Tax guides · For independent house cleaners & housekeepers

Cleaning deductions: supplies, mileage, and the line nobody checks

An independent cleaning business runs on supplies you buy, equipment you haul, and miles between homes — all of it deductible. But cleaning has one question to settle before any write-off matters: are you running a business, or are you someone's household employee? Answer that first; everything else follows.

First · Who filesContractor, or household employee?

If one family pays you to clean their home and controls your schedule and how the work is done, the IRS may treat you as their household employee — and they handle the payroll taxes, not you. But if you run your own business with several clients, set your own hours, and bring your own supplies, you're an independent contractor filing a Schedule C. This guide is for that second case — the self-employed cleaner.

Either way, one rule holds: cash is still income. A client paying $80 in twenties doesn't make it invisible — the IRS expects every dollar reported, 1099 or not. The upside is that you're taxed only on profit, so every receipt you keep lowers the bill.

Schedule C · Line 22Supplies — the everyday spend

Cleaning products — disinfectant, degreaser, glass cleaner, bleach, soaps.
Tools that wear out — rags, sponges, mop heads, scrub brushes, microfiber.
Trash bags, gloves, masks — and anything you restock job to job.

This is the line that bleeds value when receipts go missing. You buy supplies constantly, often in cash at the dollar store — exactly the slips that have faded to blank by April.

Schedule C · Line 13Equipment — vacuums to steam machines

A vacuum, floor buffer, carpet or steam cleaner is equipment. Cheap items you expense outright the year you buy them; bigger machines are typically written off up front via Section 179 or depreciated over time. Repairs and replacement parts count too.

Schedule C · Line 9Mileage between jobs

Driving from one client's home to the next is deductible business mileage — standard rate or actual costs (pick one, run both the first year). What doesn't count is the commute from your house to the first job and home from the last. The only record the IRS wants is a reliable mileage log kept as you go.

Schedule C · Lines 15, 11 & 8Insurance, bonding, helpers & getting found

Liability insurance and bonding — the coverage clients ask for is fully deductible (Lines 15 / 27).
Helpers — pay someone to clean alongside you and that pay deducts; 1099-NEC at $600+, or W-2 if they're your employee (Lines 11 / 26).
Getting found — flyers, business cards, Facebook and Nextdoor ads (Line 8).
Phone and booking software — the business share of your cell plan and any scheduling or payment app (Lines 25 / 27).
Work-specific gear — aprons, knee pads, non-slip shoes (protective or required gear deducts; everyday clothes don't).

Cash doesn't mean off the books: the costly myth in this trade is that cash jobs don't count. They do — and the receipts for everything you spent to earn that cash are what cut the tax on it. Snap each one at the register; the junk drawer of faded slips retires.

Snap it. Deduct it. Done.

stub. scans any receipt in seconds, finds the deduction, and maps it to the right Schedule C line. Built for people who get paid to work, not to do paperwork. 15 free scans a month.

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This guide is general education, not tax advice. Tax rules change and individual situations differ — confirm current rates and rules at irs.gov or with a tax professional before filing.