Mississippi sales tax
Residential and commercial cleaning are not taxable in Mississippi, by inference. Services are taxed only when listed in Miss. Code Ann. 27-65-23, the Department of Revenue's list has no maid, janitorial, or building-cleaning item, and no DOR source names house cleaning. The list's one cleaning item, "Laundering, cleaning, pressing or dyeing," is applied by DOR rule to laundry, cleaning, dyeing or pressing shops.
Mississippi's taxable services list is where the confusion starts, because one of its items has the word "cleaning" in it. This page explains what that item covers under the Department of Revenue's own rule, then goes through residential cleaning, commercial cleaning, the conditions, what it means for your books, and where your CPA comes in.
House cleaning is not taxable in Mississippi, as an inference rather than a named rule. Mississippi taxes services only when they are listed in Miss. Code Ann. 27-65-23, and no Department of Revenue source names house cleaning. The answer rests on that list and on the rule covering the one cleaning item on it, described below.
Source: Mississippi Department of Revenue, Sales Tax Rates
Commercial cleaning gets the same answer on the same basis. No janitorial, maid, or building-cleaning item appears on the DOR list of taxable services, no DOR source names janitorial service, and the list's cleaning item is applied to laundry, cleaning, dyeing or pressing shops.
Services are taxable in Mississippi only when listed in Miss. Code Ann. 27-65-23. The statute text itself wasn't read for this page; the basis is the DOR rate list and the DOR rule. The "cleaning" on that list isn't just a word that happens to match your trade. It's one word in a phrase that also names laundering, pressing and dyeing, it's an item DOR rule 35.IV.5.02.100 applies to persons operating a laundry, cleaning, dyeing or pressing shop, and it's taxed at 7% of gross income where it does apply. The rule sits in a section headed Laundries, Dry Cleaners and Linen Rental Companies.
Source: Mississippi Department of Revenue, Sales Tax Rates
Exception: a business operating a laundry, cleaning, dyeing or pressing shop is who the DOR rule applies the listed item to, and that item is taxed at 7% of gross income. Local levies weren't checked for this page.
With house and office cleaning treated as untaxed by inference from the services list and the DOR rule, the sales tax side of a Mississippi cleaning company's books comes down to keeping income on the right lines. Residential and commercial income each sit on their own line. If you also operate a laundry, cleaning, dyeing or pressing shop, that income gets a line of its own, because that's who the DOR rule applies the listed item to, and any tax collected on it would sit in a liability account rather than in income.
Payroll, MDES registration, and the minimum wage are on my Mississippi cleaning business bookkeeping page.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep your income lines separate so the picture is plain. Whether any part of your work falls under the laundering and cleaning item, and how local levies apply, 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 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 taxes only listed services, and its cleaning item is applied to laundry, cleaning, dyeing or pressing shops, so house and office cleaning are treated as untaxed by inference. That's why shop-type income, if you have any, sits on its own line in your books apart from residential and commercial work. If you want a second look at how your income is split, book a short call below.
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 what kinds of cleaning your Mississippi business does, and I'll show you how the income side should be laid out. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
