Tampa, Florida
Taxable commercial cleaning in Tampa carries a 7.5% combined rate: Florida's 6% plus Hillsborough County's 1.5% surtax, which Form DR-15DSS lists as three 0.5% pieces, one of them expiring December 31, 2028. Home cleaning isn't taxable in Florida, and carpet cleaning and exterior pressure washing aren't either.
Hillsborough County's surtax is three separate taxes stacked together, each with its own start date and two with end dates. This page covers the three pieces, which jobs they apply to, and what those dates mean for your books.
Form DR-15DSS for calendar year 2026 lists these for Hillsborough County:
Together that's 1.5%, and with Florida's 6% state rate, 7.5%.
Source: Florida Department of Revenue, Sales and Use Tax
Per the Department of Revenue's brochure GT-800015, residential cleaning isn't taxable, while cleaning nonresidential interiors, including janitorial, maid, and window cleaning, is, and window cleaning of nonresidential buildings is taxable inside or out. Carpet cleaning and exterior pressure washing of buildings and parking lots aren't taxable. Surtax applies at the rate of the county where the service is performed, so a job outside Hillsborough carries that county's rate, which this page doesn't cover. The full list is on my Florida sales tax page.
Source: Florida Department of Revenue, Sales and Use Tax on Cleaning Services (GT-800015, R. 09/22)
Collected sales tax goes to a liability account, and each taxable invoice carries the county where the work was done. The surtax rate in the books comes from DR-15DSS, and I don't trust a rate in the system until I've checked it against the current form. That check matters more here, since one of the three pieces lists an end date of December 31, 2028. Home jobs, taxable commercial work, and carpet or pressure washing work each stay on their own income line. Payroll and reemployment tax are on my Florida page.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep the county detail and the income lines in order; whether a job is taxable, and how the surtax 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 Tampa 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
Tampa's 1.5% county surtax applies only to taxable commercial work, and one of its three pieces lists an end date. Each taxable invoice carries its county, collected tax is held as a liability, and the rate in the books gets checked against the current DR-15DSS. Book a short call below and tell me about your Tampa jobs.
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.
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Cleaning commercial buildings in Tampa and want the surtax handled cleanly in your books? Tell me how you invoice today. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
