Sales Tax on Cleaning Services in Minnesota (2025)

Minnesota runs one of the broadest sales tax bases for cleaning services of any state in this guide. Minnesota Statutes §297A.61, subdivision 3(g)(6) specifically enumerates "cleaning services" as a taxable service, and unlike Florida or Maryland, Minnesota's statute does not carve out residential work; both commercial janitorial contracts and residential house cleaning generally fall under the taxable definition.

What Minnesota Statute §297A.61 actually enumerates

Minnesota Statutes §297A.61, subdivision 3, defines "sale" and "purchase" broadly to include a list of specifically enumerated taxable services, and subdivision 3(g)(6) includes cleaning services among them. The Minnesota Department of Revenue's guidance interprets this to cover janitorial services, office cleaning, and general building maintenance cleaning, along with residential house cleaning and maid services. This puts Minnesota in a smaller group of states, alongside Nebraska, that reach residential cleaning specifically, rather than limiting the tax to nonresidential or commercial work the way Florida and Maryland do.

The statute's broad language means most conventional cleaning activities, sweeping, mopping, dusting, vacuuming, window washing, and general janitorial upkeep, fall within the taxable definition regardless of whether the customer is a homeowner or a business. Minnesota's Department of Revenue Sales Tax Fact Sheet on cleaning and laundry services further clarifies the department's application of the statute to specific scenarios cleaning businesses commonly encounter.

What falls outside the cleaning services tax

Not every cleaning-adjacent activity is captured by the statute. Certain specialty services, like exterior building washing performed as part of new construction, or activities more properly classified under a different taxable service category (such as certain pest control or lawn care services taxed under separate statutory provisions), require separate analysis. Businesses providing a mix of services should confirm each specific service line against the Department of Revenue's fact sheets rather than assuming all building-adjacent maintenance work is automatically classified the same way.

Local rates push effective cost well above the state rate

Minnesota's state sales tax rate is 6.875%, but numerous cities and counties layer on local sales taxes, some general and some tied to specific local initiatives, pushing combined rates meaningfully higher in major metro areas. Minneapolis carries a combined rate in the range of 9.03%, and St. Paul is similarly elevated, closer to 9.875% in recent years, once all local add-ons are stacked on the state base. Because cleaning services are sourced to the location where the service is performed, a company working across the Twin Cities metro needs the correct combined rate for each specific city or county.

Worked example: a Minneapolis office cleaning contract

A janitorial company with a $10,000 monthly contract to clean a downtown Minneapolis office building would calculate tax using the combined Minneapolis rate. At a representative combined rate of 9.03% (6.875% state plus Minneapolis and Hennepin County local add-ons), the calculation is $10,000 × 9.03% = $903 in sales tax collected from the client that month and remitted to the Minnesota Department of Revenue, on top of the company's $10,000 in service revenue.

What this means for your business

• Register for a Minnesota sales tax permit before invoicing. Because cleaning services are broadly taxable, virtually every cleaning business operating in Minnesota needs to register and collect tax from day one, regardless of whether clients are residential or commercial.
• Confirm the exact combined rate for each jobsite. With numerous local add-ons across the state, especially in the Twin Cities metro, a multi-city operator needs a jurisdiction-specific rate table rather than a single statewide number.
• Residential clients are not exempt. Unlike Florida, Minnesota taxes house cleaning and maid services the same way it taxes commercial janitorial work, so pricing quotes to homeowners need to include tax from the outset.
• Separate construction-adjacent cleanup carefully. Cleanup tied to a construction contract may fall under different contractor-specific rules; keep this work distinct from your standard recurring cleaning contracts in your invoicing.
• File on the schedule the Department of Revenue assigns. Filing frequency (monthly, quarterly, or annual) depends on your sales volume, so confirm your assigned schedule after registering.

Minnesota's rate compared with other taxable-cleaning states

Minnesota's combination of a broad taxable base (covering both residential and commercial cleaning) and elevated metro-area combined rates makes it one of the higher-cost states in this guide for a cleaning operator's clients, compared with Maryland's narrower commercial-only base or Georgia's full exemption.

Frequently asked questions

For a side-by-side look at how neighboring frameworks compare, see our guides to cleaning services sales tax in Arkansas and cleaning services sales tax in Virginia.

This state publishes industry-specific guidance that most others do not, and it is the single most useful document for a janitorial company operating here. The department's building cleaning and maintenance guide works through the scope in the terms a contractor actually bills. As a full member of the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board, the state also files an annual taxability matrix, so the industry guide and the certified matrix can be reconciled against each other before a large multi-site bid goes out.