Irrigation profit margin benchmarks
The IRS reports what one-owner businesses filing Schedule C earn, by sector. Irrigation falls under Administrative and support services. For tax year 2023, 3,118,914 returns reported $114.4 billion in receipts, $17.9 billion in cost of sales and $24.2 billion in net income less deficit (the table gives thousands of dollars):
| Benchmark | Value |
|---|---|
| Gross margin | 84.3% |
| Net margin, owner pay included | 21.2% |
| Average receipts per return | $36,687 |
| Average net income per return | $7,769 |
The owner's own draw is not an expense on a Schedule C, so that net margin is mostly the owner's wage, not profit on top of it.
Where the money goes in irrigation
Irrigation is parts and labor; installs add trenching. Seasonal visits are short and route dependent.
Where irrigation margin leaks, and how to win it back
- Startups and blowouts underpriced
- Wire troubleshooting time
- Parts at cost
- Long drives between seasonal visits
- Callbacks
Ways irrigation contractors raise margin: price spring start-ups and fall blowouts as flat visits; charge for wire troubleshooting by the hour; mark up parts; route seasonal visits by area.
Check your irrigation prices against the costs
We do not have sourced price ranges for irrigation services yet, so start from your own costs with the labor rate calculator and list your prices on the services list.
Work out the margin on each line of your menu, not just the big jobs. The usual irrigation menu: new system; drip zone; smart controller; spring start-up; fall winterization; backflow test; broken head; valve repair; line break; wire troubleshooting.
Overhead comes out of the margin before profit. In irrigation it includes general liability insurance, which Insureon's customers who are irrigation contractors pay an average of $105 a month for; commercial auto at $299 a month on the same figures.
Work out your own margin
Put one recent irrigation job into the calculator above, or switch it to "My margin for the year" to set your year next to the IRS benchmark. A 50% markup is a 33% margin; the markup calculator shows the rest.
Sources
- IRS Statistics of Income: Nonfarm sole proprietorships, Table 2, income statements by industrial sector, tax year 2023, checked October 9, 2026
- IRS: SOI tax stats, nonfarm sole proprietorship statistics, checked October 9, 2026
- Insureon: Insurance cost for irrigation contractors, checked October 9, 2026
Last checked October 9, 2026. This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and differ by state and city, so confirm with the agency named before you act.