Clifton Heights Borough to Philadelphia
Pennsylvania Act 32 local earned income tax · DELAWARE to PHILADELPHIA County · tax year 2026
Home rate
0%
Clifton Heights Borough, residents
Work rate
3.43%
Philadelphia, non-residents
You pay
3.43%
the higher of the two
Cost of the commute
$2,058
a year, above the home rate
What this commute costs you
workplace governsPhiladelphia charges commuters more than Clifton Heights Borough 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
- Here is a surprise for anyone commuting from Clifton Heights Borough to Philadelphia. Home charges nothing. Work charges about 3.43%. You pay the higher of the two, so you pay the work rate in full. That is $2,058 a year.
- This route is one of 94 into Philadelphia tracked here, ranking 56 by how many people travel it. Around 872 make the trip. Seen from the other end, Philadelphia is Clifton Heights Borough's number 1 destination of 1.
- For the Clifton Heights Borough to Philadelphia commute, the resident rate is zero and the work location's non-resident rate is about 3.43%. Pennsylvania resolves the two by taking the greater, so the effective rate is about 3.43% and the annual charge $2,058 at the reference salary. Withholding is remitted through the work location's collector; the residence receives nothing because it levies nothing.
- Of 94 recorded inflows to Philadelphia, this route ranks 56 by worker count, carrying 872 commuters from Clifton Heights Borough. Viewed from the origin it is that municipality's 1 destination of 1 recorded — neither the largest catchment nor a marginal one.
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 Clifton Heights Borough | $0 |
|---|---|
| Working in Philadelphia | $2,058 |
| Difference | $2,058 |
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
- One thing worth being clear about, because it catches people out. You are not charged by both places. Clifton Heights Borough and Philadelphia do not add their rates together. Pennsylvania picks the higher of the two, and that is what you pay. Adding them would roughly double the bill.
- Everything here is the local earned income tax and nothing else. State income tax applies on top, as do federal tax and Social Security. None of those change when you cross a municipal line between Clifton Heights Borough and Philadelphia. This page is about the layer that does.
- All the dollar amounts rest on one assumed salary. It is stated rather than measured, because nobody publishes average pay for Clifton Heights Borough. The local tax is a flat percentage. Scale every figure to your own salary and the Philadelphia conclusion holds.
- A postal address in Clifton Heights Borough 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 Philadelphia.
- Pennsylvania's local rule is a greater-of rule, not an additive one: the liability for a Clifton Heights Borough resident working in Philadelphia is the higher of the two applicable rates, not their sum. The distinction is worth stating plainly because the additive reading is intuitive and would overstate the charge by roughly a factor of two. What is divided between the municipalities is the remittance, not the worker's liability.
- Figures cover the local earned income tax exclusively. Pennsylvania's flat state income tax, federal income tax and FICA apply in addition and are invariant to the Clifton Heights Borough–Philadelphia municipal boundary, which is precisely why they are excluded: isolating the layer that responds to the commute is the point of the comparison.
- Monetary figures derive from a single stated salary assumption; no published wage series covers Pennsylvania municipalities such as Clifton Heights Borough. The flat structure of the local tax means the Philadelphia comparison is scale-invariant, so the rate difference rather than the dollar difference is the transferable result.
- 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 Clifton Heights Borough. 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 Philadelphia.
Questions people ask
Do I pay local tax twice — once where I work and once where I live?
Only once, at the higher rate. Between Clifton Heights Borough's about 0% and Philadelphia's about 3.43%, the larger governs — the two are never added together.
What does crossing this boundary actually cost me?
$2,058 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?
Philadelphia 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?
872 people travel it. Volume decides whether a route gets published at all, never what the tax on it is.
My own town charges no income tax — so why is any taken?
The work district has its own claim. Clifton Heights Borough takes nothing from residents, but about 3.43% is levied where the job 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%) and the non-resident work rate (about 3.43%); 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 $2,058 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 872 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.
How does a zero residence rate interact with a work-district levy?
A zero residence rate removes the residence claim but not the work-district claim. Philadelphia levies about 3.43% on non-resident earnings sourced within it, and with no residence tax there is no credit mechanism to offset it against.