Live in Illinois, work in Iowa
State income tax on wages · single filer · tax year 2026
Iowa takes
$0
on wages earned there
Illinois takes
$2,825
after the credit it gives
Both together
$2,825
state tax for the year
Cost of the line
$0
a year, above working at home
What crossing the line costs
agreementIowa 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 Illinois 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
- Working in Iowa while living in Illinois is simpler than most border crossings. The two states agreed years ago to leave each other's residents alone on wages. Only Illinois taxes you, at $2,825 a year. File the non-residence certificate with your employer, named beside this page, and that is the end of it.
- This is the busiest way into Iowa. 41,254 jobs in the state belong to Illinois residents, more than any other state sends. It is worth knowing that the rules below are not an edge case — they apply to a lot of people.
- Illinois and Iowa hold a reciprocity agreement covering wages, so Iowa 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 Iowa withholding at source, and owes Illinois alone — $2,825 at the reference salary, identical to an earner who never crosses the line. ⚠️ The agreement covers WAGES. Other income sourced to Iowa is outside it, and an employee who does not file the certificate has Iowa tax withheld and must reclaim it on a non-resident return.
- Measured against every other state sending commuters into Iowa, this is the largest single flow: 41,254 jobs held by Illinois residents, ahead of all 6 corridors of this size into that state. Census LODES counts jobs rather than people, so a worker holding two positions in Iowa appears twice.
Where the money goes
A $75,000 salary
- Federal income tax$7,670
- Social Security and Medicare$5,738
- State income tax$3,568
- Yours$58,025
| Federal income tax10.23% | $7,670 |
|---|---|
| Social Security and Medicare7.65% | $5,738 |
| State income tax4.76% | $3,568 |
| Yours77.37% | $58,025 |
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
| Iowa takes, on wages earned there | $0 |
|---|---|
| Illinois charges its residents | $2,825 |
| Less the credit Illinois gives | $0 |
| Total state tax | $2,825 |
| If you also worked in Illinois | $2,825 |
| 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
- City wage taxes are not in these numbers. A few places charge them, and where they do the money is real. If your job in Iowa is inside a city that taxes workers, add that on top. Where it is not, the state figures above are the whole of it for Illinois residents.
- Two assumptions sit under this page. First, that Iowa is where all your pay comes from. Second, that you go there rather than working from your kitchen in Illinois. Mixed income changes how the credit is worked out, and remote days have their own rules in some states.
- 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, Illinois or Iowa, 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 Iowa or Illinois carries a local layer is a separate question from the state arithmetic above.
- The arithmetic assumes all wages are earned in Iowa and that there is no other income. That matters for the credit: where income comes from several states, Illinois limits the credit to the share of its own tax attributable to the Iowa portion, computed as a ratio rather than the straightforward cap used above. It also assumes days are worked in Iowa 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 Illinois to Iowa 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 Iowa'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 Illinois and Iowa?
Not twice over. Both states have a claim — Iowa because you earn the money there, Illinois because you live there — but Illinois gives you credit for what Iowa took. The credit stops at what Illinois would have charged on its own, so what you actually pay is the bigger of the two bills. Here that comes to $2,825 for the year.
Does working in Iowa cost me anything extra?
Nothing extra, on this route. You end the year owing $2,825, exactly what you would owe if the job were in Illinois. That is not true of every crossing — plenty of them do cost money — but this one does not. What it does cost you is time at tax filing, because two states may each want a return.
What do I give my employer so Iowa stops taking tax?
A single form, filed with your employer rather than with either state. It tells them you live in Illinois and that Iowa has agreed not to tax you, so they stop withholding Iowa tax from your pay. Without it the money comes out all year and you have to claim it back on a return you would not otherwise file.
Do I have to file tax returns in both Illinois and Iowa?
Two returns is the normal outcome here, even when only one state ends up taking anything. Iowa generally wants to see a non-resident return from people who work there, and Illinois wants your whole picture. It is paperwork rather than extra tax.
What if I work from home in Illinois some days instead of going to Iowa?
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 Illinois is taxed by Illinois. Usually that is right, and your Iowa 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 Iowa 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 — Iowa on a source basis, Illinois 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, $2,825 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. Illinois's own charge on this income equals or exceeds Iowa's, so the resident credit absorbs the source-state tax entirely and combined liability equals residence-only liability, $2,825. ⚠️ Zero marginal tax is not zero obligation: a non-resident return may still be required in Iowa.
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 Iowa tax. Absent the certificate the employer withholds, and the employee recovers the amount by filing a Iowa 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. Illinois requires a resident return reporting all income; Iowa 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 Illinois fall outside Iowa'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 Iowa throughout.