Florida
Florida doesn't tax residential cleaning, but it does tax cleaning the interior of nonresidential buildings, plus county discretionary surtax, while carpet cleaning and exterior pressure washing aren't taxable. There's no state income tax to withhold, and reemployment tax runs through the Florida Department of Revenue. The minimum wage is $15.00 an hour from September 30, 2026, per the constitutional schedule as reprinted in 2022 Senate documents; no current FloridaCommerce notice was read.
Florida sorts cleaning by building. Homes are outside the sales tax, nonresidential interiors are inside it apart from carpet cleaning, and the county where the work is performed sets the surtax rate. Below I cover sales tax, the employee test, payroll registration, the minimum wage, and what each one means for your books.
Residential cleaning isn't taxable in Florida. Commercial cleaning is taxable when it's cleaning the interior of a nonresidential building, which covers janitorial, maid, and window cleaning, and window cleaning of nonresidential buildings is taxable inside or out. Carpet cleaning and exterior pressure washing aren't taxable. County discretionary sales surtax applies at the rate of the county where the service is performed. The full list is on my page about Florida sales tax on cleaning.
Source: Florida Department of Revenue, Sales and Use Tax on Cleaning Services (GT-800015, R. 09/22)
For reemployment tax, Florida uses the common-law, right-to-control test, under Fla. Stat. § 443.1216(1)(a)2. 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, and it belongs with your CPA or an employment attorney.
Source: Florida Legislature, Fla. Stat. § 443.1216, Employment
Source: Florida Department of Revenue, Classification of Workers
Florida has no personal income tax, so there's no state income tax to withhold and no withholding registration. Unemployment insurance in Florida is the reemployment tax, administered by the Florida Department of Revenue, and registration starts on the department's Register to Collect and Pay Taxes or Fees page.
Source: Florida Department of Revenue, Do I have to file a personal income tax return in Florida?
Source: Florida Department of Revenue, Reemployment Tax
Source: Florida Department of Revenue, Register to Collect and Pay Taxes or Fees
Florida's minimum wage is $15.00 an hour from September 30, 2026. That figure and date come from the schedule in Florida Constitution Article X, Section 24(c), as reprinted in the 2022 Senate joint resolution text (SJR 382) and a 2022 Senate staff analysis. No current FloridaCommerce notice was read, and the U.S. Department of Labor's table, updated July 1, 2026, still shows the pre-step $14.00. No change has been announced as of October 20, 2026; under the same constitutional text, as reprinted in 2022, the next one is an inflation-adjusted rate calculated on September 30, 2027 that takes effect January 1, 2028, with the amount not yet published. Florida has no local minimum wages, per Fla. Stat. § 218.077, so there's no city rate to track.
Source: The Florida Senate, SJR 382 (2022), filed bill text reproducing Fla. Const. Art. X, s. 24
Source: The Florida Senate, Committee on Commerce and Tourism, Senate staff analysis, SB 1124 (2022)
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, State Minimum Wage Laws (updated July 1, 2026)
In Florida the kind of building and the kind of work decide the tax, so the books have to know both. Home cleaning goes on one income line, nonresidential interior and window work on another, and carpet cleaning and exterior pressure washing on a third. Every single taxable invoice carries the county where the service was performed, and the surtax in the books ties back to those invoices, because that county's rate sets it. Sales tax you collect sits in a liability account, apart from income. Labor gets recorded at the wage actually paid, and my payroll page covers how I keep it straight.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep the income lines and the county detail straight; whether a particular job is taxable, and how the tax is reported, 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 Florida 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
Florida taxes some cleaning and not the rest, so homes, nonresidential interiors, and carpet or exterior pressure washing each get their own income line, and every taxable invoice carries its county for the surtax. Collected sales tax sits in a liability account apart from income, and payroll is recorded at the wage actually paid. Grab a short call below and we'll go through how your Florida jobs are set up.
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 Florida home, office, and carpet jobs all land in one income line, send me a note. We'll separate them together, and the first conversation doesn't cost anything.
