Reading to Maxatawny Township
Pennsylvania Act 32 local earned income tax · ADAMS to BERKS County · tax year 2026
Home rate
1.7%
Reading, residents
Work rate
1%
Maxatawny Township, non-residents
You pay
1.7%
the higher of the two
Cost of the commute
$0
a year, above the home rate
What this commute costs you
no extra local taxReading already charges its residents more than Maxatawny 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
- Good news for this commute. Working in Maxatawny Township costs you nothing extra. Reading charges residents about 1.7%, at least as much as Maxatawny Township asks of people who work there but live elsewhere. The higher rate wins, so your home rate is simply the rate. That is $1,020 a year, wherever you work.
- A busy route. Maxatawny Township takes about 1,624 workers from Reading, which puts it 2 out of 8 destinations for the municipality. Not a corner case.
- For the Reading to Maxatawny Township commute the residence governs. Reading's resident rate of about 1.7% equals or exceeds Maxatawny Township's non-resident rate, so Pennsylvania's greater-of test resolves to the resident rate and the effective burden is about 1.7%, or $1,020 at the reference salary. The workplace adds nothing; the entire amount is remitted to the residence. This is the majority outcome and the one most commuters need confirmed.
- Maxatawny Township ranks 2 of 8 destinations recorded for Reading, at 1,624 workers. This places the route among the municipality's primary employment links and gives the rate treatment above broad application.
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 Reading | $1,020 |
|---|---|
| Working in Maxatawny Township | $1,020 |
| 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. Reading and Maxatawny 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.
- Only one tax is on this page. It is the local earned income tax that Reading and Maxatawny Township levy. State tax, federal tax and Social Security all still apply. All three are the same wherever in Pennsylvania you work.
- The dollar figures use a flat reference salary of sixty thousand a year. That is a benchmark, not an average for Reading. No wage data exists for single municipalities, and inventing one would be worse. Scale the numbers to your own pay. The rate for the Maxatawny Township commute is what matters, and it does not change with income.
- A postal address in Reading 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 Maxatawny Township.
- Pennsylvania's local rule is a greater-of rule, not an additive one: the liability for a Reading resident working in Maxatawny 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.
- The scope here is the municipal earned income tax alone. State, federal and payroll taxes are unaffected by the choice between Reading and Maxatawny Township and are therefore outside the model. A total tax position requires adding them; a comparison of the two locations does not.
- 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 Reading to Maxatawny 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 Reading. 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 Maxatawny 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 Reading's about 1.7% and Maxatawny 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 Reading would.
Which town's rate am I actually paying?
The one where you live. Reading levies at least as much as Maxatawny Township, so its rate applies and the crossing costs you nothing extra.
Is this a common enough commute to be worth modeling?
It is. 1,624 workers travel this pair, per the federal origin-destination survey; smaller routes fall below the publication floor and get no page.
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 1.7%) 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 basis for including this route?
Route volume is 1,624 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.