Kentucky · Bookkeeping services
Kentucky bookkeeping: one sales-tax rate, and payroll that carries local occupational taxes.
Kentucky keeps sales tax simple — one 6% rate, no local sales tax — and makes payroll local: Louisville Metro and Lexington-Fayette, for example, levy occupational license taxes on wages and business profits. We keep both straight in your own QuickBooks file, remotely, on a written fixed-fee scope.
Kentucky bookkeeping: sales tax is 6% statewide with no local sales and use taxes, and a range of services became taxable in 2023. State withholding for 2026 is a flat 3.5%. The local layer is payroll: Louisville Metro’s occupational tax is 1.45% on wages for work in Louisville Metro plus a 0.75% school board tax for residents, and Lexington-Fayette’s occupational license fee is 2.25% on pay and business net profits. TechBrot keeps the books and liabilities in your own QuickBooks file; your tax professional files.
TechBrot Inc. · independent bookkeeping and advisory firm led by a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor — not a CPA firm and not affiliated with Intuit Inc.
What a Kentucky business actually tracks.
A Louisville distributor with staff who live inside and outside Louisville Metro withholds different local amounts from people doing the same job: every employee working in Louisville Metro pays the 1.45% occupational tax, and residents also pay the 0.75% school board tax.
A Lexington agency pays the 2.25% occupational license fee on its net profits as well as withholding it from wages. Neither shows up in sales tax, which is one 6% rate everywhere — so in Kentucky the books’ hard part is payroll and the local returns.
Five Kentucky facts your books have to reflect.
From the Kentucky Department of Revenue’s, Louisville Metro’s and Lexington-Fayette’s own pages, read September 28, 2026.
Sales tax: 6%, no local sales tax
“There are no local sales and use taxes in Kentucky.” One 6% rate applies statewide.
More services taxable since 2023
House Bill 8 made additional services taxable from January 1, 2023, including website design and hosting and marketing services.
State withholding: 3.5% flat
The 2026 withholding formula uses a flat 3.5% rate with a $3,360 standard deduction.
Louisville Metro
The Revenue Commission’s 2026 Form W-1: 1.45% on wages earned for work in Louisville Metro, plus a 0.75% school board tax for resident employees; monthly deposits above $3,000.
Lexington-Fayette
The occupational license fee is 2.25% on employee pay and business net profits, collected by the Urban County Government’s Revenue Division.
Sources, read 2026-09-28:Kentucky DOR: sales and use tax · Kentucky DOR: 2026 withholding formula · Louisville Metro Revenue Commission: 2026 Form W-1 · Lexington-Fayette: occupational license fee rates · Kentucky DOR: HB 8 sales tax facts (June 2022).
How a Kentucky engagement runs.
Discovery call
Free, 30 minutes: where your people work and live, and which cities and counties you owe.
Local taxes mapped
Each work location’s occupational tax, and resident-only taxes such as Louisville’s school board tax, set up per employee.
Monthly close
Every account reconciled, and each local occupational liability tied to what was remitted.
Sales tax, simply
One 6% rate, with services that became taxable in 2023 flagged correctly.
Year-end handoff
Books and schedules for your CPA, including the net-profit figures the local license returns use.
A Kentucky business’s books checklist.
- An occupational tax item for every city or county where employees work.
- Louisville’s 0.75% school board tax applied to resident employees only.
- Local license tax on business net profits accrued, not just the wage withholding.
- Services that became taxable in 2023 set to taxable in QuickBooks.
- State withholding at the 2026 flat 3.5%.
What it costs, and where to go next.
Monthly bookkeeping is published at $400–$2,500+/mo and payroll management at $150–$800+/mo, each a fixed fee against a written scope; the national service is monthly bookkeeping.
Remote, with no Kentucky office; the work happens in your own QuickBooks file, reviewed by TechBrot’s founder, a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor. Your tax professional files.
Kentucky bookkeeping services questions.
Do I withhold Louisville’s tax from employees who live elsewhere?
Does Lexington tax business profits too?
Is bookkeeping itself taxable in Kentucky?
How much does Kentucky bookkeeping cost?
Do you have an office in Kentucky?
Around Kentucky.
Kentucky QuickBooks ProAdvisor & bookkeeping
The state page: services, industries, cities and the Kentucky tax terms in one place.
Bookkeeping services, nationally
The national engagement this page is the Kentucky version of — same scope, same written fixed fee.
Also in Kentucky:QuickBooks cleanup.
Not sure where your file stands? Start with the free QuickBooks file review.
Kentucky business?
Get the local taxes and the books reconciled together.
Book a free 30-minute discovery call. We map where your people work, and you get a written fixed-fee scope within 3 business days. Remote; no Kentucky office.