Live in Texas, work in Tennessee
State income tax on wages · single filer · tax year 2026
Tennessee takes
$0
on wages earned there
Texas takes
$0
after the credit it gives
Both together
$0
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 Texas taxes this pay. Solid is what you actually pay; the faded part of the Texas 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
- People move jobs to Tennessee expecting the tax to disappear. It does not, not while you live in Texas. Your home state taxes what you earn anywhere, and Tennessee charging nothing simply means there is nothing to set against it. The year comes to $0, all of it to Texas.
- Texas is one of 9 states sending this many workers into Tennessee, and it sits at number 8 of them, with 5,437 jobs. States used to handling out-of-state workers usually make the filing side of it straightforward.
- Tennessee levies no individual income tax, so a commuter into it is taxed by Texas alone, on the whole of the wages, at $0 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 Texas 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 Texas bill. The only version of this that changes the answer is moving.
- Tennessee draws commuters of this scale from 9 states, and Texas ranks number 8 among them with 5,437 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
- Yours$61,593
| Federal income tax10.23% | $7,670 |
|---|---|
| Social Security and Medicare7.65% | $5,738 |
| Yours82.12% | $61,593 |
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 |
|---|---|
| Texas charges its residents | $0 |
| Less the credit Texas gives | $0 |
| Total state tax | $0 |
| If you also worked in Texas | $0 |
| 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 Texas and Tennessee. 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.
- 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 Texas. Mixed income changes how the credit is worked out, and remote days have their own rules in some states.
- The dollars rest on one assumed salary of sixty thousand. Double your pay and they do not simply double, because both states charge more on higher slices of income. What tends to stay put is which side of the Texas and Tennessee comparison you are on.
- 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 Texas 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, Texas 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 Texas 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 Texas and Tennessee?
You file in both states, but you do not pay the full amount to both. Texas credits the tax Tennessee collected, capped at its own charge on that income. The practical result is one bill at the higher of the two levels: $0 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 $0 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 Texas and Tennessee?
Two returns is the normal outcome here, even when only one state ends up taking anything. Tennessee generally wants to see a non-resident return from people who work there, and Texas wants your whole picture. It is paperwork rather than extra tax.
What if I work from home in Texas some days instead of going to Tennessee?
Working from home usually moves that day's pay out of Tennessee and into Texas alone. A handful of states disagree and tax remote days as if you had commuted. This page assumes you actually travel to Tennessee, 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 — Tennessee on a source basis, Texas 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, $0 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. Texas'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, $0. ⚠️ 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. Texas 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 Texas 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.