Des Moines
Taxable cleaning in Des Moines carries a 7% combined sales tax rate: Iowa's 6% state sales tax plus a 1% local option sales tax, listed for both the Polk County and Warren County parts of the city. Commercial cleaning is taxable in Iowa, and residential janitorial service is exempt only in a private residence, apartments included, when the occupant pays for it.
The Iowa Department of Revenue's rate service lists Des Moines under two counties, Polk and Warren, with the same 1% local option tax in each. This page covers that rate, which cleaning jobs Iowa taxes, the wage picture, and what it all means for your books. Payroll registration and the employee test are on bookkeeping for Iowa cleaning businesses.
The Iowa Department of Revenue's sales tax rate map service lists a 1% local option sales tax for Des Moines in Polk County, starting July 1, 2019, and for Des Moines in Warren County, starting July 1, 2016, with no end date on either. Its state layer lists Polk and Warren Counties at the 6% state sales tax. The service doesn't publish a combined figure; 7% is the sum. It also shows no update date, so this page relies on a query run October 21, 2026 that showed no end dates.
Source: Iowa Department of Revenue, SalesTaxRates map service, local option layer (queried October 21, 2026)
Commercial cleaning is taxable in Iowa. Residential is conditional: the exemption applies only to janitorial services in a private residence, including apartment or multiple housing units, paid for by the occupant, and the rule doesn't address landlord-paid cleaning. Furniture, rug, carpet, and upholstery cleaning is a separately listed taxable service, and the residential exemption is written for janitorial services without mentioning carpet cleaning. Janitorial and building cleaning connected with new construction, reconstruction, alteration, expansion, or remodeling is exempt. The rest of the conditions, including exterior work, are on my Iowa sales tax page. Whether a particular job is taxable is a question for your CPA.
Source: Iowa Administrative Code 701-211.23(423), Janitorial and building maintenance or cleaning
Source: Iowa Legislature, Iowa Code 2026, Section 423.2
Iowa doesn't have local minimum wages, per Iowa Code section 364.3(12)(a), so the state rate applies in Des Moines: $7.25 an hour, effective January 1, 2008, with no change announced as of October 20, 2026.
Source: Iowa Legislature, Iowa Code 2026, Section 364.3(12)(a)
Source: Iowa Legislature, Iowa Code 2026, Section 91D.1
Iowa's residential exemption turns on who pays, so each customer record needs to show whether the occupant is paying or someone else is. One tax setting for every customer? That's the wrong setup for an Iowa cleaning business, because the exemption covers occupant-paid janitorial work in a private residence while the rule is silent on the landlord-paid unit, and a single default can't tell them apart. Taxable and exempt work go on separate income lines, collected sales tax sits in a liability account apart from revenue, and labor goes into payroll at the wage actually paid.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep taxable and exempt work recorded separately; whether a particular job is taxable 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 Des Moines 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
In Des Moines the questions that matter for the books are who pays for a residential job and whether the work is taxable, so taxable and exempt cleaning get separate income lines and collected tax sits as a liability at 7%. Payroll goes in at the wage actually paid. Book a short call below and we'll go through how your customers 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
Have Iowa house jobs and commercial accounts on the same invoicing setup? Show me how the tax is applied today. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
