Haverford Township to Philadelphia
Pennsylvania Act 32 local earned income tax · DELAWARE to PHILADELPHIA County · tax year 2026
Home rate
0%
Haverford Township, 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 Haverford 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
- Living in Haverford Township costs you nothing in local income tax. Working in Philadelphia costs you about 3.43% of your pay. That is the whole bill. None of it would exist if you worked at home. On sixty thousand it comes to $2,058 a year.
- Roughly 5,706 people commute from Haverford Township to Philadelphia, which makes this route number 4 out of 94 tracked into that workplace. A normal-sized flow rather than a dominant one.
- Roughly 5,706 workers go from Haverford Township to Philadelphia each day. That is a lot of households facing one rate question. Hence a page of its own.
- Haverford Township levies no resident earned income tax, so a resident working locally owes nothing. Under the state's rule the employer must withhold the greater of the resident rate or the work location's non-resident rate, and Philadelphia levies about 3.43% on non-residents. The effective burden is therefore about 3.43% — $2,058 annually at the reference salary — arising entirely from the workplace and not at all from the residence.
- This flow carries 5,706 workers, ranking 4 among 94 recorded routes into Philadelphia and 1 of 2 destinations recorded for Haverford Township. The rate outcome above therefore applies to a meaningful but not dominant share of that workplace's inbound commuters.
- Approximately 5,706 employees commute from Haverford Township to Philadelphia. Flows of this size are why the greater-of rule matters in aggregate: the per-worker difference may be modest, but it is replicated across a large and stable population.
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 Haverford Township | $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
- A common worry, answered. You do not pay Haverford Township and Philadelphia 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 Haverford Township and Philadelphia 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 Haverford 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 Philadelphia.
- Two practical cautions. Postal addresses and taxing boundaries do not always agree. Your post may say Haverford Township while your taxing municipality is a different one. Pennsylvania publishes an official lookup to settle it. The same caution applies at the Philadelphia end. Philadelphia is a special case too, with its own wage tax.
- Workers commuting from Haverford Township to Philadelphia 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 Haverford Township and Philadelphia 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 Haverford Township earnings, for which no municipal-level published source exists. The local earned income tax is proportional, so all dollar figures for the Philadelphia commute scale linearly with income and the rate comparison holds at every salary.
- Two caveats bear on accuracy. First, postal addresses and municipal taxing boundaries diverge frequently in Pennsylvania, so a Haverford Township address should be confirmed against the DCED municipal lookup before relying on the Haverford Township rate. Second, Philadelphia administers its wage tax outside this framework, with its own resident and non-resident rates and its own credit arrangements, so any pairing touching it should be checked against the city's own schedule.
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% where you live, about 3.43% where you work, and you pay the greater of the two.
What does crossing this boundary actually cost me?
Working across the line costs $2,058 a year here. The same salary earned in Haverford Township would not carry it.
Which town's rate am I actually paying?
Philadelphia's, because it is the higher of the two. Where you work sets the rate on this route, and your home town receives its share out of what is collected rather than charging you separately.
Is this a common enough commute to be worth modeling?
Yes — 5,706 people make this exact journey, according to the federal employment survey that tracks where workers live against where they work. Routes below a volume floor are not published, so a page existing here means the commute is real and measured.
My own town charges no income tax — so why is any taken?
The work district has its own claim. Haverford Township 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 basis for including this route?
Route volume is 5,706 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.
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.