Montana
Montana has no general sales tax, so residential and commercial cleaning aren't taxed by one; that's inferred from Department of Revenue guidance that doesn't address cleaning or local resort taxes. Montana does tax wages, and the minimum wage is $10.85 an hour, rising to $11.20 on January 1, 2027.
With no general sales tax, the Montana rules on this page are mostly about people: who counts as an employee, where payroll gets registered, and what the wage floor is. The minimum wage moves from $10.85 to $11.20 an hour on January 1, 2027. Below I cover sales tax, the employee test, payroll registration, the minimum wage, and what it all means for your books.
Montana has no general sales tax, so residential and commercial cleaning are not taxable under one. That answer is inferred from the Department of Revenue's sales tax guidance, which doesn't address cleaning or local resort taxes. The detail, and what the guidance leaves open, is on my page about Montana sales tax and cleaning services.
Source: Montana Department of Revenue, Sales Tax Guidance for Montana Business and Residents
Montana's unemployment insurance rules use a two-part test: freedom from control or direction, and being engaged in an independently established business. The UI law defines an independent contractor as one working under an Independent Contractor Exemption Certificate (ICEC) under 39-71-417, MCA. How employees and subcontractors each land in the books 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: Montana Department of Labor & Industry, Independent Contractor Exemption Certificate Program
Montana taxes wages, and the Montana Department of Revenue handles withholding. A new withholding account is opened through tap.dor.mt.gov. Unemployment insurance runs through the Montana Department of Labor & Industry, Unemployment Insurance Division. Its employer handbook names uieservices.mt.gov for registration, though that address opens on the MUSE Claimant Center, so this page can't confirm where the employer registration entry point sits on the site.
Source: Montana Department of Revenue, Opening a new account (wage withholding)
The Montana minimum wage is $10.85 an hour, effective January 1, 2026. The Department of Labor & Industry has announced $11.20 an hour, effective January 1, 2027.
Source: Montana Department of Labor & Industry, Minimum Wage Determination Letter 2026 (September 23, 2025)
Source: Montana Department of Labor & Industry, Montana's Minimum Wage
Source: Montana Department of Labor & Industry, 2027 Minimum Wage Poster
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, State Minimum Wage Laws (updated July 1, 2026)
No general sales tax doesn't mean nothing to track. In Montana, payroll is where the state rules show up in your books: withholding, unemployment insurance, and a wage floor that changes in January. I want to know where every single number came from, so each payroll run ties back to the payroll report and each job's labor ties back to the hours behind it. Subcontractor payments stay out of payroll entirely. My payroll page covers how payroll and the books connect.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep payroll recorded and reconciled; how any of it is reported 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 Montana 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
In Montana the bookkeeping work centers on payroll: each run recorded at the wage actually paid, with withholding and unemployment insurance kept in their own accounts. Subcontractor payments stay separate from wages, so your CPA or employment attorney can see exactly who was paid how. Schedule a short call below and we'll get your Montana payroll and books tied together.
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 run a cleaning company in Montana and want payroll and the books telling the same story before the 2027 wage, send me a note. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
