Food truck accounting for California owners, based in Santa Clarita
For owners running a truck, trailer, food cart or coffee cart anywhere in California. We reconcile the books to your POS and the 1099-K, file CDTFA returns with Schedules A and B, run crew payroll with tips, and prepare the return with both depreciation schedules — one flat fee, in writing.
Book a free 15-minute call
It ends with one price for the books, the sales tax returns, crew payroll and the return.
Based in Santa Clarita
We’re based in Santa Clarita and work with food trucks anywhere in California, remotely. A truck that works the Valencia Industrial Center lunch rush, a Burbank lot and a Palmdale event in the same week crosses three different sales tax rates inside LA County, and each sale is reported at its own rate.
Typical situations
Do you handle a truck like mine?
Yes — if it sells food or drinks from a truck, trailer, cart or coffee cart anywhere in California and needs the books, the CDTFA returns, crew payroll or the return handled.
The taco truck on a three-city week
Santa Clarita on Tuesdays, Burbank on Thursdays, a Palmdale event on Saturdays — three sales tax rates inside one county. The menu price includes the tax, and CDTFA treats a truck’s price as tax-included unless the receipt shows a tax line; the miss is one rate for everything and no re-pricing after the October 1, 2026 rate change. We keep a location log from the POS, file Schedule A (district tax by place) and Schedule B (the county-level share of the tax) — monthly bookkeeping from $295 a month, sales tax returns included.
The coffee trailer in Old Town Newhall
To-go coffee and tea aren’t taxable; the breakfast burritos, the sodas and anything eaten at the tables out front are taxable. The miss is overlooking the 80/80 rule: when more than 80% of sales are food and more than 80% of that food is taxable, every sale is taxable unless cold to-go sales are tracked separately. We set the tax flags item by item in the POS and keep the separate accounting.
The Canyon Country owner with a new step van
Federal law lets the whole truck be written off in year one; California doesn’t follow that first-year write-off, so the truck lives on two depreciation schedules. They sell lunches around the Valencia Industrial Center; the bill of sale, the title and the door-jamb weight rating are what we work from, and the miss is one schedule for both returns, or rent-to-own payments booked as rent when they build equity. We put the kitchen equipment on its own schedule, separate from the chassis, carry both schedules on the return, and work through the decision with you before the next purchase.
The truck with two cooks paid partly in cash
Cooks and window staff do the truck’s core work, so under California’s ABC test they are W-2 employees, not 1099s. A worker is an employee unless three conditions pass, including work outside your usual business. The miss is cash pay with no payroll, tips never reported, and a Square 1099-K whose gross includes those tips and the sales tax. We register you with the EDD, run W-2 payroll with tips as wages, pay card tips in full by the next payday, and file the 2026 W-2s with box 12 code TP (the line for reported cash tips) and the box 14b occupation code — “food truck cook” is on the Treasury list. Crew payroll from $95 a month. Read the risk of paying a cook in cash, and how to do it right.
The truck that caters weddings in Pasadena and Santa Monica
Serving on the customer’s premises is catering: tax applies to the whole charge including labor, the tax-included presumption doesn’t apply, and a mandatory service charge is taxable — the miss is an all-in invoice with no tax line. We add tax as its own line on event invoices and book the service charge correctly.
The Lancaster truck three quarters behind
CDTFA returns are due the last day of the month after the period, and a truck averaging $17,000 or more a month in taxable sales owes prepayments on top — the miss is waiting. We rebuild each missing period, stop by stop, from the POS and bank records, file those returns, and keep the account current from there. A cleanup from $750, then monthly bookkeeping — here is how a catch-up project runs.
Sales tax
Do food trucks charge sales tax in California?
A food truck charges sales tax on hot prepared food, sodas and anything eaten at tables you provide; cold food and hot coffee or tea sold to go are not taxable; at an admission-charged event, everything you sell is.
- The 80/80 rule, explained in the coffee-trailer card, can make every sale taxable unless cold to-go sales are tracked separately
- A hot-and-cold combo at one price is taxed on the whole price
- Napkins, cups and boxes can be bought tax-free with a resale certificate
We flag each menu item taxable or not in your POS, keep cold to-go sales in their own account, and file on the frequency CDTFA assigned. See how the monthly bookkeeping runs.
The schedules
How is sales tax reported when the truck moves between cities?
Sales tax is reported at the rate of the place where each sale happens — CDTFA has a mobile vendor allocate district tax on Schedule A and the county-level share of the tax on Schedule B, and the return carries both.
Under the CDTFA table effective October 1, 2026, Santa Clarita, the City of Los Angeles and unincorporated LA County are 10.25%; Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena, Long Beach and San Fernando are 11.00%; Santa Monica is 11.25%; Lancaster and Palmdale are 11.75%. We tag each stop in the POS (the location or event on every sale), apply the rate per stop, and build Schedule A and Schedule B from that log. For a truck that prices tax-included, we also check the menu price still covers the tax after the rate change.
The monthly close
What do you check every month?
Every month, before the sales tax return goes out, we run the same seven checks: POS payouts to the bank and the 1099-K, cash to deposits, tax collected to tax owed by location, tips to payroll, food cost, expense coding and CDTFA due dates.
- POS payouts reconciled against the bank and the 1099-K
- Cash counted against cash deposited
- Sales tax collected against tax owed by location
- Tips paid out against the payroll records
- Food cost from purchases and the change in what’s on hand — spoiled food never reaches the count, so it lands in cost of goods sold
- Commissary rent, event and lot fees, propane, generator fuel (logged separately for the Form 4136 fuel-tax credit) and card fees, each coded
- CDTFA due dates and prepayments
Each month: the P&L, the balance sheet and a short note.
Crew and tips
How should a food truck pay its crew and handle tips in California?
A food truck pays its crew as W-2 employees in nearly every case, with tips reported as wages.
- Once wages pass $100 in a quarter, the EDD registration is due within 15 days — we do it
- Reported tips of $20 or more in a month are California wages — we run them through payroll
- Card tips belong to the crew — we pay them out in full, no processing-fee deduction, by the next regular payday
- The 2026 W-2s carry box 12 code TP (cash tips reported to you) and box 14b, the occupation code
- We claim the employer’s credit for the Social Security and Medicare tax paid on reported tips, figured on Form 8846
- The code TP on the W-2 is what lets your crew claim the federal tip deduction through 2028; California doesn’t follow it, so the state return still taxes the tips
We file the federal payroll returns (the 941 and 940), the state ones (the DE 9 and DE 9C) with the EDD, and W-2s in January. See how payroll is set up and priced and what a W-2 cook really costs beside a 1099.
The truck
Can I write off my food truck?
Yes — on two schedules: federal law allows the full write-off in year one for a truck bought and placed in service after January 19, 2025, while California allows no bonus depreciation (no first-year write-off) and caps Section 179 (expensing equipment the year you buy it) at $25,000, so the California return carries its own schedule.
Federal
- The kitchen build-out and equipment depreciate on their own schedule, separate from the chassis
California
- The California return carries its own depreciation schedule — we keep both and reconcile them
A built-out truck usually sits outside the passenger-vehicle write-off limits, and we confirm it from the door-jamb weight rating and the title. Before the next purchase, talk through the write-off decision with us; when it’s time to file, this is how we prepare the return.
Pricing
How much does food truck accounting cost in 2026?
Monthly bookkeeping from $295 a month, bookkeeping plus the year-end return from $395 a month, crew payroll from $95 a month, and the return alone from $650 for a sole proprietor or from $850 for an LLC or S-corp with the owner’s personal return included — each a flat fee quoted in writing before we start. The CDTFA returns are part of the monthly quote, not a separate charge; a quote rises above the floor with more transactions a day, more cash, more cities and counties, more frequent CDTFA filing, a bigger crew, tips and catering.
Books and sales tax
from $295/mo
- Reconciliations to POS payouts, the bank and the 1099-K
- Cash counts against deposits
- CDTFA returns with Schedules A and B, on the frequency assigned
- Monthly P&L and a short note
Books plus the return
from $395/mo
- Everything in books and sales tax
- The year-end return from your own books, both depreciation schedules
- Quarterly estimates from real numbers
Crew payroll
from $95/mo
- Pay runs on your schedule
- Tips as wages; card tips by the next payday
- The 941 and 940, the DE 9 and DE 9C
- W-2s with the 2026 tip boxes
The quote is the price.
How it works
What happens after you book?
A 15-minute call ends with one price, and the setup starts from there.
The 15-minute call
About six questions: what you sell and where, stops and counties in a month, your POS and how much is cash, the crew and tips, catering, and how far behind you are.
The engagement letter
Sent during the call, signed when you’re ready; then a short onboarding call and the portal invite.
Access and documents
Read-only bank feeds or your QuickBooks file, POS reports by location, and our checklist.
Catch-up first, then monthly
If you’re behind, the missing CDTFA returns come first — cleanup is half to start, the balance on delivery — then the monthly close starts and each return is filed on CDTFA’s schedule.
You see everything before it’s filed
Every return comes to you before anything goes out, and questions during the month go to the same team that keeps the books.
Communication
You’ll know where the books and the returns stand.
Whoever picks up the phone also closes your books, files the CDTFA returns and prepares the return.
The same-day rule
Call or email during business hours and you’ll hear back the same day — all twelve months.
Food trucks are welcome
One truck or two, a trailer or a coffee cart, anywhere in California — the free call ends with a straight answer on whether we’re the right fit.
Admitted to practice before the IRS
Our team of IRS representation specialists is admitted to practice before the IRS. If an IRS letter shows up, forward it: how we handle IRS letters.
The N&T Tax & Advisory Group team
We keep the books, file the CDTFA returns, run payroll and prepare the year-end return from the same numbers. We’re reachable all year.
Bookkeeping & payroll · Sales tax returns · Tax planning · IRS representation · Direct line: (661) 554-4495
Reviews
Rated 5.0 on Google
★★★★★ Twelve reviews, every one five stars, every one verifiable. Read all of them on Google →
"Alex helped me resolve a complicated tax situation that had been causing me a lot of stress. He was extremely knowledgeable, responsive, and efficient throughout the entire process."
Kevin B. — via Google
"Working with Alex was straightforward. I hadn't looked at my books all year, but he made my life easy and handled the whole profit and loss at the end of the year so I could get my taxes done."
Levon B. — via Google
"I came to this company with previous tax years and bookkeeping that were done incorrectly. They're very knowledgeable about what they do and help me get everything in order at a very reasonable price."
Sayra A. — via Google
Where we work
Do you work with trucks outside Santa Clarita?
Yes. A truck in Fresno or San Diego gets the same work as one in Santa Clarita: the CDTFA, EDD and FTB rules are statewide, and the books live in the POS and the bank. We also offer in-person visits in the Santa Clarita Valley.
What we don’t do
We handle the tax and money side: books, sales tax returns, payroll and the year-end return. Health permits, commissary agreements, fire and vehicle requirements, business licenses and insurance are outside our work, and we don’t advise on them.
Worth reading
What can you read before you call?
Three short reads for a truck with a crew or a new LLC.
FAQ
What do food truck owners ask before booking?
Do you file California sales tax returns for food trucks?
Yes. We file on the frequency CDTFA assigned — monthly, quarterly, quarterly-prepay or annual — with the Schedule A district allocation and the Schedule B county pools (the county-level share of the tax) a mobile vendor uses, prepared from the books we close each month.
Is the monthly fee flat, or do you bill by the hour?
Flat — one monthly fee set by what the truck needs, never by the hour. What sets it is transactions a day, how much is cash, how many cities and counties you sell in, how often CDTFA has you file, crew size, tips and catering.
Can you work with Square, Toast or Clover?
Yes — we work from the sales reports and the 1099-K your processor issues and reconcile the payouts to the bank. The 1099-K reports the gross, sales tax and card tips included, so we separate tax, tips and processing fees until sales, tax owed and tips paid all tie out.
Do you run payroll for a crew that earns tips?
Yes. Tips are reported as wages and run through payroll, and card tips are paid in full by the next regular payday. We file the 941 and 940, the DE 9 and DE 9C, and W-2s carrying the 2026 tip boxes — box 12 code TP and the box 14b occupation code.
Do I need an LLC for my food truck?
Not for income tax — the decision is about liability and cost. A California LLC owes $800 a year regardless of profit, plus a fee that rises with sales, so we model it on your numbers before you form; our entity-selection page shows how we compare the options.
We’re behind on our sales tax returns. Can you catch us up?
Yes. We rebuild sales by period and by location from your POS and bank records, file the missing returns with the schedules, and then keep the account current month to month. A catch-up is quoted as a project — half to start, the balance on delivery.
Do you work with trucks outside Santa Clarita?
Yes — anywhere in California, remotely; the CDTFA, EDD and FTB rules don’t change by city, and we work from your POS and bank records. In the Santa Clarita Valley we can also come to you in person.
What should I send to get started?
Last year’s return, your CDTFA account number and the last few returns, POS sales reports by location, bank and card statements, the truck purchase or lease papers, and payroll reports if you have a crew. We send a short checklist so nothing is missed.
Ready to get the truck’s books and returns handled?
One free 15-minute call. You’ll leave knowing exactly what we’d handle and what it costs — whether or not you hire us.
Rather talk now? Call (661) 554-4495 — reach us during business hours and you’ll hear back the same day.
Our team of IRS representation specialists is admitted to practice before the IRS. This page is general information, not tax advice for your specific situation.