-off jobs, your biggest costs are machinery and the van, and your year has a busy half and a quiet half. The thing to watch is whether any of your work falls under the construction scheme called CIS.

Official source. This guide is a plain-English summary of official GOV.UK guidance, not advice. The authoritative source is Company Tax Returns on gov.uk. Always rely on that over our summary.

What counts as your company's income?

Everything a customer paid the company. Usually some mix of four things: regular maintenance rounds, one-off landscaping jobs, garden design fees, and commercial grounds contracts for offices, schools or housing sites. All of it is the company's trading income and all of it goes on the return.

Materials need care. If you buy £800 of plants, turf and sleepers for a job and charge the customer £800 for them, that £800 coming in is income and the £800 going out is a cost. Record both totals in full, never just the gap between them, and any markup you add is income too.

Your tax bill is then worked out on the profit. Small companies pay 19% on profits up to £50,000, and bigger profits move towards 25%.

One seasonal warning. VAT registration kicks in when the company's taxable takings pass £90,000 over any rolling 12 months, not a calendar or accounting year. Gardening money arrives between March and October, so two strong summers back to back can push the rolling total over the line even while the winters feel quiet. Anywhere near £90,000, check the running 12-month total monthly and have a quick word with an accountant about timing.

What can your company claim?

The rule behind every cost is simple: it has to be for the business. For a gardening or landscaping company the usual list looks like this:

  • Mowers, machinery and tools. Ride-on and walk-behind mowers, hedge trimmers, strimmers, a chipper, a mini digger, a trailer, hand tools. These count as equipment and machinery, and an allowance lets the company claim the full cost against its profit in the year you buy them. Our guide on claiming equipment and machinery goes deeper.
  • The van. A van bought for the business gets the same full first-year treatment, and its fuel, servicing, tyres and insurance for the work are company costs. Vans qualify, cars do not.
  • Plants and materials bought for jobs. Plants, turf, topsoil, gravel, sleepers, fencing, paving. Everything bought to do a customer's job is a company cost.
  • Fuel for the machines. Petrol and mixed fuel for mowers, trimmers and the chipper.
  • Tip charges and waste licences. Green-waste disposal fees, skip hire and the licences the business needs to carry waste.
  • Workwear, but only the protective kind. Steel toecap boots, gloves, chainsaw trousers, hi-vis and ear defenders are fine through the company. Ordinary everyday clothes are not: jeans and a fleece bought through the company become a personal perk you get taxed on, even if you only wear them for work. That is the everyday-clothes trap.
  • Subcontract labour. Paying another gardener or a subbie crew to help on a big job is a company cost. But read the next section first.

A note on the van, because it is where gardeners get caught. A company van used for the rounds, with nothing more than the odd insignificant detour like grabbing a paper on the way in, creates no extra personal tax. Use it as the family car too and HMRC treats that private use as a perk, with extra paperwork and a tax charge. A company cost is never split into a business half and a personal half: it is either for the business, or it becomes a taxable perk for you. If the van doubles as your own vehicle, that part is one for an accountant.

The trap in this trade: CIS can reach landscaping

Most garden maintenance for homeowners has nothing to do with the construction industry. But under the Construction Industry Scheme, contractors deduct money from a subcontractor's payments and pass it to HMRC, and construction work covers things like site preparation as well as building work. Landscaping can fall inside that world when you work for a building contractor, for example doing the gardens on a new housing site, or when your landscaping is part of a bigger construction project.

So check whether CIS applies to your contracts, especially any where a builder or developer is paying you, or where you pay subcontractors on that kind of job. If it does, that part has its own rules and an accountant is the right person to set it up.

What does filing look like with us?

At year end the accounts go to Companies House within 9 months, the Corporation Tax itself is due 9 months and 1 day after the year end, and the Company Tax Return, the CT600, goes to HMRC within 12 months. A late return costs £200 from the very first day. HMRC's own free filing service has closed, so every company now files through commercial software.

SimpleReturns is built for businesses like yours. You upload the company bank statement and answer a few plain-English questions, no accounting words. We sort the rounds, the jobs, the materials and the machinery into the right places, you review every figure before anything is sent, and we file both returns for you. Free to start, no card needed, £99 flat for both filings.

Common questions

Can the company pay for my work clothes?

Protective kit, yes: boots, gloves, chainsaw trousers, hi-vis. Ordinary everyday clothes, no: they become a personal perk you get taxed on.

I bought plants on my own card at the weekend. Is that a problem?

If it was genuinely for a customer's job, the company can pay you back and the receipt goes in the records. But buy from the company account as a habit: it keeps the bank statement clean and the return simple.

Does hiring subcontractors change my return?

What you pay them is a company cost like any other. The thing to check is CIS: on construction-world jobs, payments to subcontractors can come with their own rules, one for an accountant.

Want your gardening company's return filed for you?

You upload the company bank statement and answer a few plain-English questions, no accounting words. We sort the maintenance-and-materials income and the mower, van and materials costs, work out the profit and the Corporation Tax, and build both filings: the tax return for HMRC and the accounts for Companies House. You review every figure before anything is sent. Free to start, no card needed, and £99 flat covers both.

Start your return

And if any of your work is for builders or developers, we will say so plainly so an accountant can check the CIS side.

General guidance, not advice. This guide explains how the rules generally work for small UK limited companies. It isn't tax advice for your specific situation, if you're unsure, check with us or an accountant.