Tax deductions for a cleaning business: supplies, crew pay and mileage records

Cleaning income arrives in many small pieces. A house client pays by app on Friday, an office pays by check each month, and a move-out job pays cash. Before any expense, build one list of what came in.

An office manager or a short-term rental host who books you for turnovers may send Form 1099-NEC. For cleans paid in 2025, that form was owed once one payer reached $600 (Form 1099-NEC instructions, 2025). For cleans paid in 2026, it is owed only from $2,000 (Form 1099-NEC instructions). The 1099 contractor checklist lists the other payer forms.

A tap-to-pay card reader is the form most cleaners forget: the processor reports card payments on Form 1099-K at any total (IRS, Understanding Form 1099-K). House clients send no form at all. So export the invoice or booking report, keep a running list of cash and app payments by client and date, and match it to the bank statements. A preparer who sees deposits with no invoice behind them will ask about each one.

House cleaners are on the IRS list of tipped jobs. Home cleaning service workers carry Treasury Tipped Occupation Code 407, and hotel housekeepers have their own code (IRS tipped occupations list). For 2025 through 2028, a cleaner can deduct up to $25,000 of qualified tips, though the amount drops once modified AGI exceeds $150,000, or $300,000 on a joint return (IRS, 2025 law for individuals).

For an owner who cleans homes herself, the deduction stops at the net income of the business (IRS, 2025 law for individuals). For your employees, the tips run through payroll: from 2026, each W-2 carries their reported cash tips under code TP and the occupation code in Box 14b (Form W-2 instructions).

Tips need their own log either way: date, client and amount, cash or app. Holiday envelopes count too, and so do tips left on the counter after a deep clean.

Supplies are the steady cost. Keep receipts for items such as cleaners and chemicals, microfiber cloths, gloves, trash bags, mop heads and paper goods. If you buy in bulk at a warehouse store, ask for a receipt that splits business items from home groceries.

Equipment is the lumpy cost. The de minimis safe harbor is an election to deduct an item in the year you buy it rather than depreciate it. A backpack vacuum or a steam cleaner billed at $2,500 or less per item fits under it, as long as your books are not audited (IRS, Tangible property regulations). A truck-mounted carpet unit may not, and for property acquired after January 19, 2025 a 100% first-year write-off is available (IRS, 2025 law for businesses).

Keep the invoice and the date each machine started work. Add laundromat receipts for washing cloths and mop heads, and any branded shirts or aprons. Plain clothes you can wear anywhere are personal.

Driving from one client to the next is business travel. The first drive of the day is the tricky one. If your home office is your principal place of business, meaning the main place you run the company, the trip from home to a client counts too (IRS Publication 463). That is where you book jobs, keep supplies and do the books.

A Tuesday route of four homes in April 2026 earns 72.5 cents for each mile, and the same route in October earns 76 cents (IRS mileage rates). The mileage log checklist shows the log columns. Parking and tolls near offices or condos go on top, so keep those receipts.

For the van, also keep the purchase or lease papers, the loan statement, insurance and the cost of any wrap or door signs.

This is the biggest paperwork gap in the trade. An independent contractor is a worker who controls how the job gets done and runs her own business. The IRS weighs who directs the work, who supplies tools and supplies, and how the worker is paid (IRS, Contractor or employee). If you set the schedule, hand out the chemicals and send a room-by-room checklist for each home, that leans toward an employee.

If you are unsure, Form SS-8 asks the IRS to rule on a worker’s status (About Form SS-8). Keep each cleaner’s written agreement and the checklists you hand out, since they show how you set up the work.

An employee cleaner signs Form I-9 on the current edition, dated 01/20/25 (USCIS, Form I-9). Keep it three years from the hire date or one year after she leaves, whichever comes later (USCIS, Form I-9).

Clients ask cleaners for proof of cover, so this folder fills fast. A janitorial bond is a policy that repays a client if a cleaner steals from them. Keep the general liability policy, the bond, workers’ comp and commercial auto invoices. Add the business license, city permits and any franchise fees.

Overhead is the rest, for example scheduling and invoicing software, card processing fees, the business share of your phone, ads and lead service fees. Keep crew background check fees and lockbox costs too. If you store supplies at home or in a storage unit, keep the rent or the room size.

Quarterly tax payments come out of a cleaning business that pays its crew first, so note each one when you make it. The self-employed checklist explains when they are owed. Some states tax cleaning services, so check whether you need sales tax returns.

• Form 1099-NEC instructions, 2025: For 2025, Form 1099-NEC reported nonemployee pay of $600 or more, and Form 1099-MISC reported rents and medical and health care payments of $600 or more.
• Form 1099-NEC instructions: For tax years beginning after 2025, the reporting threshold for Form 1099-NEC and for rents and medical and health care payments on Form 1099-MISC is $2,000; payments to a corporation are generally not reportable, but medical and health care payments to a corporation are.
• IRS, Understanding Form 1099-K: A payment card processor sends Form 1099-K for card payments no matter how many or how much; payment apps and online marketplaces must send one when payments for goods or services exceed $20,000 in more than 200 transactions, and may send one for less.
• IRS tipped occupations list: The Treasury Tipped Occupation Codes, among them 401 home repair, 402 home landscaping, 403 home electricians, 404 home plumbers, 407 home cleaning, 602 massage therapists, 603 barbers and hairstylists, and 608 exercise trainers.
• IRS, 2025 law for individuals: For 2025 through 2028, qualified tips in a listed occupation are deductible up to $25,000, capped at net business income for the self-employed, and phased out above $150,000 of modified AGI ($300,000 joint); people self-employed in a specified service trade or business, and employees of an employer in one, do not qualify; an SSN and a joint return if married are required; qualified overtime is deductible up to $12,500 ($25,000 joint), with the same phase-out.
• Form W-2 instructions: From 2026, box 12 code TP shows cash tips reported to the employer, code TT shows qualified overtime, and box 14b shows the Treasury Tipped Occupation Code.
• IRS, Tangible property regulations: Without an applicable financial statement, the de minimis safe harbor lets a business deduct up to $2,500 per invoice or item.
• IRS, 2025 law for businesses: A permanent 100% first-year depreciation applies to qualified property acquired after January 19, 2025; the section 179 limit rose to $2,500,000.
• IRS Publication 463: Travel to a temporary work location expected to last a year or less is deductible; trips from a union hall to the job are commuting; only the extra cost of hauling tools is deductible; with a home principal place of business, trips to clients are deductible.
• IRS mileage rates: The business standard mileage rate is 70 cents a mile for 2025, 72.5 cents for January 1 to June 30, 2026, and 76 cents for July 1 to December 31, 2026.
• IRS, Contractor or employee: Worker status turns on behavioral and financial control, such as who supplies tools and how the worker is paid.
• About Form SS-8: Form SS-8 asks the IRS to determine worker status for federal employment taxes and withholding.
• USCIS, Form I-9: All U.S. employers must complete Form I-9 for every individual they hire; the current edition is dated 01/20/25; employers keep each form for three years after hire or one year after employment ends, whichever is later.
• IRS Publication 15: An employer paying wages must file Form 941 quarterly, unless an exception applies.