Virginia
The minimum wage is the moving piece: $12.77 an hour since January 1, 2026, then $13.75 on January 1, 2027 and $15.00 on January 1, 2028. On sales tax, Virginia's general services rule points to residential and commercial cleaning not being taxable, though no Virginia Tax source names cleaning and services tied to a sale of tangible personal property are taxable. You also owe tax on the supplies you buy to do the work.
Virginia has already set its next two minimum wage increases, one in 2027 and one in 2028, and both show up in the labor cost of every job. Sales tax is quieter. The general rule for services points to cleaning not being taxable, while the supplies you buy to do the work are taxed to you. Below I cover sales tax, the employee test, payroll registration, the minimum wage, and what all of it means for your books.
Neither residential nor commercial cleaning appears to be taxable in Virginia. That conclusion rests on the general services exemption in 23VAC10-210-4040, because no Virginia Tax source names house cleaning or janitorial work. Two limits come with it. Services provided in connection with a sale of tangible personal property are taxable, and a service provider is the taxable user of the supplies and property it buys to perform its service, so it owes tax on those purchases. The detail is on my page on Virginia sales tax and cleaning services.
Source: Virginia Department of Taxation, Retail Sales and Use Tax
For unemployment insurance, Virginia defines employment in Va. Code § 60.2-212(C). This page doesn't summarize the elements of that test; the statute is linked below. How employees and subcontractors each show up in the books is in 1099 subcontractors vs. W-2 employees. Whether a particular cleaner is an employee is a legal question, and it belongs with your CPA or an employment attorney.
Source: Virginia General Assembly, Legislative Information System, Va. Code § 60.2-212, Employment
Virginia taxes wages, so payroll includes state income tax withholding. Withholding belongs to the Virginia Department of Taxation (Virginia Tax), and its registration runs through the Register Your Business page. Unemployment insurance is a separate account with the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC), which has its own tax filing and registration page.
Source: Virginia Department of Taxation, Employer Withholding
Source: Virginia Department of Taxation, Register Your Business
Source: Virginia Employment Commission, tax filing and registration
Source: Virginia Employment Commission, How do I register my business now that I have employees?
The Virginia minimum wage is $12.77 an hour, effective January 1, 2026. Va. Code § 40.1-28.10, as amended by 2026 Acts chapters 350 and 351, sets $13.75 on January 1, 2027 and $15.00 on January 1, 2028. After that, the statute calls for an annual CPI-U adjustment, set by October 1 each year starting in 2028.
Source: Virginia Department of Labor and Industry, Virginia Minimum Wage Timeline Card
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, State Minimum Wage Laws (updated July 1, 2026)
With the cleaning itself not taxable under the general services rule, the Virginia sales tax work sits on the buying side. Tax paid on supplies is part of what those supplies cost, and that's how it gets recorded. If a job ever includes a sale of tangible personal property, that sale gets its own line so it can't hide inside cleaning revenue.
Wages are the bigger moving part. Payroll gets recorded at the rate you actually pay, and the 2027 and 2028 steps go into job costs before they arrive. When a job's cost changes, I want to see where every single number came from: the hours from the schedule, the rate from payroll, the supplies from the receipt. The job profitability estimator shows what $13.75 does to a single job.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep supply purchases and any product sales tracked; whether a given job falls under the general services rule, and how any tax is 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 Virginia 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
Virginia's wage steps are already on the calendar, so payroll gets recorded at the rate you actually pay and each new rate goes into your job costs ahead of time. Tax you pay on cleaning supplies stays with the cost of those supplies, and any product sold on a job gets its own line instead of disappearing into cleaning revenue. Book a short call below and we'll look at how your Virginia books are set up today.
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 run a cleaning company in Virginia and want your books ready for the 2027 and 2028 wage steps, send me a note. We'll walk through it together. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
