Lansing
Lansing taxes income at 1% for residents and 0.5% for nonresidents on the City's 2025 forms, and its 2026 estimated tax worksheet uses the same 1.0% and 0.5%. The state's Uniform City Income Tax Ordinance requires an employer doing business or maintaining an establishment in the city to withhold, though nonresident withholding isn't required if the employee's estimated work in the city is under 25%. Michigan doesn't tax residential or commercial cleaning, though some textile cleaning service under an agreement of at least 5 days is taxable.
Lansing runs its own city income tax; the Michigan Department of Treasury's city tax list names only Detroit and Flint. This page covers the two rates, where the employer's withholding duty comes from, Michigan's sales tax position on cleaning, the state wage increase in January, and what it means for your books. Statewide payroll registration is on my Michigan page.
The City of Lansing's 2025 individual income tax forms (L-1040) set the rates at 1% for residents and 0.5% for nonresidents, with 2025 returns due April 30, 2026. The 2026 estimated tax worksheet uses 0.5% for nonresidents and 1.0% for all other taxpayers. The forms say credit for Lansing tax withheld won't be allowed without a supporting Form W-2, and that a taxpayer whose employer didn't withhold still has to file and pay. Returns go to the City of Lansing.
The employer's duty to withhold is stated in the state's Uniform City Income Tax Ordinance (MCL 141.651, Sec. 51): an employer doing business or maintaining an establishment within the city withholds, and no nonresident withholding is required if estimated work in the city is under 25%. This page doesn't cover a Lansing-specific withholding ordinance or the City's employer return schedule.
Source: City of Lansing, 2025 Individual Income Tax Forms and Instructions (L-1040) (tax year 2025)
Lansing cleaning work carries no Michigan sales tax, since the state taxes neither residential nor commercial cleaning. The exception sits in the Use Tax Act, which taxes laundering or cleaning of textiles under a sale, rental, or service agreement with a term of at least 5 days, such as linen, mop, or mat service, unless the textiles are used by a restaurant or retail sales business (MCL 205.93a(1)(d)). The state detail is on my Michigan sales tax page.
Source: Michigan Legislature, Use Tax Act, Act 94 of 1937, MCL 205.93a(1)(d)
This page doesn't cover a Lansing minimum wage. Michigan's rate is $13.73 an hour, effective January 1, 2026, and the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity lists $15.00 effective January 1, 2027.
Source: Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, Wage and Hour Division, Minimum Wage
Lansing withholding goes to its own liability account, apart from Michigan withholding, and each employee's residency belongs on the payroll record because it sets the rate. The 25% rule for nonresidents turns on an estimate of where the work happens. My own memory of who cleaned where last spring is about as reliable as my handwriting, which is to say not very, so that estimate goes in the employee file with a date on it. Textile service under an agreement of at least 5 days goes on an income line of its own, and labor is recorded at the wage actually paid, so the move to $15.00 shows in job costs from January 1, 2027, as my payroll page explains.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep the city withholding recorded and separate; whether an employee counts as a resident, whether work in the city falls under 25%, and how the city return gets filed 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 Lansing 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
Lansing's rate depends on where each employee lives, so residency sits on the payroll record and city withholding goes to its own liability account. The January wage change gets recorded at what people are actually paid. Book a short call below and tell me how your Lansing crews 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
Cleaning in Lansing with crews who live in and out of the city? Tell me how residency is tracked now. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
