Does Nebraska charge sales tax on house cleaning? Yes
Yes, and that makes Nebraska unusual. Since October 1, 2002, building cleaning and maintenance has been a taxable service, and the state applies it to homes and apartments as well as offices. A weekly clean in Lincoln for a homeowner carries sales tax, just like the office down the street.
What the Department of Revenue says
The department’s building cleaning and maintenance guidance says providers are retailers who must hold a sales tax permit and collect state and local tax. It defines the service as interior and exterior cleaning of commercial and residential buildings, homes, apartments, outbuildings and agricultural buildings. Its list of taxable examples includes:
- Home and office cleaning, and janitorial or maid services
- Carpet, floor, appliance and furniture cleaning, vacuuming, dusting and waxing
- Window washing, inside and out, and on-site blind or drapery cleaning
- Restroom cleaning and sanitizing, and wall and woodwork cleaning
- Gutter cleaning, power washing building exteriors and water removal after a flood or fire
The same guidance lists what isn’t building cleaning: lawn mowing and yard clean-up, snow removal, outdoor pool cleaning, septic tanks and parking lot upkeep.
Three rules worth knowing
- Property managers: a property management company that hires you is the consumer, so you charge tax on your bill to them. What they then charge the owner is not taxed.
- In-house staff: cleaning done by an employee for their own employer isn’t taxed. That is why an office that hires its own cleaner pays no tax, and one that hires your company does.
- Your supplies: you are the consumer of everything you use on the job, so you pay sales tax when you buy chemicals, cloths and vacuums. You can’t buy them tax-free for resale.
Getting a Nebraska sales tax permit and charging the right city rate
Apply for a permit with a Nebraska Tax Application, Form 20, before your first clean. Then add 5.5% state tax plus the local rate where the work is done, which in the biggest cities brings the total to between 7% and 7.5%.
Rates for July to December 2026
The department’s sales and use tax page sets the state rate at 5.5%. Its local rate table for July 1 to December 31, 2026 lists:
| City | Local rate | Total on a clean |
|---|---|---|
| Omaha | 1.5% | 7% |
| Lincoln | 1.75% | 7.25% |
| Bellevue | 1.5% | 7% |
| Grand Island | 2% | 7.5% |
| Kearney | 1.5% | 7% |
| Papillion | 2% | 7.5% |
The cleaning guidance says local tax is charged at the rate in effect where the service is provided. A Lincoln-based cleaner working in Omaha charges 7%, not 7.25%. Rates can change at the start of any quarter, so check the table each January, April, July and October.
Filing
The department’s Nebraska and local sales tax guide explains that the permit comes from Form 20 and that returns are filed monthly, quarterly or annually depending on how much state tax you collect. The department assigns your filing frequency.
A worked example
An Omaha homeowner books a biweekly clean at $150:
- Sales tax at 7%: $150 × 7% = $10.50
- Invoice total: $160.50
- Over a year of 26 visits: $273 in tax collected and sent to the state
Decide early whether your advertised prices include tax or add it on top, and say so on your booking page. The house cleaning price calculator gives you a pre-tax price to start from.
Is a Nebraska trade name required, and why it goes in the newspaper
Registering a trade name in Nebraska is optional, but if you do it you must publish it. The Secretary of State charges $100 online or $110 on paper, and the registration is canceled if proof of publication doesn’t arrive within 45 days.
The Secretary of State’s new business page says sole proprietors “may want to file” a trade name, which gives you the right to sue someone who misuses it. It also states that there is no general business license in Nebraska. The fee schedule lists $100 online or $110 in office for a trade name, with no fee to file the proof of publication.
- Section 87-219 requires you to publish the registration once in a newspaper of general circulation in the city or village where the business is located, or in the county if the town has no paper, and to file proof within 45 days.
- Section 87-211 makes the registration last ten years, renewable within six months before it expires for another $100 online or $110 on paper.
Many solo cleaners skip the trade name and work under their own name or an LLC. If you register one, call the local paper for its notice price first; it is the part of the cost the state doesn’t set. For name ideas, try the name generator.
A Nebraska LLC: $100, three weeks in a legal newspaper, then reports in odd years
A Certificate of Organization costs $100 online or $110 in office. Nebraska then requires a notice of organization in a legal newspaper for three successive weeks, and a $25 online biennial report every odd-numbered year by April 1.
Forming it
The Secretary of State’s fees list $110 in office or $100 online for a Certificate of Organization, and $25 online or $30 in office to file the affidavit of publication. Section 21-193 requires the notice of organization to run for three successive weeks in a legal newspaper of general circulation near the LLC’s designated office, with proof filed with the Secretary of State. Newspapers set their own prices for legal notices, so ask before you file.
Keeping it
The annual and biennial reporting page says LLC biennial reports are due by April 1 in odd-numbered years and become delinquent on June 16, after which the company is administratively dissolved. Section 21-192 sets the general filing fee under the LLC act at $25 online or $30 on paper. The first report is due in the odd year after the year you form, so an LLC formed in October 2026 files between January 1 and April 1, 2027.
Is it worth it?
An LLC separates business debts from your personal assets and reads well to commercial clients. It doesn’t protect you from paying for a scratched floor; that is liability insurance. Our LLC guide compares the choices, and the insurance guide covers the policies clients ask about.
Omaha, Lincoln and Nebraska’s falling income tax rate
Nebraska has no general state business license, so the local issues are mostly the city sales tax rate on each job and any city permit rules. Your own profit is taxed at a top state rate of 4.55% in 2026, down from 5.2% in 2025.
City rules
For a cleaner, a city’s biggest effect is the local sales tax on every invoice, shown in the table above. Beyond that, permit rules for things like door-to-door selling and home-based businesses are set by each city. Before you canvass a neighborhood or park a branded van at home in Omaha, Lincoln or Grand Island, call the city clerk and ask what applies to a cleaning service.
State income tax
Section 77-2715.03 sets the top individual rate at 4.55% for 2026 and 3.99% from 2027, with lower rates on the first brackets of income. Profit from a sole proprietorship or single-member LLC flows onto your return. Set aside a share of each payment and make quarterly estimated payments once you are profitable.
Keep sales tax money out of your income estimate entirely. The $10.50 you collect on an Omaha clean belongs to the state, not to you, and it is easiest to move it to a separate account the day the client pays.
Hiring in Nebraska: the $15 wage, sick time, workers’ comp and new-hire reports
Nebraska’s minimum wage is $15 an hour in 2026. Paid sick time starts at 11 employees, workers’ comp applies from your first employee, unemployment tax for a new employer is 1.25% of the first $9,000, and new hires are reported within 20 days, including independent contractors.
Minimum wage
The Department of Labor’s announcement confirms the $15 rate from January 1, 2026, with yearly cost-of-living increases from 2027 and a $2.13 cash wage for tipped employees whose tips make up the rest. The state Wage and Hour Act defines an employer as one with four or more employees at any one time (section 48-1202), but cleaners in Omaha and Lincoln expect at least $15 regardless, so build your prices on it.
Paid sick time
The Department of Labor’s paid sick time FAQ says the Healthy Families and Workplaces Act applies to employers with 11 or more employees. Employees earn 1 hour for every 30 worked, starting after 80 hours of consecutive employment, up to 40 hours a year at 11 to 19 employees and 56 hours at 20 or more. Owner-operators and independent contractors are exempt. A new cleaning company with a few employees isn’t covered yet, but plan for it as you grow.
Workers’ comp
Section 48-106 applies the Workers’ Compensation Act to every employer with one or more employees in its regular business. The section excludes a household domestic servant in a private residence; don’t assume that covers a cleaning company’s crew, and confirm with an insurer before you rely on any exclusion.
Unemployment insurance
The Department of Labor’s combined tax rate table sets the 2026 rate for a new non-construction employer at 1.25% on a $9,000 wage base: at most $112.50 per employee per year. Employers in the highest rate category pay on the first $24,000 instead.
New-hire reporting covers contractors too
Section 48-2303 requires employers to report each hire or rehire to the Department of Health and Human Services within 20 days. Nebraska’s definition in section 48-2302 counts an independent contractor as an employee for this purpose, so a 1099 helper is reported too. Our guide to W-2 or 1099 cleaners explains the wider choice.
A Lincoln visit priced out
At $16 an hour, a 3-hour clean plus 30 minutes of driving costs 3.5 × $16 = $56 in wages before payroll taxes, workers’ comp and supplies. Add 7.25% sales tax to the client’s total on top of your price, not out of it. The profit calculator shows what is left.
What does a Nebraska cleaning business cost to start?
State fees run from nothing, for a sole proprietor under their own name, to a few hundred dollars for an LLC once newspaper notices are paid. Insurance and equipment are the larger spend.
Fees were checked on official Nebraska pages on October 10, 2026. Rows marked “estimate” are our ranges, not quotes.
| Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Trade name (optional) | $100 online, $110 paper | Ten years. Plus one newspaper notice. |
| LLC Certificate of Organization | $100 online, $110 paper | Optional. |
| LLC notice of organization | Set by the newspaper | Three successive weeks, plus $25 online to file proof. |
| LLC biennial report | $25 online, $30 paper | Odd years, by April 1. |
| Sales tax permit | Form 20 | Required: home and office cleaning are taxable. |
| Unemployment tax | Up to $112.50 per employee | 1.25% of the first $9,000, new employers, 2026. |
| Workers’ comp and general liability | Get quotes | Compare at least two insurers. |
| Supplies and equipment | $250 to $600 plus sales tax (estimate) | See the supplies list. |
| Booking and scheduling software | Optional | BroomBook starts at $29 a month. |
The cheapest legal start is a sole proprietor under their own name with a sales tax permit, insurance and supplies. The permit isn’t optional in Nebraska, even if every client is a homeowner.
Winning Nebraska clients, and where BroomBook helps
Omaha and Lincoln have plenty of two-income households and rental turnover; smaller cities like Kearney and Norfolk run on word of mouth. Ask every happy client for a referral, keep a Google Business Profile with your service area, and quote prices clearly as before or after tax. Our guide on how to get clients for a cleaning business has scripts, and the general start-up guide covers services and equipment. If you clean across the river in Council Bluffs, the Iowa guide explains why homeowner cleans there are taxed differently, and the Kansas guide covers the state to the south.
We make BroomBook, a booking, scheduling and crew app for residential cleaning businesses. Clients book online with an exact price, cleaners get a private link with their visits, checklists and clock-in, and cards are charged after the clean through Stripe, with tips. Its optional sales tax setting adds your rate at checkout and on receipts, and your booking page says prices are before tax. One honest limit for Nebraska: it is one rate for the whole business, not per job address, so if you work in both Omaha and Lincoln, ask your accountant how to handle the 0.25% difference.
Plans are $29 a month on Solo (up to 2 cleaners) or $59 a month on Team (unlimited cleaners), with a 14-day free trial. See the cleaning booking software page for how online booking works.