Northampton Borough to Allentown
Pennsylvania Act 32 local earned income tax · BUCKS to LEHIGH County · tax year 2026
Home rate
1%
Northampton Borough, 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 Northampton 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
- This commute costs money. Work locally and Northampton Borough 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.
- This route is one of 12 into Allentown tracked here, ranking 9 by how many people travel it. Around 649 make the trip. Seen from the other end, Allentown is Northampton Borough's number 2 destination of 2.
- The Northampton Borough 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.
- Of 12 recorded inflows to Allentown, this route ranks 9 by worker count, carrying 649 commuters from Northampton Borough. Viewed from the origin it is that municipality's 2 destination of 2 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 Northampton Borough | $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. Northampton Borough 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 Northampton Borough and Allentown 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 Northampton Borough 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 Allentown.
- Check two things. A Northampton Borough 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 Northampton Borough 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 Northampton Borough and Allentown 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 Northampton Borough earnings, for which no municipal-level published source exists. The local earned income tax is proportional, so all dollar figures for the Allentown commute scale linearly with income and the rate comparison holds at every salary.
- Verify two things before relying on these figures. Municipal taxing boundaries do not track postal geography, so the applicable jurisdiction for a Northampton Borough 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 Northampton Borough'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?
$168 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?
The one where you work. Allentown levies more than Northampton Borough 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?
649 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 649 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.