Texas sales tax
Yes. Texas taxes residential cleaning and commercial cleaning, per the Comptroller's Publication 94-111. The exemption applies only to a self-employed person providing traditional household services as an employee of the household, not acting as a subcontractor for a third party such as a maid service. Building maintenance isn't taxable when bought by a contractor or home builder as part of new residential construction.
Texas puts the house clean on the taxable side, and the exemption it does have is built around a household employee, not a cleaning company. The Comptroller's publication also speaks to supplies and to new construction. This page covers residential cleaning, commercial cleaning, conditions and exceptions, what it means for your books, and where your CPA comes in.
Residential cleaning is taxable in Texas. The exemption in Publication 94-111 is narrow: it applies only to a self-employed person providing traditional household services as an employee of the household. A cleaner acting as a subcontractor for a third party, such as a maid service, isn't covered by it.
Commercial cleaning is taxable in Texas too, per the same publication. This page doesn't cover the tax rate.
Exception: the household exemption applies only to a self-employed person providing traditional household services as an employee of the household, not as a subcontractor for a third party such as a maid service.
Publication 94-111 is the only primary source reached for this page. Tax Code 151.0048 and Rule 3.356 couldn't be retrieved, so anything they add isn't reflected here.
Every taxable job carries collected sales tax, and that tax belongs in a liability account until it's paid, not in income. If tax has been folded into your job totals, that can feel like a mess. Don't panic. It's fixable. We'll sort it out. Cleanup bookkeeping separates the old entries so the tax and the income each land where they belong.
Supplies your crew uses up are recorded as an expense with the tax you owe on them, and items left for customers sit on their own line, since they may be bought for resale. A job for a builder on new residential construction gets its own line too. For payroll and the minimum wage, see bookkeeping for cleaning businesses in Texas.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep taxable work, collected tax, and supplies on separate lines that tie back to invoices and receipts. Whether a job falls under the household exemption or the new-construction rule, and whether an item qualifies for resale, is a call 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 Texas 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
Texas taxes the house clean and the office clean alike, so collected sales tax goes to a liability account in your books instead of income. Supplies your crew uses up, items left for customers, and any new-construction work for a builder each get their own line. Book a short call below and we'll look at how your Texas invoices are 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
Tell me how your Texas invoices show sales tax today, and I'll show you where it should land in your books. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
