The cleaning LLC, state by state.
Residential crews, commercial janitorial, post-construction, carpet, window and pressure washing: the same entity, very different operating problems. The LLC is the straightforward part. Bonding for commercial accounts, whether cleaning is taxable where you work, keys and alarm codes to other people's buildings, and the classification question that decides your payroll. Pick your state for the local rules and the order to do them in.
Four things that decide the setup.
Forming the entity looks much the same in every state. Running a cleaning business does not. These four come up on every state page, and one of them changes with the map.
Liability and the janitorial bond
Commercial accounts ask for more than an entity. General liability cover and a janitorial bond are what get a cleaning company through a commercial client's procurement, and they are normally arranged before the first contract is signed rather than after it.
Employees, not 1099 contractors
Cleaners you schedule, train, supervise and equip look nothing like independent businesses, and the state pages say it plainly: hire employees, not 1099 contractors. Classification decides payroll, workers compensation and what an audit finds later.
Whether cleaning is taxable
Sales tax on cleaning services is a state question, and residential and commercial work are not always treated the same way inside one state. Getting it wrong on commercial invoices is the version that compounds quietly. Your state page says which treatment applies.
Keys, codes and access
A cleaning business holds keys and alarm codes to buildings nobody else is in at night. Who signed for what, when it came back, who knows which code: that custody record and the routines around it are part of the operating setup, not an afterthought.
The entity takes a day. The operating setup is what keeps the accounts.
Pick your state.
Each state page covers forming the cleaning LLC there, whether commercial or residential cleaning is subject to that state's sales tax, the bonding and insurance a local commercial account expects to see, and the payroll registrations that follow the first hire.
A clean handoff, in four steps.
You pick the state you clean in. We form the entity, and the rest lines up in an order that stops you registering for the wrong thing twice.
Pick your state
Cleaning businesses form where the crews work. Your state page covers the local sales tax treatment and what commercial accounts there expect to see before they sign anything.
Form the LLC
We prepare and file the formation document with your state. The EIN and the business bank account follow, so invoices and payroll run through the company rather than through you.
Sales tax and cover
Register for sales tax where your state taxes the work, then set up the general liability cover and the janitorial bond commercial accounts ask for before they hand over a building.
Hire and set up payroll
Hire employees rather than 1099 contractors, get workers compensation and payroll in place, and build the routines and key custody system before the second crew starts.
Anyone can clean a house. The paperwork is what turns it into a company.
The rest of Industry & niche LLCs.
Every one of these is built the same way: a national explainer above its state pages. They are the filings that sit closest to this one.
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The questions cleaning owners ask before they file.
Do I need an LLC to clean houses?
Plenty of people start without one. The LLC is what puts the business's liability on the business rather than on the owner personally, and it leaves room to change tax treatment later. Commercial work tends to force the decision, because property managers and offices generally want an entity, a bond and a certificate of insurance before they will put a cleaner on contract.
Can I pay my cleaners as 1099 contractors?
The state pages take a position on this, and it is not a subtle one: hire employees, not 1099 contractors. Cleaners who work a schedule you set, in accounts you hold, with equipment and processes you provide, do not look like independent businesses. Classification drives payroll, workers compensation and unemployment registration, so it is the decision everything else rests on.
Is cleaning subject to sales tax?
It depends on the state and on what you clean. Some states tax cleaning services, some tax commercial work while leaving residential alone, and some do not tax the service at all. The distinction matters most on commercial invoices, where the contracts are larger and run longer. Your state page gives the treatment that applies where you work.
What is a janitorial bond?
It is the bond commercial cleaning accounts ask for alongside general liability cover, and for many buildings it is a condition of being let in at all. Bonding and insurance are a step of their own on every state page, sitting after the entity and before the first crew, because accounts that require them will not wait while it is arranged.
How should keys and alarm codes be handled?
With a written custody system, from the first account. Cleaning companies hold access to buildings that are empty when the work happens, and the question of who had which key on which night is the one that gets asked after something goes missing. Documented routines and a key log are part of the operating setup on every state page.
When does an S-corp election make sense?
It is a tax election layered on the LLC, not a different entity, and it changes how an active owner's income is split between wages and distributions. Timing is the part worth planning: it is worth running the numbers once the business has steady profit and real payroll rather than in the first month. Your state page covers it alongside the rest of the tax picture.
Keep going, in order.
Industry & niche LLCs
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