Self-employed pool cleaners are taxed as a small business for 2026. Your profit is what customers pay you, including what you bill for chemicals and parts, minus what those cost you and your other business costs such as the truck, equipment and supplies. You pay income tax plus 15.3% self-employment tax on most of that profit once it reaches $400.

What taxes does a self-employed pool cleaner pay on 2026 income?

On a 2026 return, a self-employed pool cleaner reports all route income on Schedule C of Form 1040 and pays income tax plus self-employment tax, the Social Security and Medicare tax for the self-employed, at 15.3% on 92.35% of net profit. Net profit is income minus business expenses, and self-employment tax starts once it reaches $400. Every dollar of business income is reported whether or not a Form 1099 arrives, including cash and checks.

Income tax comes on top and depends on the rest of the return. Half of the self-employment tax, about $3,568 here, is deductible for income tax only. The 2026 return is due April 15, 2027 for most people.

Are the chemicals and parts I bill customers income or a deduction?

What customers pay you for chemicals and parts on a 2026 return is income, reported as gross receipts, the total taken in before expenses, on Schedule C line 1. What you paid for those chemicals and parts is a deduction called cost of goods sold, figured in Part III.

"I clean pools and have to [buy] chemicals. Is that cost deductible?"

— a pool cleaner on the TurboTax Community, June 2019

For a self-employed pool cleaner the cost is deductible, and where it goes depends on whether the customer is charged for it. IRS Publication 334 says its cost of goods sold chapter does not apply to a personal service business unless you "also sell or charge for the materials and supplies normally used in your business," and the result goes on line 4. Test kits, brushes and other supplies used up without a separate charge go on line 22, to the extent used in 2026. A small business taxpayer, which covers a one-truck route, can choose not to keep a formal inventory and deduct chemicals and parts in the year they go to customers (Treas. Reg. §1.471-1(b)(4)(i)), so whatever is still on the truck on December 31, 2026 waits until the year it goes to a customer.

How do I deduct the truck I drive on my route?

You deduct the business use of your truck on Schedule C line 9 with either the 2026 standard mileage rate, 72.5 cents per business mile through June 30, 2026 and 76 cents from July 1, 2026, or actual expenses. Actual expenses means gas, insurance, repairs and depreciation times the business-use percentage. On a truck you own, the mileage rate must be chosen in the first year the truck is used in the business, the same mileage-or-actual choice a mobile detailer makes.

Driving from one customer's pool to the next is business mileage. Without a home office that qualifies as your principal place of business, the drive from home to the first pool and from the last pool home is nondeductible commuting. Record the date and business miles at or near the time, because the rate changed on July 1 and miles estimated after the fact are not deductible. A route with 16,000 business miles split evenly across 2026 comes to $11,880 at the two rates.

Can I write off a pool vacuum and other equipment in the year I buy it?

On a 2026 return, most pool cleaners can deduct equipment in the year they buy it, using the de minimis safe harbor for items costing up to $2,500 per item or invoice, or Section 179 or bonus depreciation for anything costing more, both of which deduct the full cost in the first year instead of over several years.

• The de minimis safe harbor (Treas. Reg. §1.263(a)-1(f)) covers up to $2,500 per item or invoice, elected each year with a statement on a timely filed return, and the amounts go in Part V, Other Expenses.
• Section 179 deducts the cost in the first year, limited to the year's business taxable income, with the rest carried to the next year.
• Bonus depreciation (section 168(k)) is 100% for property acquired and placed in service, meaning ready and available for use in the business, after January 19, 2025, unless you elect out, meaning you choose on the return not to take it.

Section 179 and bonus depreciation go on Form 4562 and land on Schedule C line 13. In the hypothetical, $1,800 of poles, vacuum heads and hoses on one invoice falls under the $2,500 de minimis limit, and a $3,000 commercial pool vacuum can be written off in 2026 with Section 179 or bonus depreciation, the same first-year equipment rules that apply to mobile detailers.

Do pool cleaners have to pay quarterly estimated taxes?

A pool cleaner who expects to owe $1,000 or more for 2026 pays estimated tax, tax paid in four installments during the year, due April 15, June 15 and September 15, 2026 and January 15, 2027 with Form 1040-ES.

The underpayment penalty, a charge for paying too little during the year, is avoided by paying the smaller of 90% of the 2026 tax or 100% of the 2025 tax, or 110% of the 2025 tax if 2025 adjusted gross income was over $150,000. Adjusted gross income is the income figure on your return before the standard or itemized deduction. The penalty is figured separately for each payment, for the days it stays unpaid. The January 15, 2027 payment is not required if you file the 2026 return by February 1, 2027 and pay the whole balance with it.

My rule of thumb is to set aside 25 to 30 percent of profit for federal and state tax, which on $50,500 of profit is $12,625 to $15,150. It applies to profit, not to what customers pay, and it is not an IRS figure.

N&T Tax & Advisory Group is based in Santa Clarita and prepares tax returns for mobile detailers and other mobile service businesses remotely anywhere in the US.

If you live in California, do you charge sales tax on pool chemicals?

In California, a pool service that treats pools for a monthly charge is the consumer of the water treatment chemicals it uses, so it pays sales tax when it buys them rather than charging sales tax on them to customers. That comes from Annotation 515.1320, published by CDTFA, the state agency that runs sales tax.

CDTFA Regulation 1501 says service businesses are consumers of property they use in the service, and those that also regularly sell property to consumers are retailers for those sales and must hold a seller's permit, which is free. The annotation covers chemicals used in a service for a monthly charge and does not address chemicals or parts listed as separate charges on the invoice. A pool cleaner who lists chemicals or parts as separate charges should confirm the sales tax treatment with CDTFA. Sales tax is a state tax and does not change the federal Schedule C figures.