Wilmington
Wilmington's earned income tax, the city wage tax, is 1.25% of residents' wages wherever earned and of nonresidents' wages for work in the city, per regulations revised in 2023; employers withhold it and file quarterly, with an intermediate return when more than $50 is withheld in a quarter's first or second month. The city also charges business owners a head tax of $15.00 a month for every employee in excess of five. Delaware has no sales tax, and residential and commercial cleaning fall under its gross receipts tax instead, at a rate that depends on the business activity category.
A Wilmington cleaning company deals with the city on two payroll lines, and the city wants its own business license on top of the state's. This page covers the wage tax and its filing calendar, the head tax, the license, Delaware's gross receipts tax, the state wage, and what it means for your books. State payroll registration is on my Delaware page.
The City of Wilmington's Earned Income Tax Regulations (July 2020, revised May 25, 2023) set the tax at 1.25% of salaries, wages, and other compensation of residents, wherever they work, and of nonresidents for work done in the city. Employers withhold it and file quarterly returns with payment by April 15, July 15, October 15, and January 15. A monthly intermediate return is due when more than $50 is withheld in the first or second month of a quarter. Returns go to the Department of Finance, Earned Income Tax Division. No 2026-dated source behind this page states that the rate is unchanged.
Per the city's Cost of Doing Business page, business owners pay a head tax of $15.00 a month for every employee in excess of five, and they need a city business license in addition to the State business license. That page shows no date and refers to a FY 2023 property tax rate, so it may not have been updated recently.
Source: City of Wilmington Economic Development, Cost of Doing Business
Delaware has no sales tax. Residential and commercial cleaning are subject to its gross receipts tax instead, and no deductions are allowed for labor or other costs. The Division of Revenue's rate sheet doesn't name a cleaning category; the two closest, General Services (099) and Personal Services (007), both show a 0.3983% rate, monthly filing, and a $100,000 exclusion, and the Division of Revenue is the place to confirm the category. More is on my Delaware gross receipts tax page.
Source: Delaware Division of Revenue, Step 4: Learn About Gross Receipts Taxes (last modified 2026-01-09)
Source: Delaware Division of Revenue, Gross Receipts Changes (rate sheet)
This page doesn't cover any Wilmington wage rule. Delaware's minimum wage has been $15.00 an hour since January 1, 2025, and no change was announced as of October 20, 2026 in the sources behind this page.
Source: Delaware Code Title 19, Chapter 9 (19 Del. C. 902)
Source: Delaware Department of Labor, Division of Industrial Affairs, Wage and Hour
Wage tax withheld goes to a liability account of its own, apart from Delaware withholding, and the head tax is an employer expense tracked against headcount month by month. Counting is supposed to be my whole job, and I still had to grab a pencil to confirm that eight employees is three in excess of five. The books keep a monthly employee count next to that expense so the figure has something to tie to. Labor is recorded at the wage actually paid, as my payroll page explains, and gross receipts are tracked in full, since no labor deduction is allowed.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I record the wage tax, the head tax, and gross receipts in their own places; which category your business falls in, when the intermediate return applies, and how each return gets filed are questions 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 Wilmington 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
Wilmington adds two payroll lines for a cleaning company: a wage tax held for the city and a head tax that grows with your crew. I record the withheld tax as a liability, the head tax as an expense next to a monthly headcount, and gross receipts in full. Book a short call below and tell me how your Wilmington payroll runs.
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
Cleaning in Wilmington and want the wage tax and head tax showing up where you can see them? Tell me how many people are on payroll. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
