Industries
Construction Tax Help
Tax preparation, payroll, bookkeeping, and business insurance questions for construction and trade businesses in California.
Construction and trade businesses usually juggle job costs, subcontractors, payroll, and sales tax on some materials. We help you organize those records and prepare the returns from what you provide.
Offices are in San Pablo and Concord, by appointment only. The same work can be done remotely anywhere in California. Business insurance questions for this industry are handled from the Concord office.
Services that usually fit
Documents to start
- Profit and loss, or the bank and job records behind it
- Forms 1099 and W-2 you issued
- Payroll reports, if you have employees
- Sales tax filings, if you collect tax on materials
- A list of vehicles and tools you want discussed
Your chart of accounts, built for construction and trades
Stanza creates and maintains a chart of accounts so the deductions you are allowed to claim are identified and documented.
We set up income, cost of goods or job costs, and expense accounts organized around this industry’s deductible categories and the tax form lines they map to (Schedule C, or Form 1065 or Form 1120-S when the business files as a partnership or an S corporation). Sub-accounts separate items with a special tax treatment, so a repair is not mixed with a capital purchase and a liability is not booked as an expense.
Job materials by job
Separates materials you buy for a job from overhead. Job costs usually belong with cost of goods or job costs, not in a general supplies account, so the return follows the job.
Subcontractors
Payments to subcontractors stay apart from wages. That total is what you use to prepare Form 1099-NEC when the vendor meets the filing rules.
Equipment
Equipment is a capital asset. Section 179 or depreciation may apply when the asset and the election meet IRS rules. Booking it as a small supply hides that choice.
Vehicle, fuel, and mileage
Fuel and mileage need their own accounts so you can support the actual-expense method or the standard mileage method, under the rules for the method you use.
Tools
Small tools are often a current expense. Larger tools may have to be capitalized. A separate account makes that review possible.
Workers' compensation and liability insurance
Premiums for a policy that covers the business are generally an ordinary expense. They should not be mixed with personal insurance.
Permits and licenses
Permit and license fees for the trade are usually deductible business expenses. A dedicated account keeps them apart from items that are not deducted, such as some penalties.
Retention
Retention is money held back until the work is accepted. Its own account keeps it from being mixed with income you have already collected or with an expense.
How it is managed
- Each month we categorize transactions and reconcile the accounts to the bank.
- Receipts and mileage stay with the transactions they support.
- Personal spending stays out of the business accounts.
- Capital purchases are reviewed against repairs before anything is expensed.
- Vendors are tracked so a Form 1099 can be prepared when a form is required.
- A quarterly review of profit can be used to adjust estimated tax payments when those payments apply.
- At year end we review the accounts with the preparer so deductions are captured and the records support them.
Whether a deduction is allowed depends on your facts and on IRS and FTB rules. We help you claim what you are entitled to and keep records that support it. We do not guarantee savings or a dollar amount.
Book bookkeeping and QuickBooks setup with Lucia Leiva, Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisorCommon questions
- Yes. Bring the names, amounts, and taxpayer IDs you collected. We prepare the forms from those records. We do not create a number you do not have.
- Yes, when you want payroll service. You still approve hours and rates. We do not decide who is an employee.
- Josephine Leiva at the Concord office can take a business insurance quote request. A quote is not a promise of coverage or of a price.
- A chart that separates job materials, subcontractors, equipment, and vehicle costs makes it easier to report cost of goods, Form 1099 totals, and depreciation on the right lines of Schedule C, Form 1065, or Form 1120-S. It does not change which expenses the law allows.
Offices in San Pablo (510-778-1579) and Concord (925-349-6924). Remote work is available in California.
Ready when you are
Ready to get organized? Book an appointment today.
Pick a time that works for you — in person at San Pablo or Concord, or fully remote.