Bristol Township to Bensalem Township
Pennsylvania Act 32 local earned income tax · BUCKS to BUCKS County · tax year 2026
Home rate
0.5%
Bristol Township, residents
Work rate
1%
Bensalem Township, non-residents
You pay
1%
the higher of the two
Cost of the commute
$300
a year, above the home rate
What this commute costs you
workplace governsBensalem Township charges commuters more than Bristol Township charges its own residents, so the work rate wins the greater-of test and the difference is real money. You pay the solid bar only — Pennsylvania charges the higher of the two rates, never their sum. Local earned income tax only; state, federal and payroll tax apply on top.
What this commute actually costs
- Commuting from Bristol Township into Bensalem Township raises your local tax. Home rate: about 0.5%. Work rate for non-residents: about 1%. You pay the higher. That works out at $600 a year, or $300 more than earning the same at home.
- Good position on this one. Across 3 routes into Bensalem Township in this data, Bristol Township has the lowest local rate of the lot. Everyone else commuting to the same place pays more.
- Bensalem Township's non-resident rate of about 1% exceeds Bristol Township's resident rate of about 0.5%, so the effective rate for this commute is about 1% — $600 at the reference salary, an increment of $300 over the home-only position. The state consolidated collection but did not equalise rates, which is why the workplace remains capable of raising the bill.
- Of 3 inflows to Bensalem Township tracked here, this route produces the lowest effective local rate. Local earned income tax attaches to residence and workplace rather than to the employer, so identical roles at one workplace carry different burdens and this residence sits at the favorable end.
Where the money goes
A $75,000 salary
- Federal income tax$7,670
- Social Security and Medicare$5,738
- State income tax$2,303
- Yours$59,290
| Federal income tax10.23% | $7,670 |
|---|---|
| Social Security and Medicare7.65% | $5,738 |
| State income tax3.07% | $2,303 |
| Yours79.05% | $59,290 |
The arithmetic, side by side
| If you worked in Bristol Township | $300 |
|---|---|
| Working in Bensalem Township | $600 |
| Difference | $300 |
On a reference salary of $60,000 a year. The local tax is flat, so every figure scales with your own pay.
What this page does not cover
- A common worry, answered. You do not pay Bristol Township and Bensalem Township both. Only one rate applies, the higher of the two. The two councils then sort out between themselves who gets what, and your bill is unaffected.
- Only one tax is on this page. It is the local earned income tax that Bristol Township and Bensalem Township levy. State tax, federal tax and Social Security all still apply. All three are the same wherever in Pennsylvania you work.
- Sixty thousand a year is a benchmark. It is not a guess at what people in Bristol Township earn. No published wage figure exists for single municipalities. The rate is the durable part of this page. The dollars scale straight up and down with whatever you earn in Bensalem Township.
- A postal address in Bristol Township does not prove which municipality taxes you. Boundaries and postcodes disagree often enough here that the state publishes a lookup. Philadelphia is a special case too. Its wage tax sits outside the rules that govern Bensalem Township.
- Workers commuting from Bristol Township to Bensalem Township are subject to one rate, not two. The statute directs the employer to withhold the greater of the resident and non-resident rates; the allocation between the two taxing bodies is a remittance mechanic invisible to the employee. Treating the two rates as cumulative is the most common misreading of the statute.
- The scope here is the municipal earned income tax alone. State, federal and payroll taxes are unaffected by the choice between Bristol Township and Bensalem Township and are therefore outside the model. A total tax position requires adding them; a comparison of the two locations does not.
- The reference salary is a stated benchmark, not an estimate of Bristol Township earnings, for which no municipal-level published source exists. The local earned income tax is proportional, so all dollar figures for the Bensalem Township commute scale linearly with income and the rate comparison holds at every salary.
- Municipal taxing jurisdiction is determined by boundary rather than by postal address, and the two diverge frequently enough in Pennsylvania that the DCED lookup should be treated as authoritative for Bristol Township. Philadelphia is additionally outside this regime, administering its own wage tax on residents and non-residents under separate authority, so it does not follow the treatment described for Bensalem Township.
Questions people ask
Do I pay local tax twice — once where I work and once where I live?
The rates compete rather than stack. about 0.5% where you live, about 1% where you work, and you pay the greater of the two.
What does crossing this boundary actually cost me?
$300 a year more than if you worked where you live. It is not a commuting charge and it buys you nothing — it is what falls out of two jurisdictions both having a claim and only one of them yielding.
Which town's rate am I actually paying?
Bensalem Township sets it here. Its non-resident rate exceeds your home rate, so that is what is withheld.
Is this commute common enough for the numbers to mean anything?
608 workers make this journey — enough to be published, but not a major corridor. The tax rules do not depend on how many people travel a route, so the figures hold regardless; the count only tells you how typical this pairing is.
How does Pennsylvania's local earned income tax law allocate liability between two districts?
Pennsylvania's local earned income tax law assigns the higher of the residence rate (about 0.5%) and the non-resident work rate (about 1%); liabilities are never summed. The employer withholds at the governing rate and remits through the work district's collector, which then distributes to the residence district.
What is the marginal local tax cost of this commute?
Marginal annual liability attributable to working outside the residence jurisdiction is $300 at the reference salary. This is a tax cost rather than a commuting expense and is not deductible as one. It scales with income and with the rate differential, not with distance traveled.
Which district's rate governs on this route?
The work district's non-resident rate exceeds the residence rate and therefore governs. Withholding occurs at that rate, and distribution between the two districts happens after collection without further employee liability.
What is the measurement basis for a route of this size?
Route volume is 608 workers per Census LODES, above the publication floor but below the dataset's upper quartile. Liability is determined by jurisdictional rates and residence rules alone; commuter volume has no bearing on it and is reported only as context.