South Carolina sales tax
No, for house and office cleaning: SCDOR Revenue Ruling 89-1, effective July 1, 1989, treats in-home cleaning and on-site janitorial work as not taxable, and the current regulation wasn't checked for this page. The cleaner pays sales or use tax on the supplies it uses, and laundering, dry cleaning, and dyeing are taxable.
The South Carolina answer comes from a revenue ruling that took effect July 1, 1989. It settles the cleaning itself and then points the tax at two other places: the supplies you use and any laundering you do. This page covers residential cleaning, commercial cleaning, conditions and exceptions, what it means for your books, and where your CPA comes in.
In-home cleaning is not taxable in South Carolina, per Revenue Ruling 89-1, which quotes Regulation 117-174.241. Under the ruling, in-home cleaning is neither licensed nor taxed. The current regulation wasn't checked, so this answer rests on the ruling as written.
On-site janitorial cleaning at a business is in the same position under Revenue Ruling 89-1: not licensed and not taxed. The same limit applies, since the ruling took effect in 1989 and the current regulation wasn't checked. The sales tax itself is imposed under S.C. Code 12-36-910.
Source: South Carolina Legislature, S.C. Code 12-36-910, Sales tax imposed
Exception: if your service list includes laundering, dry cleaning, or dyeing, the ruling treats that work as taxable even though the cleaning beside it isn't.
Source: South Carolina Department of Revenue, Sales and Use Tax
On the income side, house and office cleaning carry no collected sales tax, and laundering or dry cleaning, if you offer it, goes on its own income line. The supply side takes more care. Tossing supply receipts in the truck and sorting them in a pile at year end. It's the worst habit for a South Carolina cleaner, because those receipts carry the sales or use tax you pay, and a faded receipt can't show it. Supplies get recorded as they're bought, tax included, each one matched to its receipt.
For payroll and the minimum wage, see bookkeeping for cleaning businesses in South Carolina.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I record supply purchases with their tax and keep any taxable laundering apart. Whether Revenue Ruling 89-1 still describes the rule for your work, and how the tax you pay on supplies is reported, 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 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
In South Carolina the sales tax story for a cleaning business runs through supply receipts, so each purchase is recorded as it happens with the tax it carried. Laundering or dry cleaning income, where you offer it, gets its own line apart from cleaning. Book a short call below and we'll look at how your receipts are handled 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
Tell me how you track supply purchases today, and I'll show you how they'd sit in your books. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
