Lower Macungie Township to Upper Macungie Township
Pennsylvania Act 32 local earned income tax · LEHIGH to LEHIGH County · tax year 2026
Home rate
1.15%
Lower Macungie Township, residents
Work rate
1%
Upper Macungie Township, non-residents
You pay
1.15%
the higher of the two
Cost of the commute
$0
a year, above the home rate
What this commute costs you
no extra local taxLower Macungie Township already charges its residents more than Upper Macungie Township 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
- Nothing changes for this commute. A resident of Lower Macungie Township pays about 1.15% either way. It makes no difference whether they work at home or travel to Upper Macungie Township. The home rate is the higher of the two, and the higher one wins. That is $690 a year.
- This route is one of 6 into Upper Macungie Township tracked here, ranking 5 by how many people travel it. Around 663 make the trip. Seen from the other end, Upper Macungie Township is Lower Macungie Township's number 2 destination of 4.
- The Lower Macungie Township to Upper Macungie Township commute is tax-neutral. Lower Macungie Township's resident rate of about 1.15% is not exceeded by Upper Macungie Township's non-resident rate, so under the state's rule the resident rate applies and the effective figure is about 1.15% — $690 annually at the reference salary. Withholding is remitted to the residence in full and the work location receives no share.
- Of 6 recorded inflows to Upper Macungie Township, this route ranks 5 by worker count, carrying 663 commuters from Lower Macungie Township. Viewed from the origin it is that municipality's 2 destination of 4 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 Lower Macungie Township | $690 |
|---|---|
| Working in Upper Macungie Township | $690 |
| 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. Lower Macungie Township and Upper Macungie Township 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 Lower Macungie Township or Upper Macungie Township takes sits on top of state tax, federal tax and Social Security. Those three do not care where you live or work.
- The dollar figures use a flat reference salary of sixty thousand a year. That is a benchmark, not an average for Lower Macungie Township. No wage data exists for single municipalities, and inventing one would be worse. Scale the numbers to your own pay. The rate for the Upper Macungie Township commute is what matters, and it does not change with income.
- A postal address in Lower Macungie 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 Upper Macungie Township.
- Pennsylvania's local rule is a greater-of rule, not an additive one: the liability for a Lower Macungie Township resident working in Upper Macungie Township 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 Lower Macungie Township to Upper Macungie Township 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.
- Dollar amounts are computed against a stated reference salary rather than a municipal wage average, which does not exist for Pennsylvania municipalities in any published source. Because the local tax is flat, the rate is invariant to income and the figures scale linearly — the Lower Macungie Township to Upper Macungie Township differential doubles at twice the salary and halves at half of it.
- 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 Lower Macungie 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 Upper Macungie Township.
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 Lower Macungie Township's about 1.15% and Upper Macungie Township's about 1%, the larger governs — the two are never added together.
Does working in a different town cost me anything?
Nothing extra. The tax is redirected rather than increased, so this particular crossing costs you no more than working in Lower Macungie Township would.
Which town's rate am I actually paying?
Lower Macungie Township's, because it is the higher of the two. Where you live sets the rate on this route, so working across the boundary does not raise what you owe — it only changes who collects it.
Is this commute common enough for the numbers to mean anything?
It is a smaller route: 663 workers. That affects how representative it is, not whether the tax arithmetic applies — the rules are the same on a quiet road as a busy one.
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 1.15%) 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 measurement basis for a route of this size?
Route volume is 663 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.