What Are PSD Codes and How Do You Find Yours?

In Pennsylvania, a PSD code is the six-digit Political Subdivision number that tells your employer and the local Tax Officer exactly which municipality and school district should receive your local earned income tax. It is tied to where you live, not where you work, and you can look yours up in seconds using the state’s address search tool. Getting it right keeps your withholding flowing to the correct jurisdiction; getting it wrong is the source of most local tax headaches at filing time.

How to Look Up Your PSD Code

The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development runs an Address Search Application that returns your PSD code, your local tax rates, and the name of your designated Tax Officer once you enter your home address.¹ Use your residence address, not your work address.

If the tool doesn’t return a match, DCED recommends looking up your city and county and then contacting the Tax Officer for your district directly to confirm your code and rates.² This happens fairly often for properties near jurisdictional boundaries or where the mailing address doesn’t match the actual municipality. When there’s a discrepancy, the Tax Officer’s determination controls.

What the Six Digits Mean

A PSD code layers three levels of geography into one number. The first two digits identify the Tax Collection District, which in most cases corresponds to your county. The first four digits together identify your school district. All six digits pinpoint your specific municipality, whether a township, borough, or city.²

That structure lets payroll systems and Tax Officers split your withholding between the school district and municipality entitled to a share in one step, without you having to know how the split works.

Giving Your Code to Your Employer

You report your PSD code to your employer on the Residency Certification Form, CLGS-32-6. The form records your name, Social Security number, home address, resident PSD code, and total resident earned income tax rate. Your employer keeps it in your personnel file and uses those numbers to calculate withholding from each paycheck.³

Employers are required to have this form completed for every new hire. File a new one any time you move. A change of address almost always means a different PSD code, different rates, or a different Tax Officer, and if you don’t update the form your withholding will keep going to the wrong place.²

Why the Correct Code Matters

Pennsylvania handles the common case of living in one municipality and working in another by requiring your employer to withhold the greater of your resident tax rate or the nonresident rate at your work location.⁴ If the work-location rate is higher, the excess goes to the work municipality and your home jurisdiction still gets its full share. If the rates are equal or your resident rate is higher, the full amount goes to your home municipality.

An incorrect resident PSD code breaks that math. Funds get distributed to a municipality you don’t actually live in, and you can end up owing your real home municipality at filing time while chasing a refund from the wrong one. Even with correct withholding all year, you still need to file an annual local tax return by April 15 with the Tax Officer for the district where you live; the return is required whether or not you owe additional tax.⁵ That return is where a wrong-code year gets corrected.

Late returns and late payments accrue a penalty of 1% per month on the unpaid tax, capped at 15% of the original amount owed, with interest charges on top.⁶ Employers who fail to withhold the correct local tax remain liable for the full amount that should have been withheld, plus penalties and interest, even if the employee later pays the tax independently. The employee’s payment relieves the employer of the underlying tax but not the failure-to-withhold penalties.⁷

If You’re Self-Employed

Self-employed workers and anyone with income not subject to employer withholding use the same PSD code system. You use your resident PSD code to determine your rate and identify the correct Tax Officer, and you make quarterly estimated payments directly to that collector.⁸

Underpayment carries teeth. If less than 90% of your current-year liability is paid by the fourth-quarter deadline, or you haven’t made four equal and timely payments totaling 100% of your prior-year liability, penalty and interest apply on top of the tax owed.⁸

If You Live or Work in Philadelphia

Philadelphia does not use the PSD code and earned income tax structure that covers the rest of the Commonwealth. The city imposes its own Wage Tax at 3.74% for residents and 3.43% for nonresidents who work in the city.⁹ If you live in Philadelphia, you’re on the Wage Tax system rather than the PSD-based EIT system. If you live outside the city but work there, you’ll have both a resident PSD code for your home municipality and a nonresident Wage Tax obligation to Philadelphia.

Philadelphia residents who also pay local income taxes to jurisdictions outside Pennsylvania on the same income may be eligible for a refund of the lesser of the amount paid to the other jurisdiction or the amount paid to Philadelphia, based on the Supreme Court’s decision in Comptroller of Treasury of Maryland v. Wynne.¹⁰

1
Municipal Statistics. Municipal Statistics – Find Local Withholding Rates by Address
2
Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. PSD Codes and EIT Rates
3
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Residency Certification Form CLGS-32-6
4
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Local Tax Enabling Act – Section 512
5
Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. Taxpayer Annual Local Earned Income Tax Return
6
Keystone Collections Group. How Is the Penalty and Interest Accrual Calculated for Earned Income and Local Service Taxes
7
Legal Information Institute. Pennsylvania Code 113.12 – Liability of Employer for Withheld Taxes
8
Keystone Collections Group. Taxpayer Annual Local Earned Income Tax Return Instructions
9
City of Philadelphia. Wage Tax – Employers
10
City of Philadelphia. Request a Refund for Taxes Paid to Local Jurisdictions