South Carolina
Under a 1989 revenue ruling, house and office cleaning in South Carolina are not taxable, but the cleaner pays sales or use tax on the supplies it uses; the current regulation wasn't checked for this page. The federal $7.25 minimum wage applies, and employers register separately for withholding and unemployment insurance.
In South Carolina, the sales tax a cleaning business deals with shows up on what it buys, not on what it bills. That rests on Revenue Ruling 89-1, effective July 1, 1989. Below are sales tax, the employee test, payroll registration, the minimum wage, and what it means for your books.
Residential and commercial cleaning are not taxable in South Carolina, per SCDOR Revenue Ruling 89-1, effective July 1, 1989, which quotes Regulation 117-174.241. Under that ruling, on-site janitorial and in-home cleaning are neither licensed nor taxed, but the cleaner pays sales or use tax on the property it uses. Laundering, dry cleaning, and dyeing are taxable. The current regulation wasn't checked for this page. More on my page on South Carolina sales tax for cleaning services.
Source: South Carolina Department of Revenue, Sales and Use Tax
South Carolina uses the common-law, right-to-control test for unemployment insurance, which asks whether the business has the right to control the work. The statute is S.C. Code 41-27-230(1)(b). How employees and subcontractors each appear in the books is in 1099 subcontractors vs. W-2 employees. Whether a particular cleaner is an employee is a question for your CPA or an employment attorney.
Source: South Carolina Legislature, S.C. Code Title 41, Chapter 27
Source: South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce, Employer Handbook (file dated September 2026)
South Carolina taxes wages, so employers withhold state income tax. Withholding goes through the South Carolina Department of Revenue, with registration at mydorway.dor.sc.gov. Unemployment insurance is handled by the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW), with registration at uitax.dew.sc.gov.
Source: South Carolina Department of Revenue, Withholding
Source: South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce, SUITS
Source: South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce, Employer Handbook (file dated September 2026)
South Carolina uses the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, in effect since July 24, 2009. This page doesn't cover any upcoming change.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, State Minimum Wage Laws (updated July 1, 2026)
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Minimum Wage
With cleaning not taxed, there's no collected sales tax on your cleaning invoices to hold in a liability account. The tax runs the other way, on supplies, so those purchases get recorded with the tax they carried, and every single supply total ties back to a receipt. If you also offer laundering, dry cleaning, or dyeing, that income goes on its own line, since the ruling treats it as taxable. Labor gets recorded at the wage you actually pay, which the payroll page covers.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. Because the ruling dates to 1989 and the current regulation wasn't checked, whether it still describes the rule for your work 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 South Carolina 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
South Carolina's cleaning tax lands on supplies rather than invoices, so supply purchases get recorded with the tax they carried and matched to the receipt. Any laundering or dry cleaning income sits on its own line, and payroll is recorded at the wage actually paid. Book a short call below and we'll go through your South Carolina books together.
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 you run a cleaning business in South Carolina and want your supply costs and payroll traced cleanly in your books, reach out. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
