Live in Kentucky, work in Tennessee
State income tax on wages · single filer · tax year 2026
Tennessee takes
$0
on wages earned there
Kentucky takes
$1,982
after the credit it gives
Both together
$1,982
state tax for the year
Cost of the line
$0
a year, above working at home
What crossing the line costs
no work-state taxTennessee has no income tax, so only Kentucky taxes this pay. Solid is what you actually pay; the faded part of the Kentucky 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
- No income tax in Tennessee means one bill instead of two, not zero bills. Kentucky still taxes you because you live there, and it reaches pay earned across the line. You owe $1,982 for the year, and only Kentucky collects it.
- Plenty of states feed workers into Tennessee — 9 of them at this scale. Kentucky is number 3, with 26,650 jobs. You will not be the first person at your employer to have filed as an out-of-state worker.
- Tennessee levies no individual income tax, so a commuter into it is taxed by Kentucky alone, on the whole of the wages, at $1,982 for the reference salary. ⛔ The common expectation — that working in a state without an income tax removes the tax — is exactly backwards for a commuter: residence is what gives Kentucky its claim, and that claim reaches income wherever it is earned. There is no work-state liability to credit against it, so nothing offsets the Kentucky bill. The only version of this that changes the answer is moving.
- Tennessee draws commuters of this scale from 9 states, and Kentucky ranks number 3 among them with 26,650 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$2,507
- Yours$59,085
| Federal income tax10.23% | $7,670 |
|---|---|
| Social Security and Medicare7.65% | $5,738 |
| State income tax3.34% | $2,507 |
| Yours78.78% | $59,085 |
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
| Tennessee takes, on wages earned there | $0 |
|---|---|
| Kentucky charges its residents | $1,982 |
| Less the credit Kentucky gives | $0 |
| Total state tax | $1,982 |
| If you also worked in Kentucky | $1,982 |
| 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 Tennessee 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 Kentucky residents.
- Two assumptions sit under this page. First, that Tennessee is where all your pay comes from. Second, that you go there rather than working from your kitchen in Kentucky. Mixed income changes how the credit is worked out, and remote days have their own rules in some states.
- Sixty thousand a year is the assumption behind these amounts, chosen because nobody publishes average pay for a route between two states. At your own salary the numbers shift. The conclusion about which of Kentucky and Tennessee takes more usually does not, but the size of the difference can.
- 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 Tennessee or Kentucky carries a local layer is a separate question from the state arithmetic above.
- The arithmetic assumes all wages are earned in Tennessee and that there is no other income. That matters for the credit: where income comes from several states, Kentucky limits the credit to the share of its own tax attributable to the Tennessee portion, computed as a ratio rather than the straightforward cap used above. It also assumes days are worked in Tennessee 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 Kentucky to Tennessee 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 Tennessee'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 Kentucky and Tennessee?
Not twice over. Both states have a claim — Tennessee because you earn the money there, Kentucky because you live there — but Kentucky gives you credit for what Tennessee took. The credit stops at what Kentucky would have charged on its own, so what you actually pay is the bigger of the two bills. Here that comes to $1,982 for the year.
Does working in Tennessee cost me anything extra?
No. The state line is real on a map and invisible on your pay stub here. Your total is $1,982 either way. Keep the paperwork in mind though: crossing a line usually means filing twice even when it changes nothing.
Do I have to file tax returns in both Kentucky and Tennessee?
Usually yes, and it catches people out. Kentucky wants a return because you live there. Tennessee 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 Kentucky some days instead of going to Tennessee?
Normally, days worked at home in Kentucky belong to Kentucky, and only the days you spend in Tennessee are taxed there. That is the ordinary rule. The exception is real though: some states count your remote days as worked at the employer's location anyway. That flips the answer completely, so check Tennessee's rule rather than assuming.
How is liability allocated between residence and work state on the same wages?
Both jurisdictions assert a claim on the same wages — Tennessee on a source basis, Kentucky 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, $1,982 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. Kentucky's own charge on this income equals or exceeds Tennessee's, so the resident credit absorbs the source-state tax entirely and combined liability equals residence-only liability, $1,982. ⚠️ Zero marginal tax is not zero obligation: a non-resident return may still be required in Tennessee.
What filing obligations arise in each state on this corridor?
Generally two. Kentucky requires a resident return reporting all income; Tennessee 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 Kentucky fall outside Tennessee'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 Tennessee throughout.