Hanover Township to Allentown
Pennsylvania Act 32 local earned income tax · BEAVER to LEHIGH County · tax year 2026
Home rate
1%
Hanover Township, residents
Work rate
1.28%
Allentown, non-residents
You pay
1.28%
the higher of the two
Cost of the commute
$168
a year, above the home rate
What this commute costs you
workplace governsAllentown charges commuters more than Hanover 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
- This commute costs money. Work locally and Hanover Township would charge you about 1%. But Allentown charges non-residents about 1.28%, and the higher rate applies. The difference is $168 a year, for a decision about where the office is.
- You are on the cheapest route into Allentown. Out of 12 commutes tracked here, Hanover Township carries the lowest local rate. Colleagues traveling in from elsewhere pay more than you for the same job.
- The Hanover Township to Allentown pairing produces a workplace-driven liability. Against a resident rate of about 1%, Allentown's non-resident rate of about 1.28% is higher and therefore controls, giving about 1.28% and $768 annually. The workplace-attributable increment is $168. Workers frequently discover this only through withholding rather than in advance.
- Hanover Township carries the lowest effective local rate across 12 routes into Allentown recorded here. The saving is attributable entirely to residence, since workplace and salary are constant across the comparison.
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 Hanover Township | $600 |
|---|---|
| Working in Allentown | $768 |
| Difference | $168 |
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. Hanover Township and Allentown 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.
- Only one tax is on this page. It is the local earned income tax that Hanover Township and Allentown levy. State tax, federal tax and Social Security all still apply. All three are the same wherever in Pennsylvania you work.
- All the dollar amounts rest on one assumed salary. It is stated rather than measured, because nobody publishes average pay for Hanover Township. The local tax is a flat percentage. Scale every figure to your own salary and the Allentown conclusion holds.
- Check two things. A Hanover Township postal address may not match your taxing municipality. That catches out plenty of people near a boundary, and the state has an official lookup for it. Philadelphia is the other one to watch. It runs its wage tax separately, outside the pattern used for Allentown.
- Pennsylvania's local rule is a greater-of rule, not an additive one: the liability for a Hanover Township resident working in Allentown 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.
- The scope here is the municipal earned income tax alone. State, federal and payroll taxes are unaffected by the choice between Hanover Township and Allentown and are therefore outside the model. A total tax position requires adding them; a comparison of the two locations does not.
- Monetary figures derive from a single stated salary assumption; no published wage series covers Pennsylvania municipalities such as Hanover Township. The flat structure of the local tax means the Allentown comparison is scale-invariant, so the rate difference rather than the dollar difference is the transferable result.
- Verify two things before relying on these figures. Municipal taxing boundaries do not track postal geography, so the applicable jurisdiction for a Hanover Township address should be confirmed through the state's official lookup. Separately, Philadelphia's wage tax operates outside this framework and is not governed by the greater-of rule applied here, which affects any pairing involving the city rather than Allentown generally.
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 Hanover Township's about 1% and Allentown's about 1.28%, the larger governs — the two are never added together.
What does crossing this boundary actually cost me?
About $168 a year. That is the gap between this commute and an identical job in Hanover Township, and it exists purely because the boundary sits between them.
Which town's rate am I actually paying?
The one where you work. Allentown levies more than Hanover Township does, so its rate is the one applied and the difference is distributed between them afterwards.
Is this commute common enough for the numbers to mean anything?
525 people travel it. Volume decides whether a route gets published at all, never what the tax on it 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 1%) and the non-resident work rate (about 1.28%); 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 $168 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 525 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.