St. Louis local tax guide
Who pays St. Louis's local tax
St. Louis is an independent city, separate from St. Louis County, and the tax stops at the city line. City residents owe 1% on all wages, including a job in Clayton, Chesterfield, or across the river in Illinois. People who live in the county, St. Charles, or the Metro East and work in the city owe 1% on pay for work done inside the city. Partial-year residents owe only on wages earned while they lived or worked in St. Louis. Your residence and the place you perform each day's work decide the bill.
How the St. Louis earnings tax works
The earnings tax is a flat 1% on salaries, wages, commissions, and other compensation, collected by the city's Collector of Revenue. There are no brackets or personal deductions, so a worker earning $40,000 pays $400 and one earning $150,000 pays $1,500. Employers also pay a separate payroll expense tax on their city payroll, which does not come out of your check.
Missouri law makes St. Louis voters reapprove the tax every five years. On April 7, 2026, more than four in five voters backed it, the widest margin since the first renewal vote in 2011, so it continues through the next scheduled vote.
Worked example: $75,000 in St. Louis
At $75,000, a single filer pays $7,670 in federal income tax and $2,534 in Missouri income tax, after the state's partial deduction for federal tax. Social Security takes $4,650 and Medicare $1,088. The city earnings tax adds $750, for take-home pay of $58,308, about $4,859 a month.
Compared with living and working anywhere in Missouri outside St. Louis and Kansas City, the tax costs $750 a year at this salary, about $29 per biweekly paycheck. A nonresident who works only part of the week in the city pays less, as long as the out-of-city days are documented.
Filing returns and claiming refunds
Workers whose employer withholds the full 1% usually have nothing more to file. Residents whose employers are outside the city and do not withhold must still pay, using Form E-1, the individual earnings tax return, due April 15. The city does not grant extensions, and late payments draw a monthly penalty plus interest.
Nonresidents who had tax withheld for days they worked outside the city can file Form E-1R with the Collector of Revenue. The employer must verify the days, only whole days count, vacation, sick days, and holidays are excluded, and any part of a day in the city counts as a city day. Requests are due within one year of the original due date.
Remote work and how St. Louis compares
Remote work became a fight in St. Louis after 2020. A 2024 settlement let nonresidents claim refunds for city tax withheld on remote work from 2020 through 2023, but that claim window has closed. Current-year refunds go through Form E-1R.
Kansas City is the only other Missouri city with an earnings tax, at the same 1%, or $750 at $75,000. For a worker choosing between a downtown St. Louis job and one in Clayton while living in the county, the city tax on office days is the main difference; see the Missouri take-home calculator for the state-only baseline.
Tips for St. Louis paychecks
Get your employer to certify remote days
Form E-1R needs the employer's verification of days worked outside the city. Ask HR to sign off before the one-year deadline.
City residents with county jobs: check your W-2
An employer in Clayton or Creve Coeur may not withhold city tax. If yours does not, file Form E-1 and pay the 1% by April 15.
Illinois commuters still owe on city days
Living in the Metro East does not exempt you. Work done inside St. Louis is subject to the 1% earnings tax, along with Missouri income tax.
Compare salaries without the city tax
The Missouri $75,000 salary page shows take-home pay before any city earnings tax.