Illinois sales tax
Not on the service itself. The Illinois Department of Revenue says Illinois doesn't tax sales of service, so residential and commercial cleaning aren't taxable by inference; cleaning isn't named. Tangible personal property transferred to the customer as an incident to the service can carry service occupation tax.
Illinois answers this with a general rule and one exception. The rule covers services, cleaning included by inference. The exception covers property that goes along with a service. Below: residential cleaning, commercial cleaning, the conditions, what it means for your books, and where your CPA comes in.
House cleaning isn't taxable in Illinois, inferred from the Department of Revenue's general statement that Illinois doesn't tax sales of service. Cleaning isn't named. Property transferred to the customer as an incident to the service can carry service occupation tax.
Source: Illinois Department of Revenue, Does Illinois tax sales of service?
Janitorial and office cleaning get the same inferred answer from the same general rule, and janitorial cleaning isn't named either. The property exception applies the same way.
Source: Illinois Department of Revenue, Does Illinois tax sales of service?
Source: Illinois Department of Revenue, Does Illinois tax sales of service?
Cleaning on its own carries no sales tax to collect in Illinois, by inference from the general rule, so the work is in keeping the pieces apart. Lumping service and property into one income line is the worst setup for this rule. It buries the one piece service occupation tax can reach. Property transferred with a job gets its own invoice line and its own account, and any tax tied to it sits in a liability account until it's paid.
If old invoices mixed the two, cleanup bookkeeping separates them. The ABC test, payroll registration and the $15.00 minimum wage are on bookkeeping for cleaning businesses in Illinois.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep service income and property on separate lines so every total ties back to an invoice. Whether something on a particular invoice is taxable, and how it's 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 Illinois 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
Illinois doesn't tax the cleaning, but property transferred with a job can carry service occupation tax, so that property gets its own invoice line and its own account in your books. Any tax tied to it is held as a liability, never counted as income. Book a short call below and we'll see how your Illinois invoices are built.
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
Tell me how your Illinois invoices are built today, and I'll show you where service and property need separating. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
