What does New York require before your first paid clean?
A business name filing (county clerk or LLC), a sales tax Certificate of Authority if any of your cleans are taxable, and liability insurance. New York has no state license for house cleaning, but its sales tax rules for cleaning are more detailed than almost any other state’s, and its LLC has a publication step that surprises people.
Most residential cleaners end up doing some taxable work: a move-out clean, a one-time deep clean, a window job. So most need to register, even if many of their recurring clients turn out to be exempt.
The order that works
- Pick a name and search the state business database and your county clerk’s records.
- File a business certificate with the county clerk, or Articles of Organization for an LLC.
- Apply for a Certificate of Authority through New York Business Express. There is no fee.
- Buy general liability insurance and confirm your auto policy covers driving to jobs.
- Write a simple service agreement for recurring clients (it matters for tax, below).
The Tax Department’s sales tax registration page says every person who sells taxable services, even from home, must register before beginning business. NYC Finance’s sales tax page adds that you should apply at least 20 days before you begin operating, and that making taxable sales before you receive the certificate can bring substantial penalties.
For choosing services, buying equipment and booking first homes, read our general guide on how to start a cleaning business. This page covers the New York rules.
One-time cleans vs recurring service: when New York cleaning is taxable
New York taxes maintaining and servicing real property, which includes cleaning. The big exception: interior cleaning and maintenance performed on a regular contractual basis for at least 30 days is excluded. So a one-time deep clean is taxable, and a weekly clean under an ongoing agreement usually is not.
The rule, from the source
- The Tax Department’s quick reference guide to taxable services (TB-ST-740) lists “maintaining, servicing, and repairing real property” among the services subject to sales tax.
- The sales tax regulation, 20 NYCRR 527.7, excludes interior cleaning and maintenance services performed on a regular contractual basis for a term of not less than 30 days, except window cleaning, rodent and pest control, and trash removal. The contract can be oral, but then you need evidence such as regular billing listing each service date.
- The same regulation gives a homeowner example: a homeowner who hires a company to clean the complete interior of the home on a one-time basis pays sales tax.
How common jobs come out
| Job | Sales tax? |
|---|---|
| One-time deep clean or move-out clean | Taxable |
| Weekly or biweekly interior clean under an agreement of 30+ days | Excluded (keep the agreement and dated invoices) |
| Window cleaning, even on a recurring plan | Taxable |
| Recurring service with no agreement and irregular dates | Risky: treat as taxable unless you can show a regular contract |
Worked example: a $300 move-out clean in Nassau County, where the combined rate is 8⅝% under Publication 718, carries $25.88 of tax. The same client signing up for biweekly cleans under a written ongoing agreement would generally pay no tax on those visits. In New York City the combined rate is 8⅞%, and there is an extra wrinkle: a 1989 Tax Department memo, TSB-M-89(22)S, announced that New York City imposes its own local tax on regular-contract interior cleaning. Ask the Tax Department how that applies to your NYC clients before you treat them as tax-free.
Once your tax lines are settled, set the price itself from your hours and costs with the house cleaning pricing guide.
Business certificates and assumed names: where a New York business name goes
A sole proprietor files a business certificate (often called a DBA) with the county clerk where the business operates. An LLC files a Certificate of Assumed Name with the Department of State for $25 if it wants to trade under a second name.
Sole proprietors: the county clerk
Fees are set county by county. In Manhattan, the New York County Clerk’s fee schedule lists $100 for a business certificate, and the other four borough clerks handle their own counties. Outside the city, county clerks generally charge less; call yours or check its website. You need a certificate when you trade under anything other than your own name, so “Ana Ruiz” needs none but “Ana’s Home Cleaning” does.
LLCs: the Department of State
The Department of State’s LLC assumed name page lists a $25 filing fee. So “Hudson Valley Home Care LLC” could also trade as “Hudson Sparkle” for $25. Corporations pay extra county fees for an assumed name; LLCs pay the flat fee.
A business certificate is a name registration, not a license, and it gives you no liability protection. Looking for a name first? The cleaning business name generator gives you a shortlist to check against state and county records.
The New York LLC: $200 to file, then the newspaper publication rule
Filing Articles of Organization costs $200. Within 120 days you must then publish a notice in two newspapers for six consecutive weeks and file a $50 Certificate of Publication, or the LLC’s authority to do business is suspended. After that, it is $9 every two years.
The filings and fees
- Articles of Organization: $200, according to the Department of State’s LLC formation page, which also notes that Section 206 requires most LLCs to publish in two newspapers for six consecutive weeks.
- Certificate of Publication: $50. The Certificate of Publication page says LLCs that don’t comply within 120 days have their authority to carry on business suspended, and that filing the certificate later lifts the suspension.
- Biennial Statement: $9 every two years, per the biennial statement page, filed online in the month it is due.
The cost nobody quotes you
The newspapers charge for the six weeks of notices, and those charges vary widely by county, with New York City counties typically far more expensive than upstate ones. Ask the county clerk which papers are designated and get prices before you file the articles, because the 120-day clock starts when the LLC is formed.
Do you need an LLC?
Many New York cleaners start as sole proprietors with a business certificate and form an LLC when they hire or sign larger contracts. The LLC separates business debts from personal ones; liability insurance is what pays for damage in a client’s home. Our guide to LLCs for cleaning businesses covers the decision.
Cleaning homes in New York City: borough filings and the UBT
New York City adds three things: a business certificate in the borough where you operate, the city’s higher combined sales tax rate on taxable cleans, and the Unincorporated Business Tax on sole proprietors and LLCs, which small cleaners usually owe little or nothing of because of a credit.
The Unincorporated Business Tax
NYC Finance’s UBT page applies the tax to trades, professions and occupations carried on by individuals, partnerships and LLCs, at 4% of taxable income allocated to the city. Two credits matter for a growing cleaning business:
- A UBT liability of $3,400 or less is fully credited, so you owe nothing; liabilities between $3,401 and $5,400 get a partial credit.
- City residents who pay UBT as sole proprietors can claim part of it as a credit against their NYC personal income tax.
Rough math: $3,400 is 4% of $85,000, so a cleaner whose taxable business income allocated to the city stays below about that level pays no UBT after the credit. Ask your accountant how deductions and allocation apply to your numbers.
Practical NYC points
- Taxable cleans in all five boroughs use the 8⅞% combined rate.
- Buildings and co-op boards often want a certificate of insurance before you start. Keep one ready.
- Travel time between boroughs is real labor cost. Group clients by neighborhood.
Our guide to insurance for cleaners explains the policies building managers ask about.
New York wages and sick leave: $16 or $17 an hour, and sick time by size
The minimum wage is $17.00 an hour in New York City, Long Island and Westchester and $16.00 in the rest of the state, and it will not rise on January 1, 2027. Every private employer must provide sick leave; whether it is paid depends on your size and income.
Minimum wage
The Department of Labor’s minimum wage page lists $17.00 for New York City, Long Island and Westchester and $16.00 for the remainder of the state, and explains that an “off-ramp” condition in the law was met, so there is no inflation increase in 2027. Tip credits are limited to hospitality employers, so a cleaning company pays the full rate.
Paid sick leave
The state’s paid sick leave page sets the amounts by employer size:
- 4 or fewer employees and net income of $1 million or less: up to 40 hours of unpaid sick leave a year.
- 4 or fewer employees and net income above $1 million: up to 40 hours paid.
- 5 to 99 employees: up to 40 hours paid.
- 100 or more employees: up to 56 hours paid.
Leave accrues at no less than 1 hour per 30 worked, or you can front-load the full amount each year. So your fifth employee changes sick leave from unpaid to paid, which is worth planning for.
What a visit costs in labor
A cleaner spending 3 hours in a Queens apartment plus 45 minutes of subway time costs 3.75 × $17.00 = $63.75 in wages, before payroll taxes and insurance. The same visit in Albany costs 3.75 × $16.00 = $60.00. Our guide on cleaner pay helps set a wage that keeps good people and still leaves a margin.
Workers’ comp, disability, Paid Family Leave and unemployment in New York
New York employers carry three state-mandated coverages: workers’ comp, disability benefits and Paid Family Leave. On top of that comes unemployment insurance, which costs a new employer 4.1% of the first $17,600 of each worker’s wages in 2026.
The three coverages
- Workers’ comp: the Workers’ Compensation Board says virtually all employers must provide coverage for their employees, and must post notice of coverage at their place of business.
- Disability benefits (DBL) and Paid Family Leave (PFL): an employer with one or more employees on at least 30 days in a calendar year becomes a covered employer four weeks after the 30th day, according to the Board’s disability and PFL coverage page. The days need not be consecutive.
- Paid Family Leave funding: the state’s PFL employer page says most private employers with one or more employees must obtain PFL insurance, collect employee contributions to pay for it, and complete the employer part of leave requests.
Many owners buy DBL and PFL together from the same carrier, and get a workers’ comp quote at the same time.
Unemployment insurance
The Department of Labor’s rate information page puts the 2026 new employer rate at 4.1% (4.025% plus the 0.075% re-employment services fund rate). Its quarterly reporting page sets the 2026 wage base at $17,600, up from $12,800, and says the base now adjusts each January. That is up to $721.60 per employee for the year, reported on Form NYS-45.
New-hire reports
The Tax Department’s new hire reporting page requires you to report new or rehired employees within 20 calendar days of their first day of paid work. Since 2022 you must also report independent contractors whose contracts exceed $2,500, so paying cleaners on a 1099 does not avoid the paperwork.
What does it cost to start a cleaning company in New York?
A sole proprietor in Manhattan can start legally for a $100 business certificate plus insurance and supplies. An LLC costs $250 in state fees plus newspaper charges that can dwarf the filing fee in the city.
Government fees were checked on official pages on October 9, 2026. Rows marked “estimate” are our ranges, not quotes.
| Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Business certificate (sole proprietor) | $100 in Manhattan | Each county clerk sets its own fee. |
| LLC Articles of Organization | $200 | Optional. |
| LLC publication | Newspaper charges, varies by county | Two papers, six weeks, within 120 days. |
| Certificate of Publication | $50 | Filed after publication. |
| Biennial Statement | $9 every two years | LLCs only. |
| Certificate of Authority (sales tax) | $0 | Apply at least 20 days before taxable sales. |
| Unemployment insurance | Up to $721.60 per employee | 4.1% of the first $17,600 in 2026. |
| Workers’ comp, disability and PFL | Get quotes | Required once you have employees. |
| General liability insurance | Get quotes | Compare two or three quotes with the same limits. |
| Starter supplies and equipment | $250 to $550 (estimate) | Sales tax applies to what you buy. |
| Booking, scheduling and payments software | Your choice | BroomBook is $29 a month for up to 2 cleaners, with a 14-day free trial. |
Check how wages, insurance and tax change your margin with the cleaning business profit calculator before you set your first price list.
First New York clients, and keeping recurring service on the books
Recurring clients are the backbone of a New York cleaning business for two reasons: steady revenue, and, outside the exceptions above, no sales tax on regular contract service. Put every recurring client on a written agreement and a fixed schedule from the first visit.
- Quote with the house cleaning price calculator, and add tax only on one-time and window jobs.
- Find first clients through neighbors, building staff, realtors and local groups. Our guide on how to get cleaning clients has scripts.
We make BroomBook, scheduling and online booking software for residential cleaning businesses. Recurring visits sit on a fixed schedule and each visit is charged and receipted after the clean, which gives you the dated billing trail the regulation mentions for oral agreements. Cleaners use a crew app with jobs, checklists and clock in and out, and hours export for payroll. Sales tax is a single setting for the whole business, so it does not split taxable one-time cleans from excluded recurring ones automatically; many New York owners leave it off and add tax by hand to one-time jobs, or ask their bookkeeper to handle it.
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 how recurring schedules work on the cleaning scheduling software page.