D.C. sales tax
Yes. Commercial cleaning is taxable in the District as a real property maintenance service, and residential cleaning is taxable too, because the statute contains no residential exclusion. The exclusions that do exist cover painting, wallpapering, construction or major repair work, and services performed under an employee-employer relationship, such as a household's own employee.
The District's answer on house cleaning comes from what the law leaves out. None of the sources behind this page names house cleaning or maid service, and the statute doesn't exclude residential work either. Below: residential cleaning, commercial cleaning, the exclusions, what it means for your books, and where your CPA takes over. Payroll, wages and the rest of the District picture are on my D.C. bookkeeping page.
Residential cleaning is taxable in D.C. That conclusion rests on the absence of any residential exclusion in the statute, D.C. Code 47-2001, rather than on a rule that names house cleaning. I like trying to break things, so when a rule depends on something not being there, I go looking for the exception that would knock it over. The closest one here is the exclusion for services performed under an employee-employer relationship, and it covers a household's own employee, not a cleaning company the household hires.
Source: Council of the District of Columbia, D.C. Code 47-2001 (definitions, retail sale)
Commercial cleaning is taxable. The DC Office of Tax and Revenue covers it in its guidance on sales tax for real property maintenance services, and the tax on sales of services itself sits in D.C. Code 47-2201. If you clean offices or other commercial property in the District, that work is a taxable sale.
Source: DC Office of Tax and Revenue, Sales Tax on Real Property Maintenance Services
Source: Council of the District of Columbia, D.C. Code 47-2201 (tax on sales of services)
The statute's exclusions are specific:
Source: Council of the District of Columbia, D.C. Code 47-2001 (definitions, retail sale)
Exception: the statute excludes services performed as part of construction or major repairs. Whether a particular cleaning job tied to a renovation falls inside that exclusion is not something this page answers. Take that one to your CPA.
Residential and commercial work are both taxable here, so your books don't need two different tax setups. I still split the two kinds of work into separate income lines so you can see which one pays. Sales tax collected is recorded as a liability, not income, and it stays there until it goes to the District. If a job ever falls under one of the exclusions, I want that invoice to show it plainly, so the difference doesn't disappear into a monthly total.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I can explain what the District's rule is and keep every taxable sale recorded correctly. The rate, how you file, and whether a specific job fits an exclusion 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 D.C. 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
Residential and commercial cleaning are both taxable in the District, so one tax setup covers both, though I still keep them on separate income lines so you can see which one pays. Sales tax you collect is held in a liability account rather than counted as income, and any job that falls under an exclusion is marked plainly on its invoice so the difference doesn't disappear into a monthly total. Set up a short call below and we'll compare your invoices to your sales tax account.
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 your D.C. invoices and your sales tax account don't agree, send me a note and we'll find out why. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
