Ridley Township to Philadelphia
Pennsylvania Act 32 local earned income tax · DELAWARE to PHILADELPHIA County · tax year 2026
Home rate
0%
Ridley 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 Ridley 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
- Here is a surprise for anyone commuting from Ridley Township to Philadelphia. Home charges nothing. Work charges about 3.43%. You pay the higher of the two, so you pay the work rate in full. That is $2,058 a year.
- Ridley Township is one of 94 places sending workers into Philadelphia, ranking 23 by size with about 1,657 commuters. It is Ridley Township's 1 destination of 1.
- For the Ridley Township to Philadelphia commute, the resident rate is zero and the work location's non-resident rate is about 3.43%. Pennsylvania resolves the two by taking the greater, so the effective rate is about 3.43% and the annual charge $2,058 at the reference salary. Withholding is remitted through the work location's collector; the residence receives nothing because it levies nothing.
- Across 94 inflows to Philadelphia tracked here, Ridley Township ranks 23 at 1,657 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 Ridley 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
- One thing worth being clear about, because it catches people out. You are not charged by both places. Ridley Township and Philadelphia 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 Ridley Township and Philadelphia 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 Ridley 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 Philadelphia commute is what matters, and it does not change with income.
- Two practical cautions. Postal addresses and taxing boundaries do not always agree. Your post may say Ridley 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.
- Pennsylvania's local rule is a greater-of rule, not an additive one: the liability for a Ridley Township resident working in Philadelphia 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 Ridley Township and Philadelphia 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 Ridley Township to Philadelphia differential doubles at twice the salary and halves at half of it.
- Two caveats bear on accuracy. First, postal addresses and municipal taxing boundaries diverge frequently in Pennsylvania, so a Ridley Township address should be confirmed against the DCED municipal lookup before relying on the Ridley 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?
Only once, at the higher rate. Between Ridley Township's about 0% and Philadelphia's about 3.43%, the larger governs — the two are never added together.
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 Ridley 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. 1,657 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?
Living in an untaxed town is not the same as earning in one. Ridley Township charges nothing; Philadelphia charges about 3.43% to anyone working within it.
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 1,657 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.