Tax Deductions for Cleaners and Handymen: A 1099 Guide
By eight in the morning the truck is loaded, and by six you’ll have moved through four or five different houses – a kitchen deep-clean at one, a leaky faucet and a sticking door at the next, a fence repair for a client three streets over. Somewhere in between you stopped at the hardware store for a new mop head and a tube of caulk, paid for out of your own pocket, and the receipt is still crumpled in the truck’s cupholder next to two others you meant to deal with weeks ago. One client paid you in cash before you even got back in the truck. None of that feels like bookkeeping – but if you work as a 1099 independent contractor rather than a W-2 employee of a cleaning or handyman company, almost every one of those small, out-of-pocket costs is a legitimate deduction, and most self-employed cleaners and handymen are quietly leaving money on the table simply because the receipts never make it out of the truck.
Read More