North Dakota sales tax
Residential and commercial cleaning are not taxable in North Dakota. No state document naming janitorial or house cleaning was found, so the answer rests on the list of taxable services in N.D.C.C. 57-39.2-02.1(1). Property sold or used in connection with a repair, including cleaning another person's tangible personal property, is taxable, and a business pays sales or use tax on the supplies and equipment it buys.
North Dakota's answer comes from what its statute lists rather than from anything written about cleaning. Cleaning isn't on the list of taxable services, and no North Dakota document naming janitorial or house cleaning was found. This page covers residential cleaning, commercial cleaning, the conditions that still bring tax into the picture, what it means for your books, and where your CPA comes in.
Residential cleaning is not taxable in North Dakota. It doesn't appear on the list of taxable services in N.D.C.C. 57-39.2-02.1(1), and no state document addressing house cleaning was found.
Source: North Dakota Legislative Branch, N.D.C.C. chapter 57-39.2, section 57-39.2-02.1
Commercial cleaning is not taxable either, on the same basis. North Dakota does have a sales and use tax; janitorial work just isn't on the list of services it reaches.
Source: North Dakota Legislative Branch, N.D.C.C. chapter 57-39.2, section 57-39.2-02.1
Source: North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner, Sales and Use Tax
A not-taxable service doesn't make a tax-free business. The bookkeeping here isn't just about what you charge. It's the supply receipts, it's the sales or use tax paid on them, it's the job that involves a customer's personal property and needs to be seen on its own. Each of those gets its own account or income line so it never blends into general cleaning revenue.
If past supply purchases all landed in one account, cleanup bookkeeping sorts them out. For payroll, the employee test, and the minimum wage, see my North Dakota bookkeeping page.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep supplies, the tax paid on them, and each kind of work recorded separately. Whether a particular job or purchase is taxable, and what goes on a return, 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 North Dakota 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
Because North Dakota taxes the supplies and equipment a cleaning business buys, each purchase gets recorded with the sales or use tax paid kept visible. Jobs that involve a customer's personal property stay on their own income line. Book a short call below and we'll look at how your North Dakota purchases are recorded now.
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
Send me a note about how your North Dakota supply purchases are recorded today, and I'll show you what I'd change. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
