Washington
Routine janitorial work, the cleaning commercial janitor businesses ordinarily do, is excluded from Washington's retail sales tax, while specialized or non-repetitive cleaning stays a retail sale. No Department of Revenue source names house cleaning, so the residential answer is inferred. The state minimum wage is $17.13 an hour and goes to $17.73 on January 1, 2027, and Washington has local minimum wages too.
In Washington, the sales tax question for a cleaning company turns on whether a job is routine janitorial work or something more specialized. The state has two taxes on the table, the retail sales tax and the business and occupation (B&O) tax on gross receipts, and no state income tax withholding on wages. Below I go through sales tax, the employee test, payroll registration, the minimum wage, and what this means for your books.
Washington's statewide taxes are the retail sales tax and the business and occupation (B&O) tax on gross receipts. For retail sales tax, RCW 82.04.050 excludes janitorial services, meaning cleaning ordinarily performed by commercial janitor businesses, so routine commercial cleaning isn't a retail sale. Specialized or non-repetitive cleaning is. House cleaning is the inferred part: no DOR source names it, but a January 2020 DOR appeals determination on residential hot tub cleaning says the statute makes no residential or commercial distinction. This page doesn't cover how B&O tax applies to cleaning. The lists of routine and specialized work are on my page on Washington sales tax for cleaning services.
Washington's unemployment insurance law, RCW 50.04.140, sets out an ABC-style three-part test in subsection (1) and an alternative multi-part test in subsection (2). 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 for your CPA or an employment attorney.
Source: Washington State Legislature, RCW 50.04.140, Employment, Exception tests
Washington has no personal income tax, so there's no state income tax withholding on wages and no withholding account to register, per the Department of Revenue's hiring employees page. Unemployment insurance runs through the Washington Employment Security Department, and the registration link for it is the Department of Revenue's business license application.
Source: Washington Department of Revenue, Hiring employees
Source: Washington Employment Security Department, Register your business
The Washington minimum wage is $17.13 an hour, effective January 1, 2026, and the Department of Labor & Industries has announced $17.73 an hour starting January 1, 2027. Washington also has local minimum wages, and L&I publishes the local rates. Seattle sets its own, which I cover on my page on cleaning businesses in Seattle.
Source: Washington Department of Labor & Industries, 2026 Minimum Wage Announcement
Source: Washington Department of Labor & Industries, Local Minimum Wage Rates
Routine and specialized cleaning get different sales tax treatment, so they need different income accounts. One catch-all cleaning income account. It's the worst setup for a Washington company, because it buries the exact line the state draws. I split routine janitorial work, specialized jobs like fire or flood clean-up, and house cleaning into their own accounts, with collected sales tax going to a liability account rather than income. Gross receipts get a clean running total too, since B&O is a tax on gross receipts. Labor is booked at the wage actually paid, and the job profitability estimator shows what $17.73 does to a single job.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. I keep the job types and gross receipts tracked; whether a job is a retail sale, and how B&O and sales tax are 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 Washington 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
Washington treats routine janitorial work and specialized cleaning differently, so they go in separate income accounts, with collected sales tax held in a liability account. Gross receipts stay totaled where you can see them, and payroll goes in at the wage actually paid ahead of the 2027 increase. Pick a time for a short call below and we'll look at your Washington 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 Washington and your routine and specialized jobs share one income line, send me a note. We'll split them out together, and the first conversation doesn't cost anything.
