Tree Service profit margin benchmarks
The IRS reports what one-owner businesses filing Schedule C earn, by sector. Tree Service 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 tree service
Tree work is labor, heavy equipment and disposal, with high insurance costs. Removals near houses cost more in time and risk.
For a worked example, our tree removal cost calculator puts remove a medium tree, 30 to 60 ft at $442 to $885 a tree, typical $614, and treats about 75% of that as labor. On the typical price, that is about $461 of labor and $154 of materials, equipment and everything else, before your overhead and profit.
Where tree service margin leaks, and how to win it back
- Disposal and chipping not priced in
- Equipment rentals
- Access problems found on the day
- Stump grinding left off the quote
- Insurance costs not spread across jobs
Ways tree services raise margin: price disposal and chipping into every quote; sell stump grinding with the removal; rent heavy equipment only for jobs that need it; note access problems on the estimate visit.
Check your tree service prices against the costs
The typical national prices from our sourced calculators are a check on whether your prices leave room for margin:
| Service | Typical | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Remove a small tree, under 30 ft | $281 | $150 to $435 a tree |
| Remove a medium tree, 30 to 60 ft | $614 | $442 to $885 a tree |
| Remove a large tree, 60 to 80 ft | $1,032 | $885 to $1,180 a tree |
| Very large tree removal, over 80 ft | $1,615 | $1,230 to $2,000 a tree |
| Trim a tree | $491 | $285 to $700 a tree |
| Grind one stump | $275 | $150 to $400 a stump |
Work out the margin on each line of your menu, not just the big jobs. The usual tree service menu: remove a small tree, under 30 ft; remove a medium tree, 30 to 60 ft; remove a large tree, 60 to 80 ft; very large tree removal, over 80 ft; trim a tree; crown raising and clearance; deadwood removal; storm cleanup; grind one stump; brush chipping and haul away; firewood splitting.
Overhead comes out of the margin before profit. In tree service it includes general liability insurance, which Insureon's customers who are tree services pay an average of $156 a month for; commercial auto at $299 a month on the same figures.
Work out your own margin
Put one recent tree service 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 tree services, checked October 9, 2026
- Fixr, tree removal cost, checked October 8, 2026
- Fixr, stump grinding cost, checked October 8, 2026
- LawnStarter, tree removal cost, checked October 8, 2026
- LawnStarter, stump grinding cost, checked October 8, 2026
- Lawn Love, tree removal cost, checked October 8, 2026
- Lawn Love, stump grinding cost, checked October 8, 2026
- Today's Homeowner, tree removal cost, checked October 8, 2026
- CostHelper, tree removal, checked October 8, 2026
- Thumbtack, tree trimming cost, checked October 8, 2026
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (state and national files), checked October 8, 2026
- US Census Bureau, 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Area to county relationship file, checked October 8, 2026
- OSHA: Tree care, checked October 8, 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.