Maryland sales tax
Commercial cleaning is taxable in Maryland, limited to commercial or industrial buildings, at a 6 percent state rate per a 2025 fiscal note. Residential cleaning is not taxable, based on its absence from the enumerated taxable services in Tax-General 11-101(m) as shown in 2025 legislative text; no Comptroller statement was retrieved.
In Maryland the sales tax question turns on what kind of building the crew is standing in. Commercial and industrial buildings are in; homes, by the statute's list, are out. This page covers residential cleaning, commercial cleaning, the conditions in the statute, what the split means for your books, and where your CPA comes in.
Residential cleaning is not taxable in Maryland. That's based on Tax-General 11-101(m) as shown in the 2025 first reader text of House Bill 1554, where residential cleaning isn't among the enumerated taxable services. No Comptroller statement on it was retrieved, so this is a reading of the statute's list, not a Comptroller ruling.
Commercial cleaning is taxable, and Tax-General 11-101(m)(3) limits the taxable item to commercial or industrial buildings. The Department of Legislative Services' 2025 fiscal note on SB 1045 puts the state sales tax rate at 6 percent.
Source: Maryland Department of Legislative Services, Fiscal and Policy Note, SB 1045 (March 11, 2025)
Source: Maryland Department of Legislative Services, Fiscal and Policy Note, SB 1045 (March 11, 2025)
On paper the split looks like one more income line. It isn't just a line. It's knowing which kind of building every job was in, it's keeping recurring textile work for a business apart from the cleaning itself, and it's holding the 6 percent you collect in a liability account so it never passes for income.
If your old invoices don't show what kind of building each job was in, cleanup bookkeeping sorts the old entries. Payroll, the ABC test, and Montgomery County's minimum wage are on bookkeeping for cleaning businesses in Maryland.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep commercial and residential work apart in your books so the tax lines tie back to real jobs. Whether a particular building or job is taxable, and what goes on your return, is a call 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 Maryland 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
Because Maryland taxes cleaning of commercial and industrial buildings, while homes aren't on the taxable list in 2025 statute text, the books carry those as separate income lines, and recurring textile work for a business gets a line of its own. The sales tax you collect on commercial work is held as a liability until it's paid. Grab a short call below and we'll see how your Maryland jobs are tagged today.
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 Maryland work splits between homes and commercial buildings, and we'll look at how the books show it. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
