Washington Township to Erie
Pennsylvania Act 32 local earned income tax · ARMSTRONG to ERIE County · tax year 2026
Home rate
1%
Washington Township, residents
Work rate
1.65%
Erie, non-residents
You pay
1.65%
the higher of the two
Cost of the commute
$390
a year, above the home rate
What this commute costs you
workplace governsErie charges commuters more than Washington 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
- This commute costs money. Work locally and Washington Township would charge you about 1%. But Erie charges non-residents about 1.65%, and the higher rate applies. The difference is $390 a year, for a decision about where the office is.
- This route is one of 10 into Erie tracked here, ranking 10 by how many people travel it. Around 547 make the trip. Seen from the other end, Erie is Washington Township's number 1 destination of 2.
- The Washington Township to Erie pairing produces a workplace-driven liability. Against a resident rate of about 1%, Erie's non-resident rate of about 1.65% is higher and therefore controls, giving about 1.65% and $990 annually. The workplace-attributable increment is $390. Workers frequently discover this only through withholding rather than in advance.
- Of 10 recorded inflows to Erie, this route ranks 10 by worker count, carrying 547 commuters from Washington Township. Viewed from the origin it is that municipality's 1 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 Washington Township | $600 |
|---|---|
| Working in Erie | $990 |
| Difference | $390 |
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
- A common worry, answered. You do not pay Washington Township and Erie both. Only one rate applies, the higher of the two. The two councils then sort out between themselves who gets what, and your bill is unaffected.
- Everything here is the local earned income tax and nothing else. State income tax applies on top, as do federal tax and Social Security. None of those change when you cross a municipal line between Washington Township and Erie. This page is about the layer that does.
- Sixty thousand a year is a benchmark. It is not a guess at what people in Washington Township 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 Erie.
- Check two things. A Washington Township 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 Erie.
- Workers commuting from Washington Township to Erie are subject to one rate, not two. The statute directs the employer to withhold the greater of the resident and non-resident rates; the allocation between the two taxing bodies is a remittance mechanic invisible to the employee. Treating the two rates as cumulative is the most common misreading of the statute.
- Figures cover the local earned income tax exclusively. Pennsylvania's flat state income tax, federal income tax and FICA apply in addition and are invariant to the Washington Township–Erie municipal boundary, which is precisely why they are excluded: isolating the layer that responds to the commute is the point of the comparison.
- The reference salary is a stated benchmark, not an estimate of Washington Township earnings, for which no municipal-level published source exists. The local earned income tax is proportional, so all dollar figures for the Erie 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 Washington Township 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 Erie generally.
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. Washington Township levies about 1% on residents and Erie levies about 1.65% 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?
$390 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?
Erie's, because it is the higher of the two. Where you work sets the rate on this route, and your home town receives its share out of what is collected rather than charging you separately.
Is this commute common enough for the numbers to mean anything?
547 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 1.65%); 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 $390 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 547 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.