Why use a professional cleaning company
instead of an individual?
One thing I hear a lot from potential customers is that they would love to use our service but that there is a lady down the street who will do the job for much less. There are two very important factors to consider when choosing an individual cleaner over a cleaning company and failure to consider these factors can end up costing you thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.
1) Taxes - an individual who cleans your house is considered your employee for state and federal tax purposes so you are responsible for paying the employer portion of their FICA taxes, withholding income and sending it to the government and paying unemployment taxes. Suddenly that $80 a week to clean your house doesn't sound so cheap. Most people are not aware of this or will ignore this requirement and just hope that the IRS never notices, but should you be audited you will be responsible for all back taxes as well as interest and penalties.
To give an example if you paid a lady down the street to clean your house $80 a week for 5 years and then were caught by the IRS and, as is more than likely, she did not pay taxes on those wages then your likely payment to the government will be in the neighborhood of $15,000.
You may decide to try and avoid this fate by paying the lady strictly cash. However if, after working for you for years cleaning your house, you let her go and she, not being well versed in labor laws, decided to apply to the state for unemployment benefits then that will trigger an audit by the Texas Workforce Commission and a notification to the IRS and your right back in the same boat.
2) Liability - If the lady down the street who does the cheap housework accidentally ruins your $5000 wood floors, who do you think is likely to pay to fix those? If she falls and breaks her leg while mopping the floors then who do you suppose pays her medical bills? You hope your insurance pays most of it but you had better read the fine print carefully as many policies will not in fact cover some of these instances and you may be out $10,000 for medical bills and at a minimum are going to be out your deductible and paying a higher premium for your insurance.
In conclusion, for a slightly higher cost of hiring a cleaning company over an individual you are not only getting a properly trained and supervised crew to clean your residence but also the peace of mind that comes with knowing these workers are insured, bonded and that any issues arising from their job will be handled by the company and not by you.
Call us now for a free, no obligation consultation at 281-441-MAID (6243).
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