On April 7, 2026, St. Louis voters renewed the city's 1% earnings tax by the widest margin in the tax's fifteen-year run of retention votes. Proposition E passed 22,772 votes to 4,903, roughly 85% to 15%, on turnout of just 13.7% of the city's 196,299 registered voters. That result matters to anyone comparing a city address against a St. Charles County suburb, and not for the reason most cost-of-living guides give you.
Most of what's written about this tax stops at "the city has it, the county doesn't, budget accordingly." That's true as far as it goes. But it skips the part that actually changes a mover's math: the tax follows your paycheck, not just your mailbox, and the vote that just happened tells you this arrangement isn't going anywhere for at least five more years.
A Landslide Nobody Was Predicting
The earnings tax has been on the ballot every five years since Missouri's Proposition A required it in 2010, a measure pushed by a petition drive that a St. Louis businessman funded with more than $4 million. Each cycle since has told a slightly different story about how much patience city voters have for the tax. Support ran near 88% in that first 2011 vote, then slipped to about 79% by 2021, a decade-long trend that read like a tax slowly losing its base.
This year broke that pattern. Support jumped to 85%, the strongest showing since the original vote. The renewal locks the 1% rate in for a five-year term that begins the January after the election, meaning the earliest another retention vote can reset the terms is around 2031.
Mayor Cara Spencer, who campaigned for the renewal alongside police and fire representatives, put the tradeoff plainly, saying "we cannot eliminate the earnings tax without replacing it" and still keep city services running at their current level. The tax generates roughly $208.5 million a year and covers about one-third of the city's general revenue fund, according to figures cited by city officials during the campaign. A local artist who voted yes summed up the sentiment more simply: "I know how critical that money is."
State lawmakers have repeatedly floated bills to limit who owes the tax or shrink what it collects. None of that changed the outcome at the ballot box. If you're weighing a city listing against a county one and assuming political pressure will eventually erode this line item, the most recent data point runs the opposite direction.
The Part Most Movers Skip
Here's the mechanic that generic tax explainers gloss over: the 1% levy isn't purely a residency tax. According to the City of St. Louis Collector of Revenue's own guidance, city residents owe the tax on 100% of their earnings no matter where their employer is based. But people who live outside the city and work inside it owe the same 1%, calculated on the income they earn for work performed within city limits.
The rule gets stricter than most people expect once you look at how a workday is defined. If any portion of a day is worked inside the City of St. Louis, that entire day counts as a day worked in the city for tax purposes. A single downtown meeting, a half-day site visit, a training session at a Central West End hospital, any of it triggers the full-day liability, not a prorated fraction.
That has a direct consequence for anyone who buys a home in St. Charles County while keeping a job based inside the city. Employers are required to withhold as though the employee owes the full 1% unless the employee actively files for a refund on the days worked outside city limits, using Form E-1R. The taxpayer has one year from the original filing deadline to request that refund. Skip the paperwork and the money you were never supposed to owe simply stays with the city.
Here's how that plays out across the three situations Bliss Homes sees most often among move-up and relocation buyers comparing city and county addresses:
| Where you live | Where you work | Earnings tax owed |
|---|---|---|
| City of St. Louis | Anywhere, including remote for an out-of-state employer | Yes, on all earnings |
| St. Charles County | Employer located in the City of St. Louis, even hybrid | Yes, prorated to days worked in the city, refund requires filing Form E-1R |
| St. Charles County | Employer based entirely in St. Charles or St. Louis County | No earnings tax exposure |
Only the last row is a clean exit. The middle row, which describes a lot of the relocation and hybrid-work buyers Bliss Homes works with, still owes something and still has to do paperwork to avoid overpaying.
The Refund Trend That Isn't Materializing
There's a second assumption worth checking before you build a five-year plan around it: the idea that remote work is quietly shrinking the tax's reach as more non-residents file for refunds on days they never set foot in the city. City budget officials have acknowledged the tax has faced some erosion from exactly that trend. But data reported in early 2026 showed the pace of those refund filings slowing, not accelerating. Combined with a renewal vote that just posted its strongest support in over a decade, the two data points point the same direction. This isn't a revenue source in visible decline. It's one that just got reaffirmed by the people who pay into it.
Running the Real Math on a Move
None of this means the county is a bad choice or the city is overpriced. It means the comparison needs an extra line item that most portal searches don't surface. Citywide, the median sale price sat at $268,000 for the three months ending July 2026, up 7.1% from the same period a year earlier. Homes in Bliss Homes' core St. Charles County markets typically list well above that citywide figure for comparable square footage, which is the gap that's supposed to make city living the better financial bet on paper.
The earnings tax is the variable that changes how much of that gap actually survives contact with your paycheck, and it changes differently depending on whether your employer address moves with you or stays behind. A buyer who's relocating for a fully remote or St. Charles County-based job gets the clean comparison: lower county earnings tax exposure against a higher county sticker price, run the numbers and decide. A buyer who's keeping a city-based job and moving the household to Lake St. Louis, Wentzville, or Dardenne Prairie needs to price in the prorated tax and the annual filing to reclaim any overwithholding, not assume the move erases the line item entirely.
A Few Questions Worth Asking Before You Compare Addresses
Does the earnings tax apply if I work from home for a St. Louis-based employer? If your employer is based in the city but you perform the work from a St. Charles County address, that work generally isn't counted as work performed within city limits, though the employer's withholding practices and your own documentation matter here. Confirm directly with your employer's payroll department how they're classifying remote days.
Do I get money back automatically once I stop working in the city? No. The refund process for non-residents runs through Form E-1R, filed with the Collector of Revenue, and the statute of limitations is one year from the original filing deadline. Nothing about it is automatic.
Is there a comparable tax in St. Charles County? No. St. Charles County and its municipalities, including Lake St. Louis, Wentzville, Dardenne Prairie, and Chesterfield, do not levy an earnings tax. The tradeoff shows up elsewhere, in home prices and in the property tax rates that vary by school district and municipality.
If you're weighing a St. Louis listing against a St. Charles County suburb and want the full picture, not just the sticker price, the team at Bliss Homes can walk through what a specific address actually costs once the tax questions are answered. Start with a free, no-obligation home valuation to see where your numbers land.
