How to start a cleaning business in Connecticut: 2026 guide

What does Connecticut ask of a new house cleaner?

More paperwork than most states, mostly because of sales tax. Connecticut has no license for house cleaners, but it treats cleaning a home as a taxable janitorial service, so a sales tax permit is the one registration nearly every cleaning business needs. Add a trade name or an LLC, liability insurance, and the payroll rules once you hire.

The good news is that Connecticut keeps the tax side uniform. One 6.35% rate applies from Greenwich to Putnam, towns can’t add sales tax, and no Connecticut city taxes your income. Compare that with Pennsylvania, which also taxes house cleaning but stacks local rates and local wage taxes on top.

Before the first paid clean

1. Choose your name and check it in the state’s trade name and business records.
2. File a trade name certificate with your town clerk, or form an LLC with the Secretary of the State.
3. Register with the Department of Revenue Services (DRS) for a sales and use tax permit ($100).
4. Get an EIN from the IRS if you will hire or want a business bank account.
5. Buy general liability insurance and set your prices with tax shown on top.

When you hire

1. Buy workers’ comp before the first shift.
2. Register with the Connecticut Department of Labor for unemployment tax and report the hire within 20 days.
3. Register with CT Paid Leave and withhold the 0.5% employee contribution.
4. Pay at least $16.94 an hour and plan for paid sick leave.

This page sticks to Connecticut law. For services, equipment and finding first homes, read our general guide on how to start a cleaning business, and the guide to cleaning business licenses for the federal pieces such as the EIN.

Why do Connecticut cleaners add 6.35% to a home clean?

Because Connecticut lists janitorial services among the services it taxes, and its regulation says that includes cleaning dwellings, not just offices. If a household pays your business to clean, you collect 6.35% and send it to DRS.

What the law says

DRS’s page on services subject to sales and use taxes lists janitorial services, maintenance services and window cleaning services as taxable under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 12-407. The detail that matters for a maid service is in the janitorial services regulation (Regs. Conn. State Agencies § 12-407(2)(i)(Y)-1). It defines janitorial services as cleaning the inside or outside of buildings, structures or dwellings, whether or not the property is commercial or income-producing. Its examples read like a house cleaner’s checklist: floor, wall, ceiling and woodwork cleaning, carpet and upholstery cleaning, disinfecting restrooms, polishing furniture, dusting and vacuuming. One-off jobs count too, such as a clean after construction or renovation.

The two narrow exceptions

• A maid on the household’s own payroll. A housekeeper employed directly by the resident is not making a taxable sale. A cleaning business is.
• Casual sales. Cleaning three or fewer residences a year, by someone not otherwise in the cleaning business, is not taxable. The moment you advertise and take a fourth client, you are in the business.

What it looks like on a bill

DRS’s sales and use tax information page sets the general rate at 6.35% and says no local jurisdiction in Connecticut adds its own sales tax. So the math is the same in every town:

Registering and the permit

The same DRS page says registering to collect sales and use tax costs $100, done online through myconneCT, and that you display the permit you receive. Skipping it is expensive: DRS lists a $250 civil penalty for the first day of business without a permit and $100 for each day after that. Register before your first paid job.

One more Connecticut quirk: the regulation treats a cleaning company as the consumer of its supplies, so you pay sales tax when you buy chemicals, cloths and vacuums. Price your services from your costs first, using the house cleaning pricing guide or the house cleaning price calculator, then add the 6.35% on top so it never eats your margin.

Filing a Connecticut trade name under the 2025 rules

File it with the town clerk in the town where the business is mainly run, for $20. Since January 1, 2025 the certificate lasts five years and has to be renewed, which is new for Connecticut.

Connecticut’s trade name statutes (chapter 620) were rewritten by Public Act 24-111. The main points for a cleaner:

• Where: the town clerk of the town where the business is, or will be, principally transacted, on a form prescribed by the Secretary of the State. A cleaner based in Hamden who cleans homes all over New Haven County files once, in Hamden.
• What it asks: the trade name, the business’s physical address in that town, an email address, and the full name, address and email of each owner. The application is signed in front of someone qualified to administer oaths, such as a notary.
• Fee: the town clerk fee schedule (§ 7-34a) sets $20 for a trade name application, renewal, amendment or cancellation.
• How long: five years from issue. Renewal opens six months before expiry. Certificates issued before January 1, 2025 expire on December 31, 2029 unless renewed.
• Penalty: trading under an unfiled name can bring a fine of up to $500.

You don’t need a certificate to work under your own name. An LLC also needs none as long as it trades under the exact name on file with the Secretary of the State. “Nutmeg Home Care LLC” trading as “Nutmeg Maids” would file one.

Before you pay for signs or a domain, run the name through the cleaning business name generator for ideas, then check the statewide trade name search on business.ct.gov and the Secretary of the State’s business records.

What does a Connecticut LLC cost: $120, then $80 a year

The Certificate of Organization costs $120 and every annual report after that costs $80. Over five years that is $440 in state fees, before any lawyer or filing service.

The Secretary of the State’s domestic LLC forms and fees list:

Do you need one on day one?

No. A sole proprietor with a $20 trade name and good insurance is legal in Connecticut. An LLC keeps business debts separate from your house and savings, which starts to matter when you sign a lease, hire, or take on commercial buildings. It does not pay for a damaged floor; that is what liability insurance is for. Our guide to LLCs for cleaning businesses walks through the decision, and the insurance guide covers the policies.

An LLC also changes nothing about sales tax. Whether you are “Ana Ruiz” or “Ruiz Home Services LLC”, house cleaning is taxable and the permit is required.

Towns, local taxes and the October 1 property declaration

Connecticut towns don’t tax your income or your sales, and they rarely license cleaners. What they do tax is business personal property, so a cleaning company with equipment files a declaration with the town assessor each year.

No local sales or income tax

Hartford, Stamford, New Haven and Bridgeport have no city income tax, and DRS confirms there is no local sales tax. That is unusual for a state that taxes cleaning, and it keeps the bookkeeping simple: one state return covers every home you clean.

The personal property declaration

Under Connecticut’s property assessment statutes (chapter 203), assessors ask everyone liable for tax to declare the taxable personal property they own on October 1. Declarations are due by November 1, and a late or missing one adds a penalty of 25% of the assessment. For a cleaning business that means furniture, fixtures and equipment such as commercial vacuums, carpet extractors and shelving. Registered vehicles are taxed separately and are left off the form.

In practice: once your business owns equipment, call the assessor in the town where it is based, ask for the declaration form, and diary October 1 and November 1 every year. A solo cleaner with a backpack vacuum may owe little, but filing on time avoids the 25% penalty.

Zoning and parking

Running the office from home is normally fine. Storing large amounts of supplies, parking marked vans or having staff meet at your house can trigger home-occupation rules, so ask your town’s zoning office before you scale up.

Hiring in Connecticut: $16.94, sick leave in 2027 and CT Paid Leave

Your first cleaner costs at least $16.94 an hour in 2026 and $17.48 from January 1, 2027. Paid sick leave reaches businesses with a single employee in 2027, and every employee contributes 0.5% of pay to CT Paid Leave, which you withhold.

Minimum wage

Governor Lamont’s office announced in September 2025 that the minimum wage rose from $16.35 to $16.94 on January 1, 2026. Connecticut indexes it to the federal employment cost index: the Labor Commissioner announces the new rate by October 15 and it takes effect the next January 1. An August 2026 announcement set the 2027 rate at $17.48, after a 3.2% rise in the index.

Worked example: a 3-hour clean plus 30 minutes of driving is 3.5 paid hours. At $16.94 that is $59.29 in wages for one visit in 2026, and $61.18 at $17.48 in 2027, before payroll taxes, workers’ comp and supplies. On a $150 clean, wages alone are about 40% of the price. Our page on what house cleaners make helps you set a competitive rate above the floor.

Paid sick leave: the 2027 switch

Connecticut’s paid sick leave law used to cover only service workers at larger employers. The 2024 expansion, described in the governor’s signing announcement, phases coverage in: employers with 25 or more employees from January 1, 2025, 11 or more from January 1, 2026, and 1 or more from January 1, 2027. Headcount is based on your payroll for the week containing January 1.

The state’s paid sick leave poster sets out how it works once you are covered:

• Employees accrue 1 hour for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours a year, starting on their first day.
• They can use accrued leave 120 calendar days after their hire date, in one-hour increments.
• Up to 40 unused hours carry over to the next year.
• You must track hours worked and leave accrued and used for every employee.

If you hire your first cleaners in 2026, set up tracking now. From January 2027 they are covered, and a cleaner working 25 hours a week earns about 40 hours a year.

CT Paid Leave (family and medical leave)

Separate from sick days, CT Paid Leave funds paid family and medical leave from employee contributions. You deduct 0.5% from each employee’s pay and send it to the CT Paid Leave Authority; the rate stays at 0.5% for 2026. A cleaner earning $600 a week contributes $3. Register your business with CT Paid Leave when you start payroll.

Workers’ comp, unemployment tax and new-hire reports in Connecticut

Workers’ comp is required from the first employee, with very few exceptions. Unemployment tax starts once you pay $1,500 in wages in a quarter or employ someone in 20 different weeks, and new hires are reported within 20 days.

Workers’ comp

The Workers’ Compensation Commission’s insurance requirements say that, with few exceptions, all Connecticut employers must carry workers’ compensation for their employees, through a licensed insurer, approved self-insurance or a group self-insurance organization. There is no minimum headcount, so one part-time cleaner is enough. A sole proprietor isn’t covered unless they elect in, and LLC members can elect to be excluded. The commission doesn’t sell insurance; you buy it from a carrier or agent.

Unemployment insurance

The Department of Labor’s registration page says an employer becomes liable after paying $1,500 or more in wages in any calendar quarter, or employing at least one person in each of 20 different weeks in the current or previous year. Register through ReEmployCT. The owner of a sole proprietorship or single-member LLC taxed as one is not counted as an employee.

The tax rates and taxable wage base table lists a 2026 new-employer rate of 1.9% on the first $27,000 of each employee’s wages, so at most $513 per employee for the year. The wage base was $26,100 in 2025 and keeps rising, so check the table each January.

New-hire reporting

Business.CT.gov’s new hire reporting page says to report each new employee within 20 days of hire, usually with the information on their CT-W4. A cleaner who returns after a gap of 60 days or more is reported again.

Contractors don’t make this go away

Calling cleaners 1099 contractors while you set their schedule, supply the products and dictate the checklist invites an audit from the Department of Labor and the Workers’ Compensation Commission. Talk to an accountant before choosing that model.

What does it cost to open a cleaning service in Connecticut?

About $120 in required state and town fees for a sole proprietor: $100 for the sales tax permit and $20 for the trade name. An LLC adds $120 up front and $80 a year. Insurance and supplies cost more than all of the filings together.

Fees were checked on official Connecticut pages on October 9, 2026. Rows marked “estimate” are our ranges, not quotes.

A realistic launch budget for a solo cleaner in Connecticut is roughly $900 to $2,000 (our estimate), most of it insurance and equipment. Our cleaning business supplies list helps you avoid overbuying, and the profit calculator shows what is left after wages, tax and supplies.

Winning first clients in Connecticut, and where BroomBook fits

Start close to home. A tight service area of a few neighboring towns cuts drive time, and in Connecticut it costs you nothing in tax complexity, because the rate is 6.35% everywhere. Tell people up front that prices are before tax: clients moving from a private housekeeper are often surprised by it.

Referrals, a Google Business Profile, local Facebook groups and partnerships with realtors and property managers bring most first clients. Our guide on how to get clients for a cleaning business covers each one with scripts.

We make BroomBook, scheduling and online booking software for residential cleaning businesses. Its sales tax setting is one rate for the whole business, which happens to suit Connecticut well: turn it on, enter 6.35%, and it is added to every clean and shown on the receipt. Clients book online with an instant price, cards are charged after the clean through Stripe with no cut taken by BroomBook, and cleaners clock in from a private link whose hours export to CSV for your payroll service. It doesn’t file your DRS returns or calculate withholding. Plans are $29 a month (up to 2 cleaners) or $59 a month (unlimited), with a 14-day free trial; see the scheduling software page for details.