Sales tax
Yes, above a sales threshold. Ohio treats residential and commercial cleaning as taxable building maintenance and janitorial service. The exception is size: a provider with less than $5,000 in sales of that service in a calendar year isn't providing taxable janitorial service under R.C. 5739.01.
Ohio's guidance on cleaning gets specific, down to window washing and outdoor pools. The Department of Taxation's information release on building maintenance and janitorial services does most of that work. This page covers residential cleaning, commercial cleaning, the conditions and exceptions, and what they mean for your books.
Cleaning homes is taxable in Ohio, per Information Release ST 2002-04 (updated September 2015), the Department of Taxation's guidance on building maintenance and janitorial services. Size still matters, as the conditions below show.
Commercial cleaning is taxable as building maintenance and janitorial service under R.C. 5739.01. County and transit rates add to the state rate, so the total rate is more than the state rate alone.
Exception: cleaning outdoor pools is not taxable, per ST 2002-04.
Two calendar-year thresholds means two running totals. I keep janitorial sales and snow removal sales in separate income accounts, so either one can be checked against its $5,000 line at any point in the year. Outdoor pool cleaning gets its own account as well, and I want every single outdoor pool invoice tied back to that account so it never gets taxed by accident. Sales tax collected goes to a liability account with the county attached. The rest of the Ohio picture, including the 2027 minimum wage, is on my Ohio page.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I can tell you what R.C. 5739.01 and ST 2002-04 say and keep the totals ready. Whether your business is over a threshold, and how your sales tax is reported, belongs with 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 Ohio 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
Ohio's $5,000 calendar-year line applies to janitorial sales and, separately, to snow removal, so I keep each in its own income account where the running total is easy to check. Outdoor pool cleaning gets an account of its own too, and collected sales tax goes to a liability account with the county attached. If windows, pools, and snow work all run through one line in your books, 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
If your windows, pools, and snow work all run through one income line, tell me how you invoice today. We'll sort it into the right lanes together, and the first conversation doesn't cost anything.
