A plumbing company carries its inventory on the vans, sells parts and labor on the same ticket, and does service calls in the morning and new-construction rough-ins in the afternoon. Each of those has a different answer for the books and for Florida sales tax. Most plumbing books give them all the same answer.
Zero Tax keeps the books for plumbing companies. Van stock is counted. Service, repair, and contract work are tracked apart. Bookkeeping, tax preparation, and planning come on one flat monthly fee, and the owner’s personal return is part of the work.
Fittings, valves, and water heaters get bought by the pallet and written off when the supply house bill is paid. The trucks are carrying thousands of dollars of stock that the books say is gone. Job margins look wrong all year and the year-end number is wrong too. We count the vans at year end and keep a simple stock account so profit means profit.
A repair on an existing home, a water heater swap, and a rough-in on a new build are three different kinds of work under Florida’s sales tax rules. When they all hit one income account, nobody can answer the auditor’s first question. We keep them separate from the invoice forward.
A ticket that lists the water heater at one price and the labor at another can be read as a retail sale plus installation. That changes what tax is owed and who owes it. The fix is in how the invoice template is written. We look at the template before we look at the returns.
plumbing shops run ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber, or FieldEdge. Flat-rate price books make the dispatch simple and the accounting messy, because one ticket line carries parts, labor, and a membership discount. We map the price book categories to income accounts in QuickBooks Online so the sync lands clean. Membership plans get booked over the months they cover.
A plumbing company runs three sales tax setups at once. Repairs and repipes are real property work: you pay tax on the pipe and fittings at the supply house and charge the customer none. A water heater sold and left for the customer to install is a retail sale, taxed on the invoice. A contract written as a sale plus installation follows a third rule. The books have to know which one each invoice is.
Plumbing is a construction trade, so Florida requires workers’ compensation from the first employee. A helper paid on a 1099 who rides in your truck and works your calls is an employee. A stop-work order costs more than the premium.
The county tangible property return is due April 1. For a plumbing shop that means the jetter, the camera, the pipe threader, and the warehouse shelving. Licensed trucks stay off it. The first $25,000 is exempt once the first return is filed.
A service van over 6,000 pounds gross vehicle weight escapes the passenger-car depreciation caps. Vans and tools bought after January 19, 2025 qualify for 100 percent bonus depreciation. Whether to take it all this year depends on this year’s profit and next year’s.
Florida has no personal income tax. For a plumbing owner, the S corporation question is federal: self-employment tax, a reasonable salary, and how the rest is drawn. We run it with your numbers before anyone files.
Greg Neilsen, our tax expert, holds a law degree and a master’s in tax law (LLM). He reviews every return before it is filed.
The books, payroll, and filings run through our team in the Tampa office. The person who closes your month is the person who answers your question. We answer or call back within 24 hours.
More: every trade we serve, HVAC companies, electrical contractors, and our services.
One call tells us both whether this fits. Tell us about the plumbing business: trucks, crews, payroll, and what the books look like today. You leave knowing what Zero Tax would handle and what the flat monthly fee would be. Bookkeeping, tax preparation, and planning come on one number, starting at $750 a month, in writing before any work starts.
On a lump-sum repair to a home or building, no. You paid the tax on the parts when you bought them. Sell a part without installing it and tax is due on the sale. The invoice format decides which one you did.
Count them. One evening, one clipboard per van. The total goes on the balance sheet and the year’s cost of goods becomes accurate. We send the count sheet in December.
At a certain profit level, yes, and the savings are real. Below it, the extra payroll and filing cost eats the benefit. We run the number with your actual profit before anyone files an election.
Every bank and card account reconciled. The dispatch software sync checked against deposits. Van stock adjusted if there was a big buy. A one-page report: service margin, contract margin, cash, and what is owed. Delivered on a set date each month.
As a cost of the original job, not a new one. We code callback labor and parts to a warranty account, so you can see what callbacks cost each month. If the number climbs, the cause is usually one tech or one supplier, and the books will show which.
One free 15-minute call with Greg. Bring your questions. Leave knowing what Zero Tax would handle for your business and what it would cost.
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