Live in Iowa, work in Illinois
State income tax on wages · single filer · tax year 2026
Illinois takes
$0
on wages earned there
Iowa takes
$1,668
after the credit it gives
Both together
$1,668
state tax for the year
Cost of the line
$0
a year, above working at home
What crossing the line costs
agreementIllinois 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 Iowa 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 Illinois while living in Iowa is simpler than most border crossings. The two states agreed years ago to leave each other's residents alone on wages. Only Iowa taxes you, at $1,668 a year. File the non-residence certificate with your employer, named beside this page, and that is the end of it.
- Plenty of states feed workers into Illinois — 6 of them at this scale. Iowa is number 4, with 26,781 jobs. You will not be the first person at your employer to have filed as an out-of-state worker.
- Iowa and Illinois hold a reciprocity agreement covering wages, so Illinois 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 Illinois withholding at source, and owes Iowa alone — $1,668 at the reference salary, identical to an earner who never crosses the line. ⚠️ The agreement covers WAGES. Other income sourced to Illinois is outside it, and an employee who does not file the certificate has Illinois tax withheld and must reclaim it on a non-resident return.
- Illinois draws commuters of this scale from 6 states, and Iowa ranks number 4 among them with 26,781 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$2,238
- Yours$59,354
| Federal income tax10.23% | $7,670 |
|---|---|
| Social Security and Medicare7.65% | $5,738 |
| State income tax2.98% | $2,238 |
| Yours79.14% | $59,354 |
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
| Illinois takes, on wages earned there | $0 |
|---|---|
| Iowa charges its residents | $1,668 |
| Less the credit Iowa gives | $0 |
| Total state tax | $1,668 |
| If you also worked in Iowa | $1,668 |
| 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 Illinois 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 Iowa residents.
- These numbers assume the job in Illinois 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 Iowa 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, Iowa or Illinois, 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 Illinois or Iowa carries a local layer is a separate question from the state arithmetic above.
- The arithmetic assumes all wages are earned in Illinois and that there is no other income. That matters for the credit: where income comes from several states, Iowa limits the credit to the share of its own tax attributable to the Illinois portion, computed as a ratio rather than the straightforward cap used above. It also assumes days are worked in Illinois 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 Iowa to Illinois 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 Illinois'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 Iowa and Illinois?
Both states tax the same wages, and then one of them backs off. Illinois taxes what you earn inside it. Iowa taxes you on everything, then subtracts what Illinois already took, up to the size of its own bill. You end up paying the larger of the two, which is $1,668 a year on this route.
Does working in Illinois cost me anything extra?
No. The state line is real on a map and invisible on your pay stub here. Your total is $1,668 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 Illinois stops taking tax?
A single form, filed with your employer rather than with either state. It tells them you live in Iowa and that Illinois has agreed not to tax you, so they stop withholding Illinois 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 Iowa and Illinois?
Two returns is the normal outcome here, even when only one state ends up taking anything. Illinois generally wants to see a non-resident return from people who work there, and Iowa wants your whole picture. It is paperwork rather than extra tax.
What if I work from home in Iowa some days instead of going to Illinois?
Working from home usually moves that day's pay out of Illinois and into Iowa alone. A handful of states disagree and tax remote days as if you had commuted. This page assumes you actually travel to Illinois, so if a lot of your week is at home the split will differ from what you see here.
How is liability allocated between residence and work state on the same wages?
Both jurisdictions assert a claim on the same wages — Illinois on a source basis, Iowa 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, $1,668 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. Iowa's own charge on this income equals or exceeds Illinois's, so the resident credit absorbs the source-state tax entirely and combined liability equals residence-only liability, $1,668. ⚠️ Zero marginal tax is not zero obligation: a non-resident return may still be required in Illinois.
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 Illinois tax. Absent the certificate the employer withholds, and the employee recovers the amount by filing a Illinois 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. Iowa requires a resident return reporting all income; Illinois 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 Iowa fall outside Illinois'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 Illinois throughout.