Vermont
Residential and commercial cleaning are not taxable in Vermont. The minimum wage is $14.42 an hour as of January 1, 2026, and state law requires an adjustment on January 1, 2027, the smaller of 5% or CPI-U and never a decrease, whose rate hadn't been published in the sources checked. Unemployment insurance uses an ABC test to decide who's an employee.
Vermont's open item is a wage rate that hadn't been published yet. The law says the minimum wage changes on January 1, 2027, by the smaller of 5% or CPI-U and never downward; the new figure wasn't out in the sources this page relies on. Sales tax is the settled part, since the statute doesn't tax cleaning. Below: sales tax, the employee test, payroll registration, the minimum wage, and how it all shows up in your books.
Neither residential nor commercial cleaning is taxable in Vermont. 32 V.S.A. 9771 taxes tangible personal property, public utility services, fabrication for a consumer, admissions, telecommunications, directory assistance, certain advertising property, and specified digital products, and cleaning services aren't on that list. The Department of Taxes notes a 1% local option tax in some towns on top of taxable sales. The rest is on my page on Vermont sales tax and cleaning services.
Source: Vermont General Assembly, 32 V.S.A. sec. 9771, Imposition of sales tax
Source: Vermont Department of Taxes, Sales and Use Tax: Getting Started
Vermont's unemployment law uses the ABC test, at 21 V.S.A. sec. 1301(6)(B). The wage payment law has one too: under 21 V.S.A. sec. 341(1), a worker is an employee unless the employer can show the worker is free from control, outside the usual course of business, and customarily engaged in an independent trade. I cover how each kind of worker appears in the books in 1099 subcontractors vs. W-2 employees. Whether a particular cleaner is an employee is a legal question for your CPA or an employment attorney.
Source: Vermont General Assembly, 21 V.S.A. sec. 1301, Definitions
Source: Vermont General Assembly, 21 V.S.A. sec. 341, Definitions (wage payment)
Vermont taxes wages, so payroll includes state income tax withholding. Withholding belongs to the Vermont Department of Taxes, and its business tax account registration is where that account is set up. Unemployment insurance is a separate account with the Vermont Department of Labor, through its employer online services.
Source: Vermont Department of Taxes, Hire Employees
Source: Vermont Department of Taxes, Register for a Business Tax Account
Source: Vermont Department of Labor, Employer Online Services
The Vermont minimum wage is $14.42 an hour, effective January 1, 2026. 21 V.S.A. 384(a)(1) requires an adjustment on January 1, 2027, and the 2027 rate hadn't been published in the sources checked for this page. The adjustment is the smaller of 5% or CPI-U, and it is never a decrease.
Source: Vermont Department of Labor, Minimum Wage Poster 2026
Source: Vermont General Assembly, 21 V.S.A. sec. 384, Employment; wages
Source: Vermont Department of Labor, News (as of July 7, 2026)
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, State Minimum Wage Laws (updated July 1, 2026)
Cleaning revenue in Vermont goes to income with no sales tax riding on it. Anything you sell that counts as tangible personal property is a different matter under 9771, so product sales get their own line, apart from cleaning.
The wage is the piece that moves. Payroll gets recorded at the rate you actually pay, and the 2027 rate goes into job costs once it's published. A raise without a number attached can feel like a loose end. No need to stress. One input changes. We'll swap it in. How wages get recorded is on my page about payroll for cleaning businesses.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep cleaning revenue and any product sales on separate lines; how they're reported 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 Vermont 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
Vermont cleaning revenue carries no sales tax, so it goes straight to income, and anything you sell as a product gets a line of its own. On payroll, wages are recorded at the rate you actually pay, and the 2027 rate goes into your job costs once it's published. Pick a time for a short call below and we'll look at your Vermont setup.
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 clean in Vermont and want your books ready for whatever the 2027 rate turns out to be, reach out. We'll go through it together. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
