Arizona
Arizona's statewide tax is the transaction privilege tax, and residential and commercial cleaning appear not to be taxable at the state level, an inference from a 2008 private ruling and the October 2026 rate table; city transaction privilege tax wasn't checked. Withholding and unemployment insurance registration both point to the same Joint Tax Application, and the minimum wage is $15.15 an hour for 2026.
Arizona doesn't call its statewide tax a sales tax. It's the transaction privilege tax, and for cleaning the state-level answer rests on inference rather than a rule that names cleaning. Below I cover that tax, the employee test, payroll registration, the minimum wage, and what each means for your books.
At the state level, residential and commercial cleaning appear not to be taxable. That's an inference: a 2008 private taxpayer ruling, binding only on the business that requested it and written about a non-residential project, calls cleaning nontaxable, and the Department of Revenue's October 2026 rate table has no cleaning classification. City transaction privilege tax wasn't checked. Repair and maintenance work is its own question, and I cover it on my page on Arizona transaction privilege tax and cleaning.
Arizona uses the common-law, right-to-control test for unemployment insurance, set out in A.R.S. 23-613.01. How employees and subcontractors each show up in the books is in 1099 subcontractors vs. W-2 employees. Whether a particular cleaner is an employee is a legal question for your CPA or an employment attorney.
Source: Arizona Legislature, A.R.S. 23-613.01, Employee; definition; exempt employment
Arizona taxes wages, and employers withhold state income tax, which the Arizona Department of Revenue administers. Unemployment insurance belongs to the Arizona Department of Economic Security. Both registrations point to the same form, the Arizona Joint Tax Application (JT-1/UC-001), which is also available online at aztaxes.gov.
Source: Arizona Department of Revenue, Withholding Tax
Source: Arizona Department of Economic Security, Applying for an Unemployment Insurance Tax Account Number
The Industrial Commission of Arizona labels $15.15 an hour as the 2026 minimum wage, without giving an effective date. The January 1, 2026 date is inferred from the annual January 1 adjustment in A.R.S. 23-363(B), as reprinted in an introduced 2026 bill, HB2295; the current codified statute and the 2026 poster weren't read. This page doesn't cover a 2027 rate or local minimum wages.
Source: Industrial Commission of Arizona, Labor Information
With cleaning apparently outside the state-level tax, the work in the books is keeping cleaning income clean. Cleaning goes on its own income line and any repair or maintenance work goes on a separate one, because the 2008 ruling treated repair or maintenance of real property beyond minor work as prime contracting, and current treatment of that work isn't confirmed. An answer built on inference can feel shaky. It's ok. Separate lines. Clear records. Your CPA settles the rest. Labor gets booked at the wage you actually pay, and the job profitability estimator shows what $15.15 does to a single job.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep the cleaning and repair work separated; whether any of it is taxable, at the state or city level, is a question for your CPA.
Rules checked against the sources above as of October 20, 2026. Rates and rules change; confirm current figures with the agency or your CPA.
About Figure Eight Financial
Figure Eight Financial is Dave Gordon’s bookkeeping practice for residential and commercial cleaning companies. I work with owners in Arizona and across the country, and I’m a Certified QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor.
Before bookkeeping I studied computer science at Penn State and spent a career at IBM as an engineer, so I build the books as a system: data comes in once, lands in the right place, and ties back to a statement. I’m a bookkeeper, not a CPA or Enrolled Agent. I keep the books your CPA works from, and the tax decisions stay with your CPA.
Credentials and memberships reported by Figure Eight Financial.
More about DaveHow I Help
In Arizona your books keep cleaning income on one line and any repair or maintenance work on another, because the state-level answer on cleaning is an inference and the 2008 ruling treated repair or maintenance of real property beyond minor work as prime contracting. Payroll is recorded at the wage actually paid, against each job. Book a short call below and we'll look at how your Arizona income is split today.
The core service. Transactions recorded and categorized, every account reconciled so the books and the bank agree, and monthly reports that arrive explained, split by residential and commercial and sliceable per contract.
The full picture of how this works for a cleaning companyFor the months where nothing got entered at all. I fill in the missing periods from the ground up, pulling bank feeds, statements, and receipts until every month has a complete set of records.
How catch-up bookkeeping worksFor books that exist but can’t be trusted. I audit what’s there, fix the unreconciled accounts, duplicate transactions, and wrong categories, and tie every balance back to a statement.
How cleanup bookkeeping worksYour crews paid on time, every pay period, with each payroll run recorded in the books so labor shows up against the jobs it belongs to.
How payroll worksRecurring invoices that match your contracts, an aging report you can trust, and follow-up on slow payers handled by a process instead of your evenings. Built for net-60 commercial accounts.
How invoicing and receivables workA file built right for a cleaning company from day one, or rebuilt after the DIY version drifts, and then I teach you to run it. I’m a Certified QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor, and this is honestly my favorite part of the job.
How a proper setup worksWe start with a short call about your business and where the books stand. The first conversation doesn’t cost anything.
I take a look at what you’ve got, your QuickBooks file, your spreadsheet, whatever exists.
You get a written proposal with the price, so the decision is yours with the number in hand.
Let's Connect
If you clean in Arizona and your repair and cleaning jobs share one income line, send me a note. We'll separate them together, and the first conversation doesn't cost anything.
