Mississippi
Mississippi taxes services only when they're on a list, and the one cleaning item on the Department of Revenue's list is applied by DOR rule to laundry, cleaning, dyeing or pressing shops. No DOR source names house cleaning or janitorial work, so both are treated as not taxable, by inference. Mississippi taxes wages, unemployment registration runs through MDES, and the federal $7.25 minimum wage applies.
The word "cleaning" does appear on Mississippi's list of taxable services, and it's easy to read too much into it. The item is "Laundering, cleaning, pressing or dyeing," a Department of Revenue rule applies it to people operating a laundry, cleaning, dyeing or pressing shop, and nothing in that rule or on the list names house or office cleaning. Below I cover sales tax, the employee test and its two citations, payroll registration, the minimum wage, and what this means for your books.
Residential and commercial cleaning are both treated as not taxable in Mississippi, by inference. The state taxes services only when they are listed in Miss. Code Ann. 27-65-23, the Department of Revenue's list has no janitorial, maid, or building-cleaning item, and no DOR source names house cleaning. The listed "Laundering, cleaning, pressing or dyeing" item is taxed at 7% of gross income, and DOR rule 35.IV.5.02.100 applies it to persons operating a laundry, cleaning, dyeing or pressing shop. The statute text itself wasn't read; the basis is the DOR list and the DOR rule, and local levies weren't checked. The full reasoning is on my page about Mississippi sales tax on cleaning services.
Source: Mississippi Department of Revenue, Sales Tax Rates
Mississippi's unemployment law is described as a common-law, right-to-control test, with a limit worth stating. That statutory language is confirmed here only through a 2022 appellate opinion quoting the 2021 revision of the code, and the current MDES worker classification page describes a multi-factor review with control as one factor. MDES cites the definition as Miss. Code Ann. § 71-5-11(J)(14); the 2022 opinion, quoting the Rev. 2021 code, cites it as § 71-5-11(I)(14). The books side, for employees and subcontractors alike, is in 1099 subcontractors vs. W-2 employees. Whether a particular cleaner is an employee is a legal question for your CPA or an employment attorney.
Source: Mississippi Department of Employment Security, Worker Classification
Mississippi taxes wages, so employers withhold state income tax. The Mississippi Department of Revenue handles withholding through its online registration portal. Unemployment insurance is a separate account with the Mississippi Department of Employment Security (MDES), which has its own employer registration page.
Source: Mississippi Department of Revenue, Withholding Tax Information
Source: Mississippi Department of Employment Security, Register with Us
Mississippi has no state minimum wage law on the U.S. Department of Labor's state table, so the federal $7.25 an hour applies, as it has since July 24, 2009. No change 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
House and office cleaning are treated as not taxable here, by inference from the services list and the DOR rule, so the work in the books is keeping that answer easy to check. Residential and commercial income each get their own line. If your business also operates a laundry, cleaning, dyeing or pressing shop, that income goes on a line of its own, since that's who the DOR rule applies the listed item to.
Payroll goes in at the wage each person is actually paid. If months of payroll runs never made it into the books, the approach doesn't change. Don't panic. It's fixable. We'll get it, one run at a time, through catch-up bookkeeping.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep income and payroll recorded so the picture is clear; whether any of your work fits the listed laundering and cleaning item, and anything about local levies, 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 Mississippi 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
Mississippi's only listed cleaning item is applied to laundry, cleaning, dyeing or pressing shops, so house and office cleaning are treated as not taxable by inference, and residential, commercial, and any shop income each sit on their own line in your books so that answer stays easy to check. Payroll is recorded at the wage each person is actually paid. Book a short call below and we'll look at where your Mississippi books stand.
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 you clean homes or offices in Mississippi and your income and payroll aren't where you can see them, reach out. We'll go through your books together, and the first conversation doesn't cost anything.
