Live in West Virginia, work in Virginia
State income tax on wages · single filer · tax year 2026
Virginia takes
$0
on wages earned there
West Virginia takes
$1,866
after the credit it gives
Both together
$1,866
state tax for the year
Cost of the line
$0
a year, above working at home
What crossing the line costs
agreementVirginia 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 West Virginia 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. West Virginia and Virginia have agreed that only your home state taxes your wages. Your bill is $1,866, 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 Virginia knows not to withhold.
- West Virginia is one of 6 states sending this many workers into Virginia, and it sits at number 2 of them, with 46,698 jobs. States used to handling out-of-state workers usually make the filing side of it straightforward.
- West Virginia and Virginia hold a reciprocity agreement covering wages, so Virginia 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 Virginia withholding at source, and owes West Virginia alone — $1,866 at the reference salary, identical to an earner who never crosses the line. ⚠️ The agreement covers WAGES. Other income sourced to Virginia is outside it, and an employee who does not file the certificate has Virginia tax withheld and must reclaim it on a non-resident return.
- Virginia draws commuters of this scale from 6 states, and West Virginia ranks number 2 among them with 46,698 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$2,546
- Yours$59,047
| Federal income tax10.23% | $7,670 |
|---|---|
| Social Security and Medicare7.65% | $5,738 |
| State income tax3.39% | $2,546 |
| Yours78.73% | $59,047 |
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
| Virginia takes, on wages earned there | $0 |
|---|---|
| West Virginia charges its residents | $1,866 |
| Less the credit West Virginia gives | $0 |
| Total state tax | $1,866 |
| If you also worked in West Virginia | $1,866 |
| 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 Virginia 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 West Virginia residents.
- Two assumptions sit under this page. First, that Virginia is where all your pay comes from. Second, that you go there rather than working from your kitchen in West Virginia. 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, West Virginia or Virginia, 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 Virginia or West Virginia carries a local layer is a separate question from the state arithmetic above.
- The arithmetic assumes all wages are earned in Virginia and that there is no other income. That matters for the credit: where income comes from several states, West Virginia limits the credit to the share of its own tax attributable to the Virginia portion, computed as a ratio rather than the straightforward cap used above. It also assumes days are worked in Virginia 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 West Virginia to Virginia 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 Virginia'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 West Virginia and Virginia?
Not twice over. Both states have a claim — Virginia because you earn the money there, West Virginia because you live there — but West Virginia gives you credit for what Virginia took. The credit stops at what West Virginia would have charged on its own, so what you actually pay is the bigger of the two bills. Here that comes to $1,866 for the year.
Does working in Virginia cost me anything extra?
It costs you nothing in tax. $1,866 is what you owe whether you work in Virginia or at home in West Virginia. The only real cost of the crossing is the extra return.
What do I give my employer so Virginia stops taking tax?
You hand your employer a certificate saying you live in West Virginia. That is what switches Virginia withholding off. Skip it and nothing is lost forever, but you will be filing in Virginia to get the money back.
Do I have to file tax returns in both West Virginia and Virginia?
Usually yes, and it catches people out. West Virginia wants a return because you live there. Virginia 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 West Virginia some days instead of going to Virginia?
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 West Virginia is taxed by West Virginia. Usually that is right, and your Virginia 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 Virginia 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 — Virginia on a source basis, West Virginia 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, $1,866 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. West Virginia's own charge on this income equals or exceeds Virginia's, so the resident credit absorbs the source-state tax entirely and combined liability equals residence-only liability, $1,866. ⚠️ Zero marginal tax is not zero obligation: a non-resident return may still be required in Virginia.
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 Virginia tax. Absent the certificate the employer withholds, and the employee recovers the amount by filing a Virginia 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. West Virginia requires a resident return reporting all income; Virginia 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 West Virginia fall outside Virginia'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 Virginia throughout.