Montana sales tax
No general sales tax applies: Montana doesn't have one, 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 short version fits in one line: Montana has no general sales tax. What this page adds is the limit on that answer, since the Department of Revenue's guidance doesn't mention cleaning by name. Below: residential cleaning, commercial cleaning, what the sources don't cover, what it means for your books, and where your CPA comes in.
Residential cleaning is not taxable in Montana, inferred from the state having no general sales tax. The guidance this rests on doesn't address house cleaning specifically.
Source: Montana Department of Revenue, Sales Tax Guidance for Montana Business and Residents
Commercial cleaning is not taxable either, on the same basis: no general sales tax. As with house cleaning, that's an inference, because the source doesn't address cleaning.
Source: Montana Department of Revenue, Sales Tax Guidance for Montana Business and Residents
Source: Montana Department of Revenue, Sales Tax Guidance for Montana Business and Residents
No general sales tax sounds like a quiet month for a bookkeeper. I'll admit that's wishful thinking on my part, and in Montana there's plenty left. Income gets recorded by job and customer so it ties to your deposits, supplies go in as an expense, and any work your crews do outside Montana sits on its own line, since this page covers Montana only. Payroll, the contractor test, and the minimum wage are on my Montana bookkeeping page.
If the books are months behind, catch-up bookkeeping brings them current.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep income, supplies, and any out-of-state work recorded where they belong. Whether any tax applies to a particular job, local resort taxes included, 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
With no general sales tax to collect in Montana, the attention in your books goes to clean income by job and supplies recorded as expenses. Any work done outside Montana gets its own line so it never blends into Montana income. Book a short call below and we'll look at what your books track today.
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 how your Montana books are set up now, and I'll show you what I'd track. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
