Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri has a 1% earnings tax on earned income. Employers withhold it on 100% of taxable wages for employees who live in Kansas City, and on the part of a nonresident's pay attributable to work performed in the city. On wages, Missouri has no local minimum wages, and the state rate is $15.00 an hour.
In Kansas City, Missouri, the local rule that reaches your payroll is a tax, not a wage. This page covers the earnings tax and who owes it, what the employer withholds, the return calendar the city publishes, the business license, and what all of it means for your books. Missouri registration and the employee test are on bookkeeping for Missouri cleaning businesses.
The city's Finance Department describes the earnings tax as 1% on earned income. All Kansas City residents owe it, even when they work outside the city, and nonresidents owe it on income earned inside city limits. The city's Revenue Division collects it.
Source: City of Kansas City, MO Finance Department, Have You Paid Your KCMO Earnings Tax (E-Tax)?
According to the Revenue Division's Tax Guide for Non-Resident Businesses, employers withhold 1% on 100% of taxable wages for resident employees, and on the portion of a nonresident employee's compensation attributable to services performed in Kansas City. Withholding is remitted at the same frequency the business uses for Missouri income tax withholding, with a quarterly Form RD-110 and an annual Form RD-113 due January 31.
Source: City of Kansas City, MO Revenue Division, Tax Guide for Non-Resident Businesses
The city's KC BizCare Office puts it this way: "In order to work with Kansas City, your business must be registered and licensed unless State Law provides an exemption from licensing." The page says work with, not work in, and it doesn't settle whether a business based outside the city needs a license for jobs there. That one is a question for the city.
Missouri's minimum wage is $15.00 an hour, effective January 1, 2026, with no change announced as of October 20, 2026, and Missouri has no local minimum wages. On sales tax, the Missouri Department of Revenue's janitorial matrix lists residential and commercial cleaning as not taxable, while noting that taxability may depend on the facts and circumstances of a specific transaction. More on my page about Missouri sales tax on cleaning services.
Source: Missouri Revisor of Statutes, RSMo 290.502
Source: Missouri Revisor of Statutes, RSMo 290.528
Source: Missouri Department of Revenue, Janitorial Services Tax Matrix (effective November 10, 2022)
Residents and nonresidents get handled differently, so the books start with knowing which employees live in Kansas City. From there, every single dollar withheld ties back to a paycheck: all taxable wages for a resident, and only the Kansas City portion for a nonresident, which is why hours worked in the city get tagged in payroll. The withholding sits in its own liability account, on the same calendar as your Missouri withholding, until it's paid over.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep the earnings tax withholding recorded and tied to payroll; whether a given wage is subject to it, and how the returns get filed, 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 Kansas City 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
Kansas City's earnings tax follows where an employee lives and where the work happens, so payroll records carry both, and the withheld tax sits in its own liability account. Each withheld dollar ties back to a paycheck, on the same calendar as your Missouri withholding. Book a short call below and we'll look at your Kansas City payroll.
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
Not sure which of your employees live in Kansas City? Tell me how payroll is set up today, and we'll sort out what the books need. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
