Vermont sales tax
No. Residential and commercial cleaning are not 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 among them.
Vermont's sales tax statute works from a list. 32 V.S.A. 9771 names what's taxed, and cleaning, residential or commercial, isn't on it. This page covers residential cleaning, commercial cleaning, the conditions around the edges, what still needs tracking in your books, and where your CPA comes in.
House cleaning isn't taxable in Vermont. The categories 9771 taxes don't include it. No Department of Taxes page checked for this page addressed cleaning services directly, so the answer comes from the statute itself.
Source: Vermont General Assembly, 32 V.S.A. sec. 9771, Imposition of sales tax
Office, janitorial, and other commercial cleaning isn't taxable either. Same statute, same list, same result.
Source: Vermont General Assembly, 32 V.S.A. sec. 9771, Imposition of sales tax
Source: Vermont Department of Taxes, Sales and Use Tax
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
Cleaning revenue in Vermont goes to income without any sales tax riding on it. The books still have more than one job to do here. Good bookkeeping isn't just one income account labeled cleaning. It's a separate line for any tangible personal property you sell, it's a liability account for sales tax collected on those sales, it's room for the 1% local option tax that some towns add on top of taxable sales.
If past product sales got lumped in with cleaning, cleanup bookkeeping sorts them back out. For the ABC test, payroll registration, and the minimum wage, see bookkeeping for cleaning businesses in Vermont.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep cleaning revenue and product sales apart so each total matches its invoices. Whether something you sell is taxable, and how it's 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
Even with no tax on cleaning in Vermont, the books need more than one income account: cleaning in one place, any product sales in another, and collected sales tax held as a liability. That split keeps a not-taxable answer from turning into a guess later. Book a short call below and we'll see how your accounts 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
If your Vermont books mix cleaning and product sales in one account, let's talk about splitting them out. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
