Radnor Township to Philadelphia
Pennsylvania Act 32 local earned income tax · DELAWARE to PHILADELPHIA County · tax year 2026
Home rate
0%
Radnor 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 Radnor 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
- A resident of Radnor Township pays no local income tax at all. Then they take a job in Philadelphia, and the rate becomes about 3.43%. That is $2,058 a year. The tax follows the workplace, not the front door.
- Radnor Township is one of 94 places sending workers into Philadelphia, ranking 31 by size with about 1,327 commuters. It is Radnor Township's 1 destination of 1.
- No resident earned income tax applies in Radnor Township. Philadelphia's non-resident rate of about 3.43% therefore governs under Pennsylvania's greater-of test, producing an effective about 3.43% and $2,058 at the reference salary. This is the starkest form the rule takes: the entire liability is a function of the work location, and a resident who changed jobs without moving would see it appear from nothing.
- Across 94 inflows to Philadelphia tracked here, Radnor Township ranks 31 at 1,327 workers, and this is that municipality's 1 destination of 1. Rate and volume are independent: a large catchment is not necessarily a high-rate one, and the two rankings frequently disagree.
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 Radnor 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
- To be explicit, since the arrangement invites confusion. The rates for Radnor Township and Philadelphia are not stacked. Pennsylvania takes the larger one. What is collected then gets divided between the two municipalities. That division does not change what comes out of your pay.
- This covers the local tax only. Whatever Radnor Township or Philadelphia takes sits on top of state tax, federal tax and Social Security. Those three do not care where you live or work.
- All the dollar amounts rest on one assumed salary. It is stated rather than measured, because nobody publishes average pay for Radnor Township. The local tax is a flat percentage. Scale every figure to your own salary and the Philadelphia conclusion holds.
- Two practical cautions. Postal addresses and taxing boundaries do not always agree. Your post may say Radnor 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.
- The two rates applicable to a Radnor Township–Philadelphia commute are alternatives, not addends. The statute fixes the employee's liability at the greater of them and then apportions the proceeds, with the residence receiving up to its own rate and the excess passing to the work location. The apportionment is fiscally significant to the municipalities and immaterial to the worker.
- Only the local earned income tax component is modeled for the Radnor Township to Philadelphia 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.
- Monetary figures derive from a single stated salary assumption; no published wage series covers Pennsylvania municipalities such as Radnor Township. The flat structure of the local tax means the Philadelphia comparison is scale-invariant, so the rate difference rather than the dollar difference is the transferable result.
- Two caveats bear on accuracy. First, postal addresses and municipal taxing boundaries diverge frequently in Pennsylvania, so a Radnor Township address should be confirmed against the DCED municipal lookup before relying on the Radnor 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?
No — you pay the higher of the two rates and never the sum. Radnor Township levies about 0% on residents and Philadelphia levies about 3.43% on people who work there; whichever is larger is what you owe, and your employer withholds it.
What does crossing this boundary actually cost me?
About $2,058 a year. That is the gap between this commute and an identical job in Radnor Township, and it exists purely because the boundary sits between them.
Which town's rate am I actually paying?
Philadelphia sets it here. Its non-resident rate exceeds your home rate, so that is what is withheld.
Is this a common enough commute to be worth modeling?
It is. 1,327 workers travel this pair, per the federal origin-destination survey; smaller routes fall below the publication floor and get no page.
My own town charges no income tax — so why is any taken?
Because the tax follows the job as well as the address. Radnor Township levies nothing on residents, but Philadelphia levies about 3.43% on people who work there — and living somewhere untaxed does not exempt you from where you earn.
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 1,327 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.