Hamilton Township to Chambersburg Borough
Pennsylvania Act 32 local earned income tax · ADAMS to FRANKLIN County · tax year 2026
Home rate
1.7%
Hamilton Township, residents
Work rate
1%
Chambersburg Borough, non-residents
You pay
1.7%
the higher of the two
Cost of the commute
$0
a year, above the home rate
What this commute costs you
no extra local taxHamilton Township already charges its residents more than Chambersburg Borough charges commuters, so the home rate governs and the job adds nothing at all. 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
- Good news for this commute. Working in Chambersburg Borough costs you nothing extra. Hamilton Township charges residents about 1.7%, at least as much as Chambersburg Borough asks of people who work there but live elsewhere. The higher rate wins, so your home rate is simply the rate. That is $1,020 a year, wherever you work.
- This is the dearest way into Chambersburg Borough. Out of 4 routes tracked here, Hamilton Township has the highest local rate. Same office, same salary, and you pay more local tax than colleagues who travel in from anywhere else on this list.
- For the Hamilton Township to Chambersburg Borough commute the residence governs. Hamilton Township's resident rate of about 1.7% equals or exceeds Chambersburg Borough's non-resident rate, so Pennsylvania's greater-of test resolves to the resident rate and the effective burden is about 1.7%, or $1,020 at the reference salary. The workplace adds nothing; the entire amount is remitted to the residence. This is the majority outcome and the one most commuters need confirmed.
- Of 4 routes into Chambersburg Borough in this dataset, Hamilton Township produces the highest effective rate. Because the local tax attaches to residence and workplace rather than to the employer, colleagues at one workplace routinely carry materially different local burdens, and this residence is at the top of that range.
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 Hamilton Township | $1,020 |
|---|---|
| Working in Chambersburg Borough | $1,020 |
| Difference | $0 |
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. Hamilton Township and Chambersburg Borough 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.
- This covers the local tax only. Whatever Hamilton Township or Chambersburg Borough takes sits on top of state tax, federal tax and Social Security. Those three do not care where you live or work.
- Sixty thousand a year is a benchmark. It is not a guess at what people in Hamilton 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 Chambersburg Borough.
- A postal address in Hamilton 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 Chambersburg Borough.
- Pennsylvania's local rule is a greater-of rule, not an additive one: the liability for a Hamilton Township resident working in Chambersburg Borough 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.
- Only the local earned income tax component is modeled for the Hamilton Township to Chambersburg Borough commute. State and federal liabilities are constant across Pennsylvania municipalities and are excluded so the municipal differential is visible rather than buried inside a larger total.
- The reference salary is a stated benchmark, not an estimate of Hamilton Township earnings, for which no municipal-level published source exists. The local earned income tax is proportional, so all dollar figures for the Chambersburg Borough 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 Hamilton 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 Chambersburg Borough.
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 Hamilton Township's about 1.7% and Chambersburg Borough's about 1%, the larger governs — the two are never added together.
Does working in a different town cost me anything?
On this route, nothing. You owe exactly what you would have owed working at home — the boundary is real on a map and invisible on your pay stub, which is not true of every pair of towns here.
Which town's rate am I actually paying?
The one where you live. Hamilton Township levies at least as much as Chambersburg Borough, so its rate applies and the crossing costs you nothing extra.
Is this a common enough commute to be worth modeling?
It is. 1,319 workers travel this pair, per the federal origin-destination survey; smaller routes fall below the publication floor and get no page.
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 1.7%) 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.
Why is the marginal cost of this crossing zero?
Marginal liability from working outside the residence jurisdiction is zero on this route. The crossing alters the distribution of revenue between jurisdictions but not the employee's total. ⚠️ This is route-specific and does not generalise to other pairs in the same dataset.
Which district's rate governs on this route?
The residence rate equals or exceeds the work district's non-resident rate and therefore governs. Working outside the residence district does not increase employee liability on this route; it affects only inter-district distribution.
What is the basis for including this route?
Route volume is 1,319 workers, sourced from Census LODES origin-destination data. Pairs below the publication threshold are excluded rather than imputed, so page existence reflects measured commuting volume.