Pennsylvania Salary & Paycheck Calculator 2026

Withholding on a Pennsylvania paycheck has no separate state withholding form — Pennsylvania uses your federal Form W-4 information for state withholding purposes, applying the flat 3.07% rate directly to compensation. The complication is local Earned Income Tax (EIT). PA municipalities each have their own EIT rate, ranging from 1.0% in low-tax townships to 3.735% in Philadelphia. Form REV-419 (Local Earned Income Tax Residency Certification) tells your employer your home municipality so the correct local rate gets withheld and remitted to the right tax collector. Forgetting to file REV-419 after a move is the most common PA paycheck error — months of EIT may be flowing to the wrong municipality, requiring affirmative correction.

Take-home math at three tiers, Pennsylvania single filer 2026 in a township with ~1.5% EIT: $60,000 → about $5,020 federal + $4,590 FICA + $1,842 PA state + $900 EIT = $12,352 deductions, take-home $47,648 (79%). $100,000 → $13,170 federal + $7,650 FICA + $3,070 PA + $1,500 EIT = $25,390, take-home $74,610 (75%). $150,000 → $24,734 federal + $11,475 FICA + $4,605 PA + $2,250 EIT = $43,064, take-home $106,936 (71%). A Philadelphia resident at $100K loses an extra $2,235 to wage tax versus the township example — which more than doubles the local tax burden.

Pennsylvania's flat 3.07% rate is the lowest flat state income tax in the country, but the no-standard-deduction structure means it applies to gross compensation rather than federal-adjusted income. A $100K Pennsylvania earner's state taxable wages are the full $100K — Pennsylvania does NOT conform to federal §401(k) treatment, and elective deferrals are “received by the employee as compensation at the time the contribution is made” (PA PIT Guide, Gross Compensation), which is why Form PA-40 W-2 RW exists to reconcile PA wages against federal ones. Federal taxable income at the same salary is about $84K after the standard deduction. Philadelphia's wage tax is among the highest local income taxes in the US — Philly residents pay 3.735% on all wages, while non-resident workers in Philly pay 3.425% and get a credit on their resident-municipality EIT (typically reducing the resident-municipality EIT to zero).

The highest-leverage tactic for PA W-2 earners is the federal one, and Pennsylvania gives it no help: a $24,500 401(k) deferral saves nothing in PA tax and nothing in local EIT, because both levies reach the deferral in the year it is made. The saving is federal only — roughly $5,390 at the 22% bracket. Philadelphia residents get no city-tax relief from deferring either, so a Roth 401(k) is closer to break-even here than in a conforming state: the contribution is taxed by PA and the city under both choices, and only the federal side differs. The HSA story is similar — PA conforms to federal §125 cafeteria treatment, so HSA contributions reduce both PA and EIT taxable wages.