Live in District of Columbia, work in Maryland
State income tax on wages · single filer · tax year 2026
Maryland takes
$0
on wages earned there
District of Columbia takes
$2,454
after the credit it gives
Both together
$2,454
state tax for the year
Cost of the line
$0
a year, above working at home
What crossing the line costs
agreementMaryland does not tax you at all — the two states have an agreement, and you file a certificate with your employer. Solid is what you actually pay; the faded part of the District of Columbia bar is the credit it hands back. State income tax only — federal and payroll tax apply on top, and a city wage tax may too.
Which state taxes you, and what it costs
- Of all the ways two states can handle a commuter, this is the kindest. District of Columbia and Maryland have agreed that only your home state taxes your wages. Your bill is $2,454, the same as someone working down the road from their house. Hand your employer the non-residence certificate, named in the panel beside this page, so Maryland knows not to withhold.
- District of Columbia is one of 7 states sending this many workers into Maryland, and it sits at number 3 of them, with 50,030 jobs. States used to handling out-of-state workers usually make the filing side of it straightforward.
- District of Columbia and Maryland hold a reciprocity agreement covering wages, so Maryland does not tax this commuter at all and no resident credit is needed. The commuter files the work state's non-residence certificate with the employer — it is named in the panel beside this page — which stops Maryland withholding at source, and owes District of Columbia alone — $2,454 at the reference salary, identical to an earner who never crosses the line. ⚠️ The agreement covers WAGES. Other income sourced to Maryland is outside it, and an employee who does not file the certificate has Maryland tax withheld and must reclaim it on a non-resident return.
- Maryland draws commuters of this scale from 7 states, and District of Columbia ranks number 3 among them with 50,030 jobs. A work state pulling from that many directions tends to have a well-established non-resident filing routine, which is a practical convenience rather than a tax saving.
Where the money goes
A $75,000 salary
- Federal income tax$7,670
- Social Security and Medicare$5,738
- State income tax$3,429
- Yours$58,164
| Federal income tax10.23% | $7,670 |
|---|---|
| Social Security and Medicare7.65% | $5,738 |
| State income tax4.57% | $3,429 |
| Yours77.55% | $58,164 |
Which rung you are on
A $75,000 salary
| This rung starts at | $66,500 |
|---|---|
| Next rung starts at | $121,800 |
| Room before it | $46,800 |
Federal only, measured on gross pay — so the first rung is what the standard deduction covers.
The arithmetic, step by step
| Maryland takes, on wages earned there | $0 |
|---|---|
| District of Columbia charges its residents | $2,454 |
| Less the credit District of Columbia gives | $0 |
| Total state tax | $2,454 |
| If you also worked in District of Columbia | $2,454 |
| Difference | $0 |
On a reference salary of $60,000 a year, single filer. Both states run progressive schedules, so the figures do not simply scale — use the tool above for your own salary.
What this page does not cover
- What you see here is state tax between District of Columbia and Maryland. Cities can charge their own tax on top, and a handful do. That layer is not modeled on this page, so treat these figures as the floor rather than the final bill.
- These numbers assume the job in Maryland is your only income, and that you actually go there to work. Both matter. If you earn money in more than one state, the credit District of Columbia gives is worked out as a share rather than the simple cap used here. And if you work from home some days, some states have rules that treat those days as worked at the office anyway.
- Every dollar figure here uses a salary of sixty thousand a year. It is a stated benchmark, not a guess at what people on this route earn. Scale them to your own pay. Which state ends up dearer, District of Columbia or Maryland, generally holds at other salaries — though the gap between them can widen or narrow as you cross tax brackets.
- These figures cover the STATE layer only. City and municipal wage taxes sit on top of them and are not included: a commuter into Philadelphia pays its wage tax on top of anything here, and Ohio's municipalities run their own credit system, which this site models in its own families. New York City, by contrast, taxes only its residents, so a commuter into it adds nothing at the city level. Whether Maryland or District of Columbia carries a local layer is a separate question from the state arithmetic above.
- The arithmetic assumes all wages are earned in Maryland and that there is no other income. That matters for the credit: where income comes from several states, District of Columbia limits the credit to the share of its own tax attributable to the Maryland portion, computed as a ratio rather than the straightforward cap used above. It also assumes days are worked in Maryland rather than remotely — several states tax a non-resident's remote days as though they were worked at the employer's location, which reverses the usual expectation and is handled on this site's reciprocity pages.
- Dollar amounts are computed at a stated reference salary of sixty thousand rather than a corridor wage average, which no published source provides per state pair. Because both states' liabilities and the credit between them are functions of the same income, the direction of the District of Columbia to Maryland comparison holds at other salaries even though the amounts do not — with one qualification worth stating, that a progressive schedule can change the SIZE of the gap at higher incomes, and in Maryland's case a bracket crossed on one side and not the other is exactly where that happens.
Questions people ask
Do I pay state tax twice, to District of Columbia and Maryland?
You file in both states, but you do not pay the full amount to both. District of Columbia credits the tax Maryland collected, capped at its own charge on that income. The practical result is one bill at the higher of the two levels: $2,454 for the year.
Does working in Maryland cost me anything extra?
No. The state line is real on a map and invisible on your pay stub here. Your total is $2,454 either way. Keep the paperwork in mind though: crossing a line usually means filing twice even when it changes nothing.
What do I give my employer so Maryland stops taking tax?
You hand your employer a certificate saying you live in District of Columbia. That is what switches Maryland withholding off. Skip it and nothing is lost forever, but you will be filing in Maryland to get the money back.
Do I have to file tax returns in both District of Columbia and Maryland?
Usually yes, and it catches people out. District of Columbia wants a return because you live there. Maryland usually wants one too, because you earned money inside it — even in the cases where you end up owing it nothing. Filing in a state and paying it are separate things, and the return is often what proves you do not owe.
What if I work from home in District of Columbia some days instead of going to Maryland?
It depends on the state, and the answer is not the one most people expect. You might assume a day worked at your kitchen table in District of Columbia is taxed by District of Columbia. Usually that is right, and your Maryland share shrinks to the days you were actually there. But a few states tax days you work at home as though you had been in the office, unless your employer required you to be elsewhere. It is worth checking which kind Maryland is before assuming.
How is liability allocated between residence and work state on the same wages?
Both jurisdictions assert a claim on the same wages — Maryland on a source basis, District of Columbia on residence. The residence state grants a credit for tax paid to the source state, limited to the residence state's own liability on that income. Net combined liability therefore equals the greater of the two liabilities rather than their sum, $2,454 at the reference salary, and the split between the two treasuries is the only thing the credit changes.
Why is the marginal state-tax cost of this crossing zero?
Marginal cost is zero because the binding liability is the residence state's. District of Columbia's own charge on this income equals or exceeds Maryland's, so the resident credit absorbs the source-state tax entirely and combined liability equals residence-only liability, $2,454. ⚠️ Zero marginal tax is not zero obligation: a non-resident return may still be required in Maryland.
What administrative step gives effect to the reciprocity exemption?
The exemption is self-executing only on filing: the employee furnishes the work state's non-residence certificate to the employer, which relieves the employer of the obligation to withhold Maryland tax. Absent the certificate the employer withholds, and the employee recovers the amount by filing a Maryland non-resident return — the liability position is identical, the cash-flow position is not.
What filing obligations arise in each state on this corridor?
Generally two. District of Columbia requires a resident return reporting all income; Maryland requires a non-resident return reporting the income sourced to it, which is also the mechanism by which the resident credit is substantiated. ⚠️ A filing obligation is distinct from a liability: a reciprocity exemption or a zero net position removes tax without necessarily removing the return, and the non-resident return is frequently what establishes the credit claimed on the resident one.
How do remote working days affect sourcing between these two states?
Ordinarily wages are sourced to where the services are performed, so days worked remotely from District of Columbia fall outside Maryland's jurisdiction and the source-state apportionment shrinks accordingly. ⛔ The exception is the "convenience of the employer" rule, which several states apply: a non-resident's remote days are sourced to the employer's location unless the remote work is required by the employer rather than chosen by the employee. The figures on this page model in-person attendance in Maryland throughout.