Louisiana
Cleaning a building isn't on the Louisiana Department of Revenue's list of taxable services, but cleaning clothing, furniture, carpets, linens, pillows, and draperies is taxable, in a home or an office, at the 5 percent state rate plus local sales taxes. Unemployment insurance uses the ABC test, and the federal $7.25 minimum wage applies.
In Louisiana the sales tax line runs through the job itself. Cleaning the building and cleaning the carpet in it can land on opposite sides of the tax, whether the customer is a homeowner or an office manager. Below I cover sales tax, the ABC test for employees, payroll registration, the minimum wage, and how all of it shows up in your books.
Cleaning a building itself is not on the Department's list of taxable services, and Private Letter Ruling 01-006, issued in 2001 and binding only on the taxpayer who asked for it, described janitorial work as not taxable. Cleaning clothing, furniture, carpets, linens, pillows, and draperies is a different matter. It's taxable under the laundry and cleaning category (LAC 61:I.4301, 2004 text), so carpet or upholstery cleaning inside a home or office is taxable. The state rate is 5 percent from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2029, and local sales taxes also apply. The rest of the detail, including a 2024 bill that proposed taxing janitorial work, is on my page about Louisiana sales tax on cleaning services.
Source: Louisiana Department of Revenue, What services are subject to sales tax in Louisiana?
Source: Louisiana Department of Revenue, What is the state sales tax rate?
For unemployment insurance, Louisiana uses the ABC test, set out in La. R.S. 23:1472(12)(E). How each kind of worker appears in the books is in 1099 subcontractors vs. W-2 employees. Whether a specific cleaner is an employee is a legal question for your CPA or an employment attorney.
Source: Louisiana State Legislature, RS 23:1472 Definitions
Louisiana taxes wages, so employers withhold state income tax, and the Louisiana Department of Revenue handles that account through its online registration. Unemployment insurance sits with Louisiana Works, formerly the Louisiana Workforce Commission, through its office of unemployment insurance administration. This page doesn't include a registration link for that account.
Source: Louisiana Department of Revenue, Withholding
Source: Louisiana State Legislature, RS 36:301, Louisiana Works
The U.S. Department of Labor's state table shows no Louisiana minimum wage law, so the federal $7.25 an hour applies, in effect since July 24, 2009. The table, updated July 1, 2026, shows no change, and none had been announced as of October 20, 2026.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, State Minimum Wage Laws (updated July 1, 2026)
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Minimum Wage
Louisiana invoices need carpet and upholstery work on its own line, apart from the general cleaning, because one is taxable and the other isn't on the list. The sales tax you collect on that work goes into a liability account, never income, and it stays there until it's paid. I want to know where every single number on that liability came from, so each dollar ties back to a taxable line on a specific invoice. Labor goes in at the wage you actually pay, and the job profitability estimator shows what that does to one job.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep the taxable work separated and the collected tax in its own account; which local rates apply and how the tax is reported 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 Louisiana 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
Carpet and upholstery cleaning gets its own income line in your books, apart from the building cleaning that isn't on Louisiana's taxable list. Collected sales tax sits in a liability account, tied back to the invoice lines it came from, and payroll is recorded at the wage you actually pay. Book a short call below and we'll look at how your Louisiana invoices land in the books.
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 Louisiana invoices lump carpet cleaning in with everything else, send me a note and we'll sort out how they should read in the books. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
