Deduction guide
Cleaner taxes: what you can actually deduct
House cleaning, maid service, turnover cleans. If you got a 1099 for this work, here's what counts — and what PrivateBooks sets up for you automatically.
Worth knowing
These are the write-offs people in this line of work most often miss — or claim wrongly. Anything marked in orange is an edge case worth raising with a preparer rather than assuming.
Mileage between clients
Driving from house to house is business mileage — and it adds up fast with multiple jobs a day. PrivateBooks logs it at the IRS standard rate for the tax year.
$0.70 / mile 2025 rate
Cleaning supplies
Products, sponges, gloves, and trash bags you use on the job are deductible supplies. Receipt mixes job supplies with your own groceries? Split it — only the job part counts.
keep receipts tracked
Platform fees
Handy, Thumbtack, and Angi take a cut of every job. Those fees are a commission expense — PrivateBooks books them separately so your income isn't overstated.
10–40% of each job
Liability insurance & bonding
A cleaning-business liability policy (and bonding, which clients often ask for) is a deductible insurance cost.
fully deductible business policy
What PrivateBooks pre-loads
Pick Cleaner during guided setup and your books start with these categories, each already mapped to its real Schedule C line — no chart of accounts to invent:
| Category | Schedule C line |
|---|---|
| Cleaning products & supplies | Line 22 — Supplies |
| Vacuums & equipment | Line 22 — Supplies |
| Mileage between jobs | Line 9 — Car and truck expenses |
| Platform & lead fees (Handy, Thumbtack) | Line 10 — Commissions and fees |
| Business liability insurance | Line 15 — Insurance (other than health) |
| Phone bill (work %) | Line 27b — Other (phone & internet) |
| Advertising & flyers | Line 8 — Advertising |
| Work shoes, gloves & laundry | Line 22 — Supplies |
| Bonding & licenses | Line 23 — Taxes and licenses |
Merchants it recognises automatically
On top of the 578 built-in sorting rules, this pack adds rules for Dyson, Handy *Payout, Handy.Com, Janitorial, Sharkninja — so those transactions land in the right category the moment you import a statement. Anything it isn't sure about goes to Review instead of being guessed at.
Do you even have to file?
If you netted $400 or more from self-employment in a year, you generally have to file and pay self-employment tax — even if nobody sent you a 1099, and even if you also have a W-2 job. Nothing was withheld from this income, which is why setting money aside matters.
Educational pointers, not tax advice. Tax rules change and your situation is specific — worth asking about at tax time. The free IRS-sponsored VITA program helps people under its income threshold at no cost.