Live in Texas, Work in Delaware: Which State Taxes Your Paycheck?
Answer
Delaware withholds, Texas does not. As a Texas resident you have no home-state income tax return at all, so the Delaware nonresident return is the whole of your state filing. Nothing offsets the Delaware tax, because a credit has to be claimed against a home-state tax that does not exist.
Last verified
This is the mirror image of the more common commute. There is no home-state return to file, so the Delaware nonresident return carries the whole obligation — and because Texas charges nothing, there is no credit mechanism involved anywhere.
Delaware also has a layer below the state one, and it is the layer that survives every agreement: Wilmington levies a city earned income tax on wages earned inside the city, collected by the city rather than the Division of Revenue.
What you file
- 1Nonresident return · DelawareForm PIT-NON
File a Delaware nonresident return for the wages you earned in Delaware. Texas has no wage income tax, so there is no second return and no credit to claim.
The two states, side by side
| Texas | Delaware | |
|---|---|---|
| Taxes wages | No | Yes — graduated |
| Reciprocity partners | None | None |
| Convenience rule | No | Yes — general rule |
| Nonresident return | Not applicable | Form PIT-NON |
| Credit for other-state tax | No income tax | Schedule I (Form PIT-RES) |
| Nonresident safe harbour | Not applicable | None published |
| Local income tax | No | Yes |
| Revenue department | Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts | Delaware Division of Revenue |
| Last verified |
The other direction
Reversing the commute does not always reverse the answer. Living in Delaware and working in Texas gives:Home state only.
Same two states, different situation
The withholding answer turns on how you are paid and where the work happens, not only on which two states are involved.
- Remote worker: Texas → DelawareConvenience-of-the-employer rule — employer state taxes you
- 1099 contractor: Texas → DelawareClient state only, if you work there
- Moved mid-year: Texas → DelawareOne part-year return — the state you moved to
Other Texas pairs
Questions people actually ask
I live in Texas and work in Delaware. Which state takes the tax out of my paycheck?
Delaware withholds, Texas does not. As a Texas resident you have no home-state income tax return at all, so the Delaware nonresident return is the whole of your state filing. Nothing offsets the Delaware tax, because a credit has to be claimed against a home-state tax that does not exist.
Which state should my employer be withholding for?
Delaware. The wages are sourced to Delaware, so Delaware withholding is correct and there is no Texas withholding to set up, because Texas levies no income tax on wages.
How current is this?
The Texas and Delaware rules on this page were last checked against Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts and Delaware Division of Revenue on 2026-08-07. We re-check the full grid every December after state legislative sessions close, and re-check the convenience-of-the-employer states quarterly because that is where the rules move fastest.
Sources
Every fact above comes from the revenue department that publishes the rule. We do not cite secondary summaries, and we do not restate a figure we could not find at source.
- Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07
- Delaware Division of Revenue — individual income taxaccessed 2026-08-07