Sales Tax on Cleaning Services in North Dakota (2025)

North Dakota's sales tax rules, administered under North Dakota Century Code Chapter 57-39.2 and detailed in North Dakota Administrative Code section 81-04.1-01-22, draw a clean line for most cleaning businesses: personal and professional services, including standard janitorial labor, are not subject to sales tax, though the materials and supplies consumed while performing that labor generally are. A cleaning company operating from Fargo to Bismarck to the Bakken region needs to understand both halves of that rule to invoice correctly.

How North Dakota Administrative Code §81-04.1-01-22 frames the rule

North Dakota Century Code Chapter 57-39.2 establishes the state's general sales tax at 5% on retail sales of tangible personal property and a short, specifically enumerated list of taxable services, such as communication services, admissions to amusement and entertainment events, and hotel or motel room rentals. Janitorial and general cleaning labor is not among the enumerated taxable services. The Office of State Tax Commissioner's administrative code section 81-04.1-01-22 makes this explicit: personal and professional services are not subject to sales tax, while materials and supplies used solely in rendering those services are subject to sales tax when the service provider purchases them, since the provider is treated as the end consumer of those materials.

North Dakota's rule differs meaningfully from a state like Minnesota's, where cleaning services are specifically enumerated as taxable. North Dakota instead treats cleaning the way it treats most personal and professional services generally, nontaxable at the labor level, taxable at the input level, a structure similar in spirit to Missouri's and Idaho's approach.

Where the rule shifts: cleaning of others' tangible personal property

North Dakota's administrative code draws a further distinction for businesses that clean, repair, alter, or restore tangible personal property belonging to others (as opposed to cleaning real property like buildings and offices). Persons engaged in cleaning tangible personal property must collect sales tax on the itemized charge for any tangible personal property used in that work, while separately stated labor charges remain exempt. If the charge for materials isn't itemized separately from labor, the business generally owes sales or use tax on the cost of those materials instead of charging the customer directly. This distinction mainly affects specialty operations, like upholstery or textile cleaning services, rather than standard building janitorial work.

State plus local rates that apply to taxable purchases

North Dakota's state sales tax rate is 5%, and cities and counties can add local option sales taxes, generally ranging up to around 3%, producing combined rates that vary meaningfully across the state, from the flat 5% state rate in areas without a local option tax to roughly 7.5% to 8% in cities like Fargo, Bismarck, and Williston that have adopted local add-ons, particularly relevant in the Bakken oil-patch region where commercial cleaning demand has grown alongside industrial activity.

Worked example: a Fargo commercial cleaning contract

A janitorial company billing $6,800 a month to clean a Fargo office building issues that invoice with no sales tax on the labor charge, since standard building cleaning is a nontaxable personal service under North Dakota's administrative code. If that same company purchases $450 in cleaning chemicals and supplies from a Fargo distributor that month, at Fargo's combined rate of approximately 7.5% (5% state plus local option add-ons), the calculation is $450 × 7.5% = $33.75 in sales tax paid on the purchase, a cost built into the company's overall pricing rather than itemized separately on the client's invoice.

What this means for your business

• No sales tax license required for standard janitorial labor revenue. A cleaning company whose income is entirely building cleaning labor generally doesn't need a North Dakota sales tax permit tied to that specific revenue.
• Itemize materials separately if you clean others' property. If your business cleans tangible personal property belonging to clients (rather than real property), separately stating labor from any materials charge keeps the labor portion exempt.
• Track your local jurisdiction's combined rate for supply purchases. With local option rates varying by city and county, confirm the specific combined rate where your supplies are purchased, especially in growing Bakken-region markets.
• Don't confuse janitorial with dry cleaning and laundry. North Dakota specifically enumerates dry cleaning and laundry as taxable services, a different category from standard janitorial and building maintenance labor.
• Confirm use tax on out-of-state equipment purchases. If an out-of-state vendor doesn't collect North Dakota tax on an equipment sale, your business likely owes use tax directly under N.D.C.C. Chapter 57-40.2.

North Dakota's rate structure compared with regional peers

North Dakota's exemption for cleaning labor puts it in the same general category as Missouri and Idaho, while its neighbor Minnesota takes the opposite approach, specifically taxing cleaning services and applying meaningfully higher combined rates in its metro areas.

Frequently asked questions

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

The office's sales and use tax section carries the local option rate notices that sit alongside the century code provision, and city-level rates matter for contractors running crews across the western part of the state where energy sector facilities are spread across multiple jurisdictions. The state also participates fully in the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board, filing an annual taxability matrix against certified definitions, giving a contractor working into Minnesota or South Dakota a consistent basis for comparison.