Living in Kentucky, working in West Virginia
Reciprocal agreement · tax year 2026
You pay Kentucky
$2,332
on a seventy-thousand wage
West Virginia would want
$2,317
The agreement is worth
$0
in money — the gain is one return, not two
File this
WV/IT-104NR
with your employer
What the agreement does for you
- For Kentucky residents working in West Virginia, the saving is in effort rather than money. Home takes $2,332 on seventy thousand dollars; West Virginia would have taken $2,317, which is less. Either way the total lands at the home figure. The agreement just stops the wrong state taking money out of your pay all year and making you ask for it back.
- It does not stay the same as you earn more. On forty-five thousand dollars the Kentucky bill is $1,457; on a hundred thousand it is $3,382. West Virginia would have charged $3,691 at that higher wage. The two states pull apart as the salary rises, which is why this matters more to a senior job than a starter one.
- One piece of paper stands between you and this. Your employer needs the West Virginia exemption certificate from you, usually once a year. Without it they must keep withholding West Virginia tax from a Kentucky resident. You would then be filing a return there after all.
- The benefit on this pairing is compliance relief rather than a lower bill. Kentucky charges $2,332 on seventy thousand dollars where West Virginia would charge $2,317; the home charge being larger, a resident credit would have produced the same total unaided. ⭐ What the agreement buys is the removal of a nonresident filing obligation and of a year of withholding by the wrong jurisdiction.
- The differential is income-dependent rather than fixed. Kentucky's liability runs $1,457 at forty-five thousand dollars and $3,382 at one hundred thousand, against $3,691 in West Virginia at the upper figure. Where one state applies a flat rate and the other a graduated schedule the gap widens or narrows monotonically with income, so a single-salary comparison understates how much the pairing matters across a career.
- The benefit is conditional on filing the exemption certificate with the employer, typically renewed annually. ⚠️ Employer withholding defaults to the work state in its absence, irrespective of eligibility, and the remedy is a nonresident return in West Virginia. The practical failure mode is therefore not ineligibility but non-election — the agreement exists and the commuter simply never claims it.
What lands in your account
A $75,000 salary
Filing as
Paid
$2,273per paycheck
| Take-home, year | $59,085 |
|---|---|
| Tax, year | $15,915 |
| Share of pay taxed | 21.22% |
This is an average rate across all your pay — not the rate on your next dollar.
Kentucky against West Virginia
A $75,000 salary
Compare with
+$463a year in West Virginia, once local prices are leveled
| Measure | Kentucky | West Virginia |
|---|---|---|
| Take-home pay | $59,085 | $59,047 |
| Worth after local prices | $65,311 | $65,774 |
| Share of pay taxed | 21.22% | 21.27% |
| State sales tax | 6% | 6% |
| Groceries exempt here | Yes | Yes |
| Clothing exempt at $100 | No | No |
| Property tax rate | 0.75% | 0.53% |
| Price level | 90.5 | 89.8 |
| Housing prices | 62.9 | 56.1 |
| Fuel tax | 25¢ | 20.5¢ |
| Tobacco tax | $1.10 | $1.20 |
City income tax excluded. Sales-tax row: state-only. Exemptions: Kentucky, Statewide average; West Virginia, Statewide average. Clothing: one $100 item; higher prices can change tax.
What you would need there
A $75,000 salary
Moving to
$74,367in West Virginia, for the same life
| To match take-home only | $75,059 |
|---|---|
| You could take a cut of | −$633 |
| Prices in West Virginia | 90 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
What each state would charge, across the ladder
Reference wages for a single filer, not a claim about anyone's salary. The last column is the difference the agreement actually removes — which is the gap between the two states, not West Virginia's whole charge.
| Wage | Kentucky charges | West Virginia would charge | Agreement is worth |
|---|---|---|---|
| $45,000 | $1,457 | $1,233 | $0 |
| $70,000 | $2,332 | $2,317 | $0 |
| $100,000 | $3,382 | $3,691 | $309 |
What this page cannot tell you
- This covers wages from a job. It does not cover self-employment, rent or investment income — those follow the ordinary rules for West Virginia.
- ⚠️ And it is a deal between two states. City and county taxes are not part of it, and several of these states have them.
- Every agreement in this dataset applies to wages and salaries only. Business, rental, gain and investment income sourced to West Virginia remains taxable there under ordinary nonresident rules, and a commuter with such income may still owe a West Virginia return notwithstanding the agreement.
- ⚠️ Reciprocity binds the state layer only and commonly does NOT extend to municipal or county income taxes — Pennsylvania's local earned income tax is the standard example, remaining payable at the place of employment despite the state-level agreement. Local liabilities are excluded from every figure on this page.