Landscapers accounting, handled.

Practical levers: maintenance contracts that bill monthly through winter, deposit terms on spring jobs taken in autumn, and a winter cash reserve sized to your fixed overhead. On the tax side, we time equipment purchases and bonuses to keep Corporation Tax cash out of January, when you need it most. Forecasting cash 12 weeks ahead beats month-end surprises.

Plants, trees, turf, and most materials are standard-rated 20% when supplied as part of your landscaping work. The exception is fruit-producing plants and certain seeds sold separately, which can be zero-rated as food. Hard landscaping installed in the course of constructing a new dwelling can sometimes fall under the new-build zero rate. We help you classify mixed-rate jobs correctly so the VAT return adds up.

Most ordinary garden landscaping — lawns, planting, fencing, decking — is outside CIS. But hard landscaping integrated with building work (driveways tied to new build, structural retaining walls, ground-works) can fall inside the scheme. The grey zone catches a lot of landscapers. We assess each contract on the facts and register you for CIS only when it's actually needed.

Tax-wise, outright purchase or hire purchase both get full Annual Investment Allowance (up to £1m). Lease payments are deductible as incurred but you don't own the asset. Cash flow usually decides: outright works in a strong year, HP spreads the cost without losing the tax saving. We compare the three-year after-tax cost for your specific year-end timing before you sign.

Seasonal workers go on PAYE the same as permanent staff — we register them, run RTI submissions, and P45 them out at end of season. Casual cash payments are illegal and a fast route to HMRC trouble. We set up a payroll that flexes monthly so you're not paying for unused capacity in January, and handle the National Living Wage compliance that catches a lot of small landscapers out.