Landscaping and lawn maintenance
In short
Two statutory lists with nearly touching entries. Lawn maintenance escapes the tax only if the contract contains no landscaping activity at all.
In full
Arizona treats lawn maintenance and landscaping as different things and defines both by enumeration.
A.R.S. § 42-5075(J) provides that gross income from a contract for lawn maintenance services is not subject to tax under the prime contracting section if the contract does not include landscaping activities. Lawn maintenance is a service under the retail section's service provision rather than a construction activity.
A.R.S. § 42-5075(K) provides that, except where the MRRA exclusion applies, gross income from landscaping activities is subject to tax under the prime contracting section.
The condition in (J) is the entire risk. The exemption is tested against the contract, not against the line item, so a single landscaping activity written into a lawn maintenance contract takes the whole contract out of (J).
The two lists come close enough to catch a careful reader. Refreshing gravel is lawn maintenance; installing gravel or boulders is landscaping. Repairing sprinkler or drip irrigation heads is lawn maintenance; installing an underground sprinkler or watering system is landscaping. Pruning or clipping a tree is lawn maintenance; felling it, or removing or mulching the stump, is landscaping.
The practical consequence is contractual rather than operational. A grounds contractor whose crews do both is not wrong to do both — it needs the work written as separate contracts, because one document cannot be partly within (J).
Landscape architect services are a third thing again, included in professional services at (O)(3).
| Lawn maintenance — § 42-5075(J) | Landscaping — § 42-5075(K) |
|---|---|
| Lawn mowing and edging | Installing lawns |
| Weeding | Grading or leveling ground |
| Repairing sprinkler heads or drip irrigation heads | Installing underground sprinkler or watering systems |
| Seasonal replacement of flowers | Planting trees and other plants |
| Refreshing gravel | Installing gravel or boulders |
| Lawn dethatching | Felling trees |
| Seeding winter lawns | Removing or mulching tree stumps |
| Leaf and debris collection and removal | Removing other imbedded plants |
| Tree or shrub pruning or clipping | Building irrigation berms |
| Garden and gravel raking | Installing railroad ties |
| Applying pesticides and fertilizer materials |
A.R.S. § 42-5075(J), (K), (P); A.R.S. § 42-5061(A)(1)