Delaware takes $4,269 from an $85,000 salary — more than California, more than New York, more than Colorado. A single filer takes home $64,359.
That is a genuinely high figure for a small state with a low profile, and it comes from two design choices: a 6.6% top rate that begins at $60,000 of taxable income, and a standard deduction of only $3,250.
The offsetting half is substantial and almost never mentioned alongside it: Delaware has no general sales tax. Not a reduced rate — none at all, one of only five states in that position.
A note before you start. This is general education, not tax advice. Federal figures are tax year 2026, from IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 and the Social Security Administration; Delaware's brackets and Wilmington's wage tax come from this site's own sourced 50-state dataset. Every dollar figure computed by the site's engine is on a single filer taking the state's standard deduction, with no dependents or pre-tax deferrals unless stated. The Wilmington earned income tax is named here but never included in any total — see section 4.
1. Seven brackets, four of them below $10,000
| Rate | Starts at (taxable income) |
|---|---|
| 0% | $0 |
| 2.2% | $2,000 |
| 3.9% | $5,000 |
| 4.8% | $10,000 |
| 5.2% | $20,000 |
| 5.55% | $25,000 |
| 6.6% | $60,000 |
Delaware's structure has a genuinely graduated middle, which distinguishes it from Alabama's $3,000 ramp or Missouri's $9,436 one. Rate changes happen at $2,000, $5,000, $10,000, $20,000, $25,000 and $60,000 — spread across a range where real incomes actually sit.
But the top rate arrives early. At $60,000 of taxable income — roughly $63,000 of salary — a Delawarean is at 6.6% and stays there permanently, whether they earn $70,000 or $7 million.
Compare that to California, whose 9.3% bracket begins at $72,724 but which has three further brackets above it, or New York, which does not reach 6.85% until $215,400.
Delaware charges a high-ish rate, starting at an ordinary income, with no further graduation above it.
The shelter is small
Delaware allows a $3,250 standard deduction for a single filer and a $110 personal credit — a credit against tax rather than a deduction from income.
| Federal | Delaware | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary | $85,000 | $85,000 |
| Standard deduction | −$16,100 | −$3,250 |
| Taxable income | $68,900 | $81,750 |
Delaware taxes a base $12,850 larger than the federal one, and taxes the top slice of it at 6.6%.
2. What it costs across incomes
| Salary | Delaware tax | Marginal rate | Take-home |
|---|---|---|---|
| $30,000 | $988 | 5.55% | $25,297 |
| $45,000 | $1,821 | 5.55% | $36,517 |
| $60,000 | $2,653 | 5.55% | $47,737 |
| $85,000 | $4,269 | 6.6% | $64,359 |
| $120,000 | $6,579 | 6.6% | $86,671 |
| $175,000 | $10,209 | 6.6% | $120,670 |
Notice the marginal rate crossing from 5.55% to 6.6% between $60,000 and $85,000 of salary — that is the $60,000 taxable-income threshold being passed.
At $175,000 Delaware takes $10,209, which is the third-highest figure in this series so far behind Oregon and Hawaii. Because there is no bracket above 6.6%, Delaware's burden on high earners grows in a straight line rather than accelerating — but it starts from a high base.
A joint filer on $85,000 pays $3,945, only $324 less, because Delaware's brackets do not widen for joint filers in the way most states' do.
Run your own salary against Delaware's brackets3. Where Delaware ranks
At $85,000:
| State | Tax on $85,000 |
|---|---|
| Oregon | $6,864 |
| Hawaii | $4,656 |
| Minnesota | $4,257 |
| Delaware | $4,269 |
| Maine | $4,128 |
| Illinois | $4,063 |
| Virginia | $4,073 |
| New York | $3,993 |
| Alabama | $3,985 |
| California | $3,660 |
Delaware is fourth-most expensive of the states covered so far — above New York, above California, above Illinois and Virginia.
Against its immediate neighbours the contrast is sharp:
| Tax on $85,000 | |
|---|---|
| Delaware | $4,269 |
| Maryland (state only) | $3,672 |
| New Jersey | $3,225 |
| Pennsylvania | $2,610 |
A Delawarean pays $1,659 more than a Pennsylvanian and $1,044 more than a New Jerseyan on the same salary.
But Maryland and Pennsylvania both have substantial local layers — Maryland's county tax adds roughly $2,509 and a Pennsylvania EIT roughly $850 — while Delaware's local layer reaches one city. On a combined basis, Delaware is cheaper than Maryland and closer to Pennsylvania than the state figures suggest.
4. Wilmington, and only Wilmington
Wilmington is the only Delaware municipality that levies a personal income tax. No other Delaware city, town or county levies one.
The rate is 1.25%, and it applies to anyone who lives OR works in the city.
What it reaches
It is an earned income tax: it reaches salaries, wages, commissions, bonuses, and net profits from a business or profession.
It does not reach interest, dividends, capital gains, pensions or Social Security.
So a Wilmington retiree living on investment and pension income pays none of it, while a Wilmington wage-earner pays it on every dollar.
No threshold, no deduction
Two features make it simpler and slightly harsher than most local taxes:
There is no exemption threshold. It applies from the first dollar of earned income.
It has no standard deduction of its own. The 1.25% applies to gross earned income, so Delaware's $3,250 state deduction does not reduce it.
Employers withhold it.
5. What Wilmington costs
At 1.25% on $85,000 of earned income:
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Delaware state income tax | $4,269 |
| Wilmington wage tax at 1.25% | ≈$1,063 |
| Combined state and local | ≈$5,332 |
The city adds about 25% on top, and takes a Wilmington worker's combined income tax burden to roughly 6.3% of gross.
Because it applies to anyone who lives or works in the city, a commuter into Wilmington pays the same 1.25% a resident does — there is no reduced nonresident rate, unlike Michigan's statutory half-rate or Louisville's school-component carve-out.
6. The full picture on $85,000
| Elsewhere in Delaware | Wilmington | |
|---|---|---|
| Gross salary | $85,000 | $85,000 |
| Federal income tax | −$9,870 | −$9,870 |
| Social Security | −$5,270 | −$5,270 |
| Medicare | −$1,233 | −$1,233 |
| Delaware state tax | −$4,269 | −$4,269 |
| Wilmington wage tax | — | ≈−$1,063 |
| Take-home | $64,359 | ≈$63,296 |
Federal takes $16,373 — under four times Delaware's state figure, which is among the narrowest state-to-federal ratios in this series.
7. The trade: no sales tax at all
Delaware is one of five states with no general sales tax, alongside Alaska, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon.
This is the other half of the arrangement and it changes the comparison substantially for some households.
Who gains most: anyone who spends a large share of their income. In a state with a 7% combined sales tax rate, a household spending $45,000 a year on taxable goods pays roughly $3,150 in sales tax. In Delaware they pay nothing — which very nearly cancels the entire $4,269 state income tax bill.
Who gains least: high earners who save heavily, and who therefore pay Delaware's income tax on everything while avoiding sales tax on only the portion they spend.
And it draws shoppers in
Delaware's position between Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey — all of which levy sales tax — makes it a destination for cross-border retail purchasing. That is a genuine economic feature of the state and it means Delaware captures activity from neighbours in a way its own residents benefit from indirectly.
The honest comparison against Pennsylvania is therefore not "Delaware costs $1,659 more." It is:
Delaware's higher income tax − the Pennsylvania sales tax you would have paid − the Pennsylvania local EIT you would have paid
For a household spending most of what it earns, that comparison narrows a great deal and can reverse.
8. Reducing what Delaware takes
Pre-tax deferrals reduce state tax. Delaware starts from federal adjusted gross income, so a traditional 401(k) contribution lowers Delaware taxable income. A $10,000 deferral saves $660 at the 6.6% rate, on top of the federal saving — a better return than in most states, because Delaware's marginal rate is high.
The Wilmington tax is on gross earned income, so deferrals generally do not reduce it.
HSA contributions add the FICA saving of 7.65%, through payroll under a cafeteria plan.
The $110 personal credit is a credit, not a deduction — it reduces tax owed by $110 regardless of your bracket, which is worth the same to every filer.
9. Retirement in Delaware
Delaware does not tax Social Security benefits.
It provides an exclusion for pension and eligible retirement income, with the amount depending on age — larger for taxpayers 60 and over than for those under 60.
And Wilmington's wage tax reaches earned income only, so retirement income escapes it entirely.
The shape: Delaware is meaningfully better for retirees than for workers. A retiree over 60 drawing on Social Security and a pension may face a much smaller bill than the working-age figures in this article suggest, and Wilmington's 1.25% disappears entirely.
Combined with no sales tax and no estate tax, Delaware's retirement position is genuinely strong — which is a common reason people move there and a poor guide to what a working household will pay.
10. Moving to or from Delaware
The state figure is high and the sales tax absence is real. Anyone comparing Delaware to Pennsylvania, Maryland or New Jersey on income tax alone is looking at the half of the picture that favours the neighbours.
Maryland is the comparison that reverses. Maryland's state figure of $3,672 is $597 lower than Delaware's, and Maryland's county tax adds roughly $2,509 that Delaware has no equivalent to outside Wilmington. On a combined basis Delaware is around $1,900 cheaper.
Pennsylvania stays cheaper even combined — $2,610 plus roughly $850 of EIT is about $3,460 against Delaware's $4,269 — but the gap narrows from $1,659 to about $809, and Pennsylvania's sales tax closes more of it.
Wilmington is the only local question, and it catches commuters as well as residents.
Delaware has no estate tax, which is a separate and sometimes decisive consideration.
11. The four-state comparison, done properly
Delaware sits at the meeting point of four tax systems that could hardly be more different, and a great many people in the region can plausibly work in more than one of them.
At $85,000, with typical local layers included:
| State | Local | Combined | Sales tax | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pennsylvania (suburban) | $2,610 | ≈$850 EIT | ≈$3,460 | yes |
| New Jersey | $3,225 | none | $3,225 | yes |
| Delaware (outside Wilmington) | $4,269 | none | $4,269 | none |
| Delaware (Wilmington) | $4,269 | ≈$1,063 | ≈$5,332 | none |
| Maryland (3.20% county) | $3,672 | ≈$2,509 | ≈$6,181 | yes |
Three things this table shows that no state-rate comparison would.
Maryland is the most expensive of the four, not Delaware — by roughly $1,912 once its universal county tax is counted. On state figures alone Maryland looks $597 cheaper than Delaware.
New Jersey is the cheapest on income tax, which surprises people who associate it with high taxation. Its reputation is better earned by property tax than by income tax at this salary.
Delaware is the only one with no sales tax, and for a household spending $45,000 a year on taxable goods that is worth roughly $3,150 in a 7% state — enough to move Delaware from third to first on a total-tax basis.
The instruction that follows for anyone in this region: compare four numbers, not one. State income tax, local income tax, sales tax, and property tax all differ materially across a distance many people commute daily.
12. Two Delawareans on the same salary
Someone living and working in Newark, Delaware, earning $85,000. State $4,269, no local income tax, no sales tax on anything they buy at home. Total income tax $4,269.
Someone living in Newark but working in Wilmington. State $4,269 plus Wilmington's 1.25% at about $1,062, because the tax applies to anyone who works in the city. Total $5,331.
Someone living in Wilmington and working in Newark. The same $5,331, because the tax applies to anyone who lives in the city too.
That symmetry is unusual. Most local income taxes in this series treat residents and commuters differently — Michigan halves the nonresident rate by statute, Louisville drops its school component, Ohio offers a residence credit of varying generosity. Wilmington applies the same 1.25% either way, so the only way to avoid it is to neither live nor work there.
And a fourth case. A retired Wilmington resident drawing on Social Security and a pension pays no Wilmington tax at all, and benefits from Delaware's age-based retirement exclusion on top. The city tax reaches earned income only, so retirement changes the answer completely rather than incrementally.
13. Why Delaware's brackets stop where they do
Delaware's structure has an unusual shape worth naming, because it produces a distinctive burden pattern.
The state graduates carefully through six thresholds — $2,000, $5,000, $10,000, $20,000, $25,000, $60,000 — and then simply stops. There is nothing above 6.6%.
That makes Delaware progressive across low and middle incomes and flat across high ones. Someone earning $70,000 and someone earning $700,000 share a marginal rate, and the second pays exactly ten times the first on the portion above the threshold.
Compare the shape to its neighbours:
| Where graduation ends | |
|---|---|
| Delaware | $60,000 of taxable income |
| Maryland | $1,000,000 |
| New Jersey | $1,000,000+ |
| New York | $25,000,000 |
| Pennsylvania | flat throughout |
Delaware finishes graduating earlier than any of them except Pennsylvania, which never starts.
Two consequences follow. Delaware's income tax is comparatively heavy on the middle, because the top rate arrives at an ordinary salary. And it is comparatively light on the top, because there is nowhere further to go — a high earner in Delaware faces 6.6% where one in New Jersey faces rates well above that.
For anyone weighing Delaware, this shape is the thing to check against your own income. A $70,000 earner is at Delaware's ceiling and a $700,000 earner is at the same ceiling, which makes Delaware relatively worse for the first and relatively better for the second than a comparison at $85,000 alone would suggest.
Frequently asked questions
What is Delaware's income tax rate? Seven brackets from 0% to 6.6%. The top rate begins at $60,000 of taxable income — roughly $63,000 of salary — and there is no bracket above it, so most professional earners are at 6.6%.
How much is take-home pay on $85,000 in Delaware? $64,359 for a single filer, after $9,870 federal income tax, $6,503 FICA and $4,269 Delaware tax. Wilmington's 1.25% wage tax takes roughly $1,063 more if you live or work in the city.
Does Delaware really take more than California? At $85,000, yes — $4,269 against $3,660. Delaware reaches 6.6% at $60,000 of taxable income while California is still at 9.3% only from $72,724 and shelters more beneath it.
Which Delaware cities have an income tax? Only Wilmington, at 1.25%. No other Delaware city, town or county levies one.
Do I pay the Wilmington tax if I commute in? Yes. It applies to anyone who lives or works in the city, with no reduced nonresident rate — unlike Michigan's statutory half-rate for nonresidents or Louisville's school-component carve-out.
Does the Wilmington tax apply to my pension? No. It is an earned income tax reaching salaries, wages, commissions, bonuses and net profits from a business or profession. Interest, dividends, capital gains, pensions and Social Security are all outside it.
Does Delaware have a sales tax? No general sales tax at all — one of five states without one. That is the trade for the higher income tax, and for a household spending most of what it earns it very nearly cancels the state income tax bill.
Is Delaware good for retirees? Notably better than for workers. Social Security is untaxed, there is an age-based exclusion for pension and retirement income, Wilmington's wage tax does not reach retirement income, and there is no sales tax or estate tax.
Is Delaware or Maryland cheaper? Delaware, by roughly $1,912 at $85,000 once Maryland's universal county tax is counted — even though Maryland's state figure of $3,672 looks $597 cheaper than Delaware's $4,269. Maryland has no county without a local income tax; Delaware has only Wilmington.
Does no sales tax make up for the higher income tax? For a household that spends most of what it earns, very nearly. Spending $45,000 a year on taxable goods in a 7% state costs about $3,150, against Delaware's $4,269 income tax. For a high earner who saves heavily it does not, because they pay the income tax on everything and would have paid sales tax on only a fraction.
What to do next
Delaware's income tax is higher than its profile suggests, and the missing sales tax is the offset that almost never appears in the same comparison.
- Delaware take-home pay calculator — every deduction separated, with the Wilmington tax named rather than guessed.
- Your Paycheck in the USA in 2026 — all fifty states on one salary.
- Take-Home Pay in Pennsylvania — the neighbour that is cheaper on income tax and levies sales tax.
- Delaware rent affordability — what the take-home actually supports.
- 50/30/20 budget calculator — built on take-home rather than salary.
Every figure on this site is sourced and dated. How we source every number.
Figures in this article are illustrations computed by this site's own tax engine for tax year 2026, on a single filer taking the state's standard deduction with no dependents or pre-tax deferrals unless stated. Federal figures come from IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 and the Social Security Administration; Delaware figures from this site's sourced 50-state dataset. The Wilmington earned income tax is named but never included in any total; the figure quoted is an illustrative application of the 1.25% rate to gross earned income. Delaware's retirement income exclusion is age-dependent and is summarised rather than computed. This is general education and not tax advice; for your own situation consult a licensed tax professional.