Nashville
Davidson County's general sales tax rate is 9.75%: Tennessee's 7% state rate plus local tax that the Department of Revenue says is effectively 2.75%, counting a 0.5% transit surcharge that began February 1, 2025. For a Nashville cleaning business, that rate matters only for the taxable part of the work. Cleaning the building itself isn't taxable under a 2007 advisory ruling, while cleaning movable items such as rugs, upholstery, and furniture is.
A Nashville cleaning company can send two invoices on the same day, one with no sales tax on it and one at 9.75%, depending on whether the crew cleaned the building or the things inside it. This page covers the Davidson County rate, where Tennessee draws the line between those two kinds of work, the wage floor, and what it all means for your books. Payroll registration and the employee test are on my Tennessee page.
The Tennessee Department of Revenue lists the state's general sales tax rate, for most tangible personal property and taxable services, at 7%. It describes local sales tax in Davidson County as effectively 2.75% with the 0.5% transit surcharge that began February 1, 2025, and the two together come to 9.75%. Neither department page behind these figures shows a date for the rates themselves.
Source: Tennessee Department of Revenue, Due Dates and Tax Rates (no date shown on page)
Revenue Ruling 07-04, issued in 2007 about hotel room cleaning fees, treats cleaning the building itself as work on real property, and that work isn't taxable. The same answer covers a house and janitorial work in a commercial building. The ruling also states that revenue rulings are advisory and not binding on the Department, so this part of the answer comes from an advisory ruling. Cleaning tangible personal property, meaning movable items such as rugs, upholstery, or furniture, is taxable under SUT-115 and Tenn. Code Ann. 67-6-205, and cleaning that is part of a repair of those items is taxed as a repair. More is on my Tennessee sales tax page.
Source: Tennessee Department of Revenue, Revenue Ruling 07-04 (February 13, 2007)
Source: Tennessee Department of Revenue, SUT-115 Services Subject to Sales and Use Tax (March 27, 2025)
The federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour applies in Tennessee, in effect since July 24, 2009, and the U.S. Department of Labor's state table, updated July 1, 2026, shows no change announced. Tennessee has no state income tax on earned income, so there's no state withholding on wages. This page doesn't cover any Nashville or Davidson County wage rule.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, State Minimum Wage Laws (July 1, 2026)
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Minimum Wage
Source: Tennessee Department of Revenue, GEN-34 Income Tax Withholding (updated August 13, 2024)
Taxable and non-taxable work go on separate income lines, and collected sales tax goes to a liability account, never into income. A Nashville cleaning invoice isn't just the price of a visit. It's the building work that carries no tax under the 2007 ruling, it's the rug or the sofa cleaned on the same trip that does, and it's a 9.75% tax line that belongs only on that second part. Payroll goes in at the wage each person is actually paid, with no state withholding line to carry; my payroll page covers the setup.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep building work and item cleaning on their own lines; whether a particular job is taxable, and how the tax gets 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 Nashville 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
Nashville work can split two ways on one invoice: building cleaning with no sales tax under the 2007 advisory ruling, and item cleaning that carries 9.75%. Each gets its own income line, and the collected tax sits in a liability account. Book a short call below and walk me through a typical Nashville job.
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
Cleaning offices in Nashville and doing upholstery on the side? Show me how one of those invoices is set up today. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
