Youngstown
Youngstown's municipal income tax is 2.75%, and city code requires employers doing business in Youngstown to withhold it from each employee's qualifying wages. Mahoning County's combined sales tax rate is 7.50% for October 1 to December 31, 2026. Ohio taxes residential and commercial cleaning, unless a provider has less than $5,000 in sales of that service in a calendar year.
In Youngstown, the city's tax comes out of payroll and the county's rate goes on taxable invoices. This page covers the 2.75% income tax and where its remittances go, the Mahoning County rate, Ohio's wage change in January, and what it all means for your books. State payroll registration and the employee test are on my Ohio page.
Chapter 183 of the Codified Ordinances of Youngstown, effective January 1, 2016, levies the tax at 2.75% on residents' income and on nonresidents' qualifying wages earned for work or services in the city. Section 183.04(A) requires employers doing business in the city to withhold 2.75% from each employee's qualifying wages, and Section 183.04 names the Tax Administrator of the City of Youngstown as the recipient of remittances.
Those sections come from the city's code as posted by its code host, American Legal Publishing, in a version labeled 2025-01 (current), and the host warns that posted code may not reflect the most current legislation. No Youngstown tax office page was reviewed, so this page doesn't cover the city's filing schedule or any credit for tax paid to other cities.
The Ohio Department of Taxation's county rate table for October 1 to December 31, 2026 puts Mahoning County's combined state and local rate at 7.50%, and that figure is the total. Ohio's janitorial information release lists carpet and upholstery cleaning, window washing, blind and shade cleaning, and power washing building exteriors as taxable, and cleaning outdoor pools as not taxable. Below $5,000 in calendar-year sales of this service, a provider isn't providing taxable building maintenance and janitorial service. More conditions, including snow removal, are on my Ohio sales tax page.
Source: Ohio Department of Taxation, Sales and Use Tax Rates by County, October 1, 2026 to December 31, 2026
Source: Ohio Revised Code 5739.01 Definitions
Ohio has no local minimum wages, so the state minimum is the one that applies to Youngstown crews. That's $11.00 an hour in 2026; the January 1 effective date is inferred, because the 2026 poster gives the rate without a date and the Ohio Constitution makes annual increases effective January 1. The Department of Commerce's 2027 poster, revised September 30, 2026, raises it to $11.40 on January 1, 2027.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, State Minimum Wage Laws (2026-07-01)
Source: Ohio Revised Code 4111.02
Source: Ohio Constitution Article II, Section 34a
City withholding gets its own liability account, separate from Ohio withholding, and collected sales tax goes to another. I want every single dollar of Youngstown withholding to tie back to a line on the payroll register, so the amount that goes to the Tax Administrator matches what came out of pay. Cleaning sales are tracked year to date against the $5,000 calendar-year line, and wages are recorded at the rate actually paid, which my payroll page covers.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I record the city withholding and the sales tax in their own accounts; how often you remit, which wages count as qualifying, and how each return gets filed are questions 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 Youngstown 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
Withholding at 2.75% comes out of qualifying wages, so the Youngstown withholding account should match the payroll register to the penny. Sales tax collected on taxable cleaning at the Mahoning County combined rate is held as a liability, not income, and cleaning sales are tracked year to date against the $5,000 calendar-year line. Book a short call below and show me how your Youngstown payroll is recorded.
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.
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Cleaning in Youngstown and want the city tax traced back to your payroll register? Tell me how you track it now. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
