West Virginia sales tax
Residential and commercial cleaning both appear to be taxable in West Virginia under the 6% consumers sales and service tax. That's inferred, not stated: § 11-15-8 taxes all services except professional and personal services, § 11-15-9 has no cleaning exemption, and no source read names cleaning. Work that results in a capital improvement is contracting and isn't taxed on the service charge.
West Virginia taxes services as a rule and carves out exceptions, so the question becomes whether cleaning sits in one of them. Based on the code, it doesn't appear to. This page covers residential cleaning, commercial cleaning, the conditions and limits of this answer, what it means for your books, and where your CPA comes in.
§ 11-15-8 taxes all services except professional and personal services. Reading an exemptions list is about as wild as my evenings get, and § 11-15-9 doesn't have a cleaning exemption in it. No source read for this page names residential cleaning, though, so this is an inference from the code, not a ruling. Work that results in a capital improvement is contracting, not a taxable service charge.
Source: West Virginia Legislature, W. Va. Code § 11-15-8, Furnishing of services
Source: West Virginia Legislature, W. Va. Code § 11-15-9, Exemptions
Commercial cleaning appears taxable for the same reason, and the Tax Division's TSD-310 points the same way through its maintenance of real property rule. No source read names janitorial cleaning. The rate is 6% under § 11-15-3; municipal sales taxes aren't covered on this page.
Source: West Virginia Legislature, W. Va. Code § 11-15-3, Amount of tax
Source: West Virginia Legislature, W. Va. Code § 11-15-2, Definitions
With cleaning likely taxable, a West Virginia invoice carries two kinds of money: what you earned and the 6% you collected for the state. The collected tax goes to a liability account and stays out of income. Capital-improvement work gets its own income line, since it's treated as contracting, so it never mixes with taxable cleaning.
For the employee rules, payroll registration, and the $8.75 minimum wage, see bookkeeping for cleaning businesses in West Virginia.
I'm a bookkeeper, not a CPA or an Enrolled Agent. Because this answer is an inference from the code, whether a particular job is taxable cleaning or contracting, and how the tax is reported, belongs with 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 West 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
A West Virginia cleaning invoice likely carries two kinds of money, and they go to two places in the books: earnings to income, collected tax to a liability account. Capital-improvement jobs get a line of their own since they're treated as contracting. Book a short call below and we'll go through your invoices together.
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 West Virginia invoices don't show the tax separately today, tell me how they're built and we'll start there. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
