Delaware
Delaware has no sales tax, but residential and commercial cleaning both fall under the state's gross receipts tax, which allows no deductions for labor or other costs. The state uses the ABC test for unemployment insurance, and the minimum wage is $15.00 an hour, with no change announced in the sources reviewed as of October 20, 2026.
If you've cleaned in a state with sales tax, Delaware can feel like a break at first. It isn't a free pass. The state taxes gross receipts instead, and because no deductions for labor or other costs are allowed, a busy month with thin margins is still measured on the top line. Below I cover how cleaning is taxed, the employee or subcontractor test, payroll registration, the minimum wage, and what that adds up to in your books.
There's no sales tax in Delaware. What the state has is a gross receipts tax, and residential and commercial cleaning are both subject to it. The rate depends on your business activity category, and the Division of Revenue's rate sheet doesn't name a cleaning category, which makes the category the first thing to pin down. I go through the closest categories, the rate and the exclusion on the Delaware cleaning tax page.
Source: Delaware Division of Revenue, Gross Receipts Changes (rate sheet)
Which category you belong in, and how to file, are questions for the Division of Revenue and your CPA. I'm a bookkeeper; my part is keeping the receipts number right.
Delaware uses the ABC test to decide whether a worker is an employee for unemployment insurance. The test is in 19 Del. C. 3302(14)(K). Where a W-2 cleaner and a 1099 subcontractor land in your books is a separate matter, and I covered it in 1099 subcontractors vs. W-2 employees.
Source: Delaware General Assembly, Delaware Code Title 19, Chapter 33, Subchapter I (19 Del. C. 3302)
Whether a particular person on your crew is an employee under that test is a legal call for your CPA or an employment attorney.
Delaware taxes wages, so employers withhold state income tax. Withholding is administered by the Delaware Division of Revenue, and unemployment insurance by the Delaware Division of Unemployment Insurance. Both registrations go through Delaware One Stop.
Source: Delaware Division of Revenue, Step 5: Learn About Withholding Taxes
Source: Delaware Division of Revenue, Step 3: Licensing and Registration Information
Source: State of Delaware, Delaware One Stop
I record what each payroll run produces. The filings belong to your payroll provider and your CPA.
Delaware's minimum wage is $15.00 an hour, effective January 1, 2025. The statutory schedule ends at that 2025 step, and as of October 20, 2026 no further change has been announced in the sources this page relies on. For now, that gives you a steady labor floor to price from.
Source: Delaware General Assembly, Delaware Code Title 19, Chapter 9 (19 Del. C. 902)
Source: Delaware Department of Labor, Division of Industrial Affairs, Wage and Hour
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, State Minimum Wage Laws (updated July 1, 2026)
In Delaware the tax runs on gross receipts, so the books have to get that number right. Every deposit gets matched to the job that earned it, and money that isn't receipts, like a transfer between your own accounts, stays out. Owners who learn about the gross receipts tax late tend to expect the worst. Don't panic. It's fixable. We go back, rebuild the receipts month by month, and see where things stand.
Labor gets booked at what you actually pay, never below the $15.00 floor, so the job numbers mean something. To see what that labor does to a single job before you quote it, run it through the job profitability estimator.
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 Delaware 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
There's no sales tax to charge here, but the gross receipts tax still runs on the top line, so your books start with a receipts figure you can trust: every deposit tied to the job that earned it, and transfers between your own accounts left out. Labor is booked at what you actually pay, so each job's cost means something. A short call is the easiest way to see where your Delaware books stand, and you can book one right below.
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're cleaning in Delaware and the gross receipts tax hasn't been part of your books, send me a note. I'll go through what you have and tell you what needs to be done. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
