If you live in Pennsylvania and make $35,000 or more a year working in New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie is proposing that you pay more in income tax – and that you pay it to New Jersey.
If he gets his way, Gov. Christie would abolish a 39-year-old tax agreement between Pennsylvania and New Jersey that allows interstate commuters to pay income taxes in their state of residence. Without the two-state agreement, Pennsylvanians working in New Jersey would have to pay New Jersey's graduated income tax instead of Pennsylvania's flat income tax.
The Bottom line: Pennsylvanians working across the Delaware River who make $35,000 or more per year would be subject to New Jersey’s higher tiered rates, and if your taxable income from working in the Garden State is $40,000 or more, you would pay more than 5.5 percent in income tax, a 55 percent hike. For those making considerably more, your tax liability could spike to nearly 200 percent – and all that money would go to New Jersey instead of benefitting our community here at home.
All of this can be avoided by keeping the Pennsylvania-New Jersey Tax Reciprocity Agreement in place.
If you are a Pennsylvanian working in New Jersey, lend your voice to keep tax reciprocity by signing the petition here.
Don’t let Gov. Christie get away with an unfair, unilateral tax grab.