Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh puts three local taxes on payroll. The city's Taxes page lists a 3% Earned Income Tax withheld from city residents' wages (1% city plus 2% school district), a .55% Payroll Expense Tax the employer pays, which may not be deducted from wages, and a $52-a-year Local Services Tax that employers withhold. Pennsylvania taxes residential and commercial cleaning, and Allegheny County's 1% local sales tax on top of the 6% state rate makes 7% combined.
Payroll is where Pittsburgh asks the most of a cleaning company's books, since each of the three city taxes is handled a little differently. Statewide payroll registration and the employee test are on my Pennsylvania page. This page covers the three payroll taxes and the 15-day employer registration rule, then the 7% combined sales tax, the Paid Sick Days Act, and what it all means for your books.
For city residents, the Earned Income Tax is 3%, made up of 1% for the city and 2% for the school district; employers withhold it from residents' wages and remit it to Jordan Tax Services. For people who don't live in Pennsylvania but work within the city, it's 1%. The city page doesn't say how it applies to employees who live in other Pennsylvania municipalities, and this page doesn't cover that.
The Payroll Expense Tax is .55% of gross payroll, levied on every employer conducting business in the city and filed quarterly on the Payroll Expense Tax form, and the city's FAQ says it may not be deducted from employee wages. The Local Services Tax is $52 a year, withheld by employers in even parts over four quarters and paid to the City Treasurer; the city's 2024 LS-1 return works that out to $1 a week for weekly pay. The Taxes page also states a $12,000 exemption tied to the Local Services Tax, and who qualifies is a question for the city or your CPA.
Every employer not registered with the City of Pittsburgh must register within 15 days of first becoming an employer, a rule the Taxes page states alongside the Payroll Expense Tax and Local Services Tax. That's an employer tax account, not a general business license, and the page doesn't say every business needs one.
Source: City of Pittsburgh Department of Finance, Taxes (last updated 03/05/2026)
Source: City of Pittsburgh Department of Finance, Payroll Expense Tax FAQs
Source: City of Pittsburgh Department of Finance, LS-1 2024 Local Services Tax Quarterly Return (Rev 12/23)
Residential and commercial cleaning are both taxable in Pennsylvania. The Department of Revenue's rate table lists the 6% state rate and a 1% Allegheny County local rate, with no combined total and no effective date, so 7% is the sum. Under Act 21 of 2026 (enacted July 12, 2026, enforced from October 1, 2026, and retroactive to tax years after December 31, 2025), vendors collecting the state tax must also collect the Allegheny County tax on taxable sales delivered there. The state rules are on my Pennsylvania sales tax page.
Source: Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, Current Tax Rates
Source: Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, Local Sales Tax (Act 21 of 2026)
The City of Pittsburgh Paid Sick Days Act (City Code Chapter 626) covers any employer doing business in the city with at least one employee. An employee is covered after working at least 35 hours in a calendar year within city limits and earns one hour of paid sick time for every 35 hours worked there. Employers with 15 or more employees may cap accrual at 40 hours a calendar year; under 15, the cap is 24 hours. The Mayor's Office of Equal Protection enforces it.
Three taxes means three different homes in the books. Any Earned Income Tax withheld from pay sits in a liability account until it's remitted, the Payroll Expense Tax is booked as your expense because the city says it can't come out of anyone's check, and the Local Services Tax gets a line of its own. I want every single one of those balances to reconcile back to the payroll report that produced it, quarter by quarter. Hours worked inside city limits get tracked for sick time, and payroll is recorded at the wage actually paid, as my payroll page explains.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep each city tax in its own account; who owes what, 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 Pittsburgh 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 three payroll taxes in Pittsburgh, each one gets its own place: any Earned Income Tax withheld from pay held as a liability, the Payroll Expense Tax booked as your expense, and the Local Services Tax on a line of its own. Collected sales tax at the 7% combined rate stays out of revenue too. Book a short call below and we'll look at how your Pittsburgh payroll is set up.
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
Got Pittsburgh crews and three city taxes blurring into one payroll line? Tell me how you run payroll today. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
