Living in Virginia, working in District of Columbia
Reciprocal agreement · tax year 2026
You pay Virginia
$3,264
on a seventy-thousand wage
District of Columbia would want
$3,104
The agreement is worth
$0
in money — the gain is one return, not two
File this
D-4A
with your employer
What the agreement does for you
- Do not expect a check from this one. Between Virginia and District of Columbia, home charges $3,264 on a seventy-thousand-dollar wage and the work state would have charged $3,104. Because home is the dearer of the two, your bill is the same with or without the agreement. What changes is that you file once instead of twice.
- The size of this depends on your pay. Virginia charges $1,827 on forty-five thousand dollars and $4,989 on a hundred thousand. Against that, District of Columbia would have taken $5,532 at the higher figure. Check it against your own salary rather than the middle one.
- None of this happens by itself. Living in Virginia, you have to hand your employer the exemption form for District of Columbia, and keep doing it. Most states want it again each year. Miss it and District of Columbia withholds from every paycheck as though no agreement existed. You would get it back by filing there, which is the very thing the agreement was meant to spare you.
- No dollar saving arises on this pairing: Virginia levies $3,264 against District of Columbia's $3,104 at seventy thousand dollars, and since the home charge is the larger, a resident credit would have absorbed the work state's tax entirely. ⭐ The agreement's value is the elimination of nonresident filing and of incorrect withholding across the year — which is the outcome most commuters are actually seeking when they ask about reciprocity.
- Liability under each schedule diverges with income: $1,827 and $4,989 in Virginia at forty-five and one hundred thousand dollars respectively, against $5,532 in District of Columbia at the upper point. The relevant figure for any individual is therefore the one at their own wage — the mid-ladder comparison is illustrative of direction, not of magnitude.
- The exemption is elective and employee-initiated: the certificate must be filed with the employer, and most agreement states require renewal annually. ⚠️ Without it on file the employer is obliged to withhold District of Columbia tax regardless of the agreement's existence, and recovery then requires a nonresident return in District of Columbia — restoring precisely the compliance burden the agreement removes, with the cash held by the wrong state until the claim is processed.
What lands in your account
A $75,000 salary
Filing as
Paid
$2,232per paycheck
| Take-home, year | $58,041 |
|---|---|
| Tax, year | $16,959 |
| Share of pay taxed | 22.61% |
This is an average rate across all your pay — not the rate on your next dollar.
Virginia against District of Columbia
A $75,000 salary
Compare with
−$5,116a year in District of Columbia, once local prices are leveled
| Measure | Virginia | District of Columbia |
|---|---|---|
| Take-home pay | $58,041 | $58,164 |
| Worth after local prices | $57,609 | $52,493 |
| Share of pay taxed | 22.61% | 22.45% |
| State sales tax | 5.3% | 6% |
| Groceries exempt here | No | Yes |
| Clothing exempt at $100 | No | No |
| Property tax rate | 0.73% | 0.59% |
| Price level | 100.7 | 110.8 |
| Housing prices | 105.5 | 168.5 |
| Fuel tax | 32.6¢ | 23.5¢ |
| Tobacco tax | $0.60 | $5.08 |
City income tax excluded. Sales-tax row: state-only. Exemptions: Virginia, Statewide average; District of Columbia, Statewide average. Clothing: one $100 item; higher prices can change tax.
What you would need there
A $75,000 salary
Moving to
$84,131in District of Columbia, for the same life
| To match take-home only | $74,807 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$9,131 |
| Prices in District of Columbia | 111 vs 101 |
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 District of Columbia's whole charge.
| Wage | Virginia charges | District of Columbia would charge | Agreement is worth |
|---|---|---|---|
| $45,000 | $1,827 | $1,534 | $0 |
| $70,000 | $3,264 | $3,104 | $0 |
| $100,000 | $4,989 | $5,532 | $542 |
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 District of Columbia.
- ⚠️ 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 District of Columbia remains taxable there under ordinary nonresident rules, and a commuter with such income may still owe a District of Columbia 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.