How to start a cleaning business in Florida: 2026 guide

What are the steps to open a cleaning company in Florida?

To open a house cleaning company in Florida, register your name or LLC on Sunbiz, get a local business tax receipt from your city and county, buy liability insurance, and set prices. You don’t charge sales tax on homes, but you do on offices. When you hire, pay at least $15.00 an hour, report new hires, and register for reemployment tax.

This guide is about what is specific to Florida: Sunbiz filings, local business tax receipts, the residential and nonresidential sales tax split, reemployment tax and the four-employee workers’ comp rule. For the steps that are the same in every state, such as choosing services and doing your first cleans, read our main guide on how to start a cleaning business.

The order that saves the most back-and-forth in Florida:

1. Decide on homes only, or homes plus offices and vacation rentals, because that decides your sales tax.
2. Pick a name and a structure, then file a fictitious name or an LLC on Sunbiz.
3. Get your city business tax receipt first if you are inside city limits, then the county one.
4. Register with the Department of Revenue if you will clean any nonresidential building.
5. Buy general liability insurance and confirm your auto policy covers driving to jobs.
6. Price your cleans, set up booking and payments, and find clients.
7. When you hire: new-hire reports, reemployment tax and a workers’ comp count.

Need a name first? Try the cleaning business name generator, then search Sunbiz to see if it is free. To test your prices and costs on paper, use the cleaning business plan template.

Fictitious name or LLC: what do Sunbiz filings cost in Florida?

A fictitious name (Florida’s DBA) costs $50 and lasts five years. A Florida LLC costs $125 to form ($100 for the articles plus $25 for the registered agent designation) and $138.75 every year for its annual report. Both are filed online with the Division of Corporations at Sunbiz.

Fictitious name for a sole proprietor

The Division of Corporations’ fictitious name FAQ sets the registration fee at $50. The registration is good for five years and expires on December 31 of the fifth year. Before you register, the name must be advertised at least once in a newspaper in the county where your main place of business is, though Sunbiz does not ask for proof. Budget for that ad: newspapers set their own prices.

You need a fictitious name if you trade under anything other than your legal name, so “Ana Lopez” needs none and “Sunshine Shine Cleaning” does. As a sole proprietor, your personal assets are exposed to business debts and claims.

Florida LLC

Sunbiz’s LLC fee schedule lists $100 to file articles of organization and $25 for the registered agent designation, so $125 in total to form the company.

The annual report you can’t miss

Every Florida LLC files an annual report. Sunbiz’s annual report help page sets the fee at $138.75, filed between January 1 and May 1. After May 1, the LLC owes a $400 late fee on top. That makes a missed deadline the single most expensive mistake in this guide, so put a reminder in your calendar the day you form the LLC.

In year one, a Florida LLC costs $125. Every year after that, it costs $138.75 if you file on time. A sole proprietor pays $50 every five years. For a one-person cleaner, that difference is small, so choose on liability and taxes, and ask an accountant if you are unsure.

Which local business tax receipts does a Florida cleaner need?

This is what most people mean by a cleaning business license in Florida. Counties and many cities charge a local business tax, and you show you paid it with a business tax receipt. Inside city limits, you usually need a city receipt and a county receipt. Receipts run October 1 to September 30.

Miami-Dade County

Miami-Dade’s local business tax notice says a business located within a municipality must obtain both a city receipt and a county receipt. The county issues receipts for one year, beginning October 1 and expiring September 30, and mails renewal bills in July.

Orange County and Orlando

The Orange County Tax Collector’s page on getting a new business tax receipt says businesses inside cities such as Orlando, Winter Park, Ocoee or Apopka must get the city receipt first, then the county one. In unincorporated Orange County, the county’s Zoning Division must approve a new business before you can get a receipt.

The City of Orlando’s business tax receipt guide says all businesses must register, whatever their size. For a home-based business, it charges a $50 home occupation processing fee on top of the business tax, and it sets limits, including:

• No more than two employees or contractors who don’t live at the home.
• No change to the outside look of the property.
• No more than two business vehicles there at once and ten a day.
• The business can use no more than 25% of the living area, up to 500 square feet.

For a cleaning business, that is usually fine: crews drive to clients’ homes, so few people come to yours. Orlando receipts expire September 30, and late renewals pay penalties that start at 10% in October and rise to 25% by January.

Elsewhere in Florida

Other counties and cities run their own versions, with their own fees and forms. Call your county tax collector and your city’s business tax office and ask what a residential cleaning business pays, whether you need zoning approval for a home office, and when renewals are due. Our guide to what licenses are needed to start a cleaning business explains the other registrations people lump under “license.”

Is house cleaning taxable in Florida?

No. Residential cleaning is not subject to Florida sales tax. Cleaning nonresidential buildings, such as offices, stores and hotels, is taxable at the 6% state rate plus any county surtax. If you do any office cleaning at all, you must register as a dealer and collect it on those jobs.

What the Department of Revenue says

The Department of Revenue’s brochure Sales and Use Tax on Cleaning Services (GT-800015) draws the line by building, not by task:

• Not taxable: residential and transient rental cleaning services, carpet cleaning and pressure cleaning the outside of a building. Residential facilities include single-family homes, apartments, duplexes, residential condos, time-share units, beach cottages and their common areas.
• Taxable: nonresidential cleaning, which covers commercial and industrial buildings, public lodging establishments and other places rented as transient accommodations. Its examples include janitorial services, office cleaning, window cleaning, and even “maid services” and “housekeeping” when done in a nonresidential building.

The Department’s sales tax page sets the general state rate at 6%, and many counties add a discretionary sales surtax. The brochure says the surtax follows the county where the service is performed, and the $5,000 surtax cap for goods does not apply to services.

Vacation rentals: read the fine print

The brochure lists transient rental cleaning as not taxable for the cleaner, with one note: a cleaning charge that the guest must pay to use the rental is subject to sales tax, surtax and the local transient rental tax. In practice, that is the host’s cleaning fee to the guest, not your bill to the host. If you clean short-term rentals, our Airbnb cleaning business guide covers the rest.

If you do clean offices

• Register as a dealer with the Department of Revenue before your first taxable job.
• Returns are due on the 1st and late after the 20th of the month after each period, and you must file even when you owe nothing. A late return can cost 10% of the tax, with a $50 minimum.
• Whether or not you collect tax, you pay sales tax on your own cleaning supplies and equipment.

Example: a $200 office clean carries $200 × 6% = $12 of state tax, plus your county’s surtax. The same $200 clean in a house carries no sales tax at all.

Hiring in Florida: the $15 wage, reemployment tax and new-hire reports

Pay at least $15.00 an hour, report each new hire within 20 days, and register for reemployment tax once you pay $1,500 in wages in a quarter or have an employee in 20 weeks of the year. Florida also makes you report independent contractors you pay more than $600.

Minimum wage

FloridaCommerce’s minimum wage page sets the rate at $15.00 an hour from September 30, 2026, the last step of the increases Florida voters approved in 2020. It stays at $15.00 through December 31, 2027. After that, it will be adjusted for inflation each year, with each new rate taking effect on January 1. A three-hour clean therefore costs at least $45 in wages before payroll taxes, supplies or driving time.

Reemployment tax

Florida calls unemployment tax “reemployment tax,” and the Department of Revenue collects it. Its reemployment tax page says you become liable with a quarterly payroll of $1,500 or more, or with one or more employees for any part of a day in 20 weeks of a calendar year. New employers start at 2.7% of the first $7,000 of each employee’s yearly wages, so at most $189 per employee per year. Workers don’t pay it, and you must not deduct it from their pay.

New-hire and contractor reporting

Report new and rehired employees to the Florida New Hire Reporting Center within 20 days of their start date. The Department’s page on how to report also covers independent contractors: Florida asks you to report contractors who will earn more than $600 in a calendar year. You can report online, by mail or fax, or let a payroll service do it.

Employee or contractor?

Paying cleaners as contractors does not make them contractors. If you set their schedule, supply the products and send them to your clients, they likely look like employees, which brings reemployment tax and the workers’ comp count below into play. Ask an accountant before you build a crew on contractor payments.

When does a Florida cleaning company need workers’ comp?

At four employees. Florida requires non-construction businesses, which includes house cleaning, to carry workers’ comp once they have four or more employees, and corporate officers and LLC members count toward the four. Sole proprietors and partners don’t count unless they choose to be covered.

The Division of Workers’ Compensation’s coverage requirements page says employers with four or more employees, including business owners who are corporate officers or LLC members, must have coverage. It adds that sole proprietors and partners in a partnership are not employees unless they want to be included on the policy and file form DWC-251. Owners who meet the requirements can apply for an exemption for themselves.

How the count works for a small crew

• Sole proprietor with three cleaners: three employees. Not required yet, but one more hire changes that.
• Two-member LLC with two cleaners: four, because both members count. Coverage is required unless the members qualify for and file exemptions for themselves.
• Part-time cleaners: they are still employees, so ask your agent how they count toward the four.

Below four employees, coverage is optional but still worth pricing. A cleaner’s fall from a step stool is a workers’ comp claim, not a general liability claim. Our guide to insurance for cleaning businesses explains how general liability, bonds and workers’ comp fit together. Many homeowners and property managers ask for a certificate of insurance before your first visit.

What does it cost to start in Florida?

A solo cleaner in Florida can start with $50 for a fictitious name, or $125 for an LLC, plus local business tax receipts, insurance and supplies. Sales tax registration only matters if you clean nonresidential buildings. Budget for the LLC’s $138.75 annual report from year two.

State fees below were checked on official pages on October 5, 2026. Local business tax varies by county, city and business type. Rows marked “estimate” are our own rough ranges, not quotes.

A realistic minimum for a solo sole proprietor: $50 plus the newspaper ad, your local receipts, roughly $200 to $500 of supplies (our estimate) and the first insurance payment.

How do you find clients in Florida and keep the calendar full?

Start with people you know, a free Google Business Profile, and a booking link with clear prices. Recurring home cleans are the base of most residential businesses. In tourist areas, vacation rental turnovers can add volume, as long as you plan for same-day timing.

The full playbook is in how to get clients for a cleaning business. To set your rates from your real costs at Florida’s $15.00 wage, the house cleaning pricing guide walks through hourly, flat and per-room pricing.

Running it with BroomBook

We make BroomBook, a scheduling, online booking and crew app for residential cleaning businesses. Here is how it fits a Florida business, and where it doesn’t:

• Homes without tax, offices with it. Sales tax is off until you turn it on, so a homes-only business never charges it by mistake. It is one setting for the whole business, though, so if you also clean offices, check with your accountant how to bill those jobs.
• Vacation rental turnovers. There is an Airbnb turnover service type with access notes, smart-lock codes and photo checklists. There is no live sync with Airbnb, VRBO or a channel manager: hosts book through your booking link, or you enter the turnovers. See our Airbnb cleaning software page.
• A crew in their language. Job notes can be translated into Spanish, French or Portuguese for each cleaner, and each cleaner gets a private link with jobs, checklists and clock in and out.
• Payroll export. Hours from clock-ins, tip splits and commissions go into a CSV for your payroll service. BroomBook does not file reemployment tax or new-hire reports.

BroomBook costs $29 a month on Solo (up to 2 cleaners) or $59 a month on Team (unlimited cleaners), with a 14-day free trial and no credit card. See how the calendar works on our cleaning scheduling software page, or see pricing.

Pick something other than BroomBook if

• You need automatic QuickBooks sync. BroomBook doesn’t sync with accounting software.
• You bill clients by invoice with net terms. BroomBook charges cards after the job and sends receipts.
• You need turnovers to appear automatically from Airbnb or VRBO reservations.
• You want a native app-store app, or you mainly bid on commercial janitorial contracts.