2026 tax year
Local income tax, state by state
Twelve states tax income below the state line. Most calculators stop at the state.
Federal, then state, then, in twelve states, a third layer your city, county or school district charges on top. It is small enough to ignore in some places and larger than the state tax in others: a Philadelphia resident pays more to Philadelphia than to Pennsylvania, because Pennsylvania's flat rate is 3.07% and the city's is 3.74%.
There is no single "local rate" to look up. Across these twelve states the charge takes eight different shapes. Some are a percentage of income. Yonkers charges a percentage of your state tax. New York City has its own bracket schedule. Huntington, West Virginia charges $5 a week regardless of what you earn. Portland charges $35 a year, flat. Ohio charges a rate and then partially credits what you paid somewhere else. And the size of that credit is not the same in any two cities.
Where local income tax exists
What a levy costs on $80,000, from the cheapest jurisdiction in the state to the most expensive. A wide range means the state has no useful average:
| State | On $80,000 | Reaches self-employment profit? |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $800 - $1,200 | No, wages only |
| Delaware | $1,000 | Yes |
| Indiana | $400 - $2,400 | Yes |
| Kentucky | $1,760 - $1,800 | Yes |
| Maryland | $1,800 - $2,640 | Yes |
| Michigan | $800 - $1,920 | Yes |
| Missouri | $800 | Yes |
| New York | $712 - $3,200 | Yes |
| Ohio | $1,200 - $2,280 | Yes |
| Oregon | $0 - $35 | Yes |
| Pennsylvania | $52 - $2,992 | Yes |
| West Virginia | flat dollars, not a rate | Yes |
The trap in each of the twelve
None of these states is straightforward, and the thing that catches people is different in every one. Open one for the short version, or follow the link for how the charge is actually worked out:
Alabama
It reaches wages only. Work for yourself and it does not touch your profit. But a separate business license tax does.
Delaware
Wilmington charges commuters the same 1.25% as residents, no reduced rate for people who only work there.
Indiana
Your county is fixed on January 1 and does not change if you move. And rates run from 0.5% to 3%.
Kentucky
A city and a county can both tax the same income, and forgetting the credit between them overstates the bill.
Maryland
Unavoidable: every resident pays, on the same income the state taxes, including business profit and investment income.
Michigan
The rate halves if you only work in the city rather than live there, and four cities are allowed to charge far more than the rest.
Missouri
Work partly outside the city and you can reclaim the days you were elsewhere, which most people never do.
New York
No city tax on commuters since 1999, except a 4% tax on self-employed profit, which does reach them.
Ohio
Your city taxes your whole business profit, the state break for business owners does not exist at city level.
Oregon
Both Portland-area taxes reach people who live in Washington, where there is no state income tax at all.
Pennsylvania
S-corporation profit escapes the local tax entirely, while the identical profit earned as a sole proprietor does not.
West Virginia
Dollars per week worked, not a percentage. So it costs someone on $30,000 exactly what it costs someone on $300,000.
Ohio's is the one that changes the answer by direction rather than by amount: in 6 of its twenty largest cities the credit for tax paid to another city is capped below the city's own rate, so a resident working elsewhere still gets a bill. The cities and the figures are on the Ohio page.
The thirty-eight states with none
Everywhere not listed above, the state return is the last one. If you live in one of the twelve, the local charge is usually not withheld when you are self-employed, no employer means no withholding, and it is due on the same quarterly rhythm as everything else.
Related
This is general information about how these taxes work, not tax advice. Local rates change by ordinance and referendum more often than state rates do, check with your own jurisdiction or a tax professional before relying on any figure here.