Barberton to Akron
Ohio municipal income tax, Chapter 718 framework · credit set by Barberton ordinance · tax year 2026
Work city takes
2.5%
Akron, on income earned there
Home city charges
2.25%
Barberton, residents
Credit back
$1,350
capped by the ceiling
Cost of the commute
$150
a year, above working at home
What it costs you
ceiling bindsBarberton's credit stops at its ceiling, so the rest of its own tax still applies. Solid is what you pay; the faded part of the Barberton bar is the credit it hands back. Municipal income tax only — state, federal and payroll tax apply on top, and an Ohio school district income tax may too.
What this commute actually costs
- A credit with a ceiling is not a full credit. Barberton hands back $1,350 of what Akron took and then stops, because its own rules cap the credit at about 2.25% of income. You make up the difference yourself. Over a year that difference is $150 you would not owe if you worked where you live.
- Akron pulls workers in from 19 different places, and this route from Barberton ranks 4 of them by size. About 2,331 people travel it. Being busier does not make it cheaper. The rate you pay depends on your home city, not on how crowded your road is.
- Around 2,331 workers make this trip from Barberton into Akron. It is one of the busier commutes in the state, which is part of why it gets a page of its own.
- The credit here is real but bounded. Barberton allows residents about 100% of tax paid to another municipality, subject to a ceiling of about 2.25% of income, and on this pairing it is the ceiling rather than the share that binds. Akron withholds $1,500 at about 2.5%; Barberton returns $1,350 of that and collects the remainder of its own about 2.25% resident levy. The workplace accordingly costs $150 above the home-only position, against a total of $1,500.
- Akron is a major regional workplace, drawing recorded flows from 19 separate origins in this dataset. The route from Barberton ranks 4 among them by worker count, at roughly 2,331. Rank is not a proxy for tax outcome: every origin faces the same Akron rate, and what differs between them is the home municipality's credit, so a smaller route can carry a considerably worse result than a larger one.
- Census origin-destination statistics record approximately 2,331 workers commuting from Barberton to Akron, placing this among the larger intra-state flows in Ohio. The outcome set out above therefore has aggregate fiscal consequence for both municipalities, not merely individual consequence for the worker: the credit Barberton does or does not extend is applied to every one of them at once.
Where the money goes
A $75,000 salary
- Federal income tax$7,670
- Social Security and Medicare$5,738
- State income tax$1,346
- Yours$60,246
| Federal income tax10.23% | $7,670 |
|---|---|
| Social Security and Medicare7.65% | $5,738 |
| State income tax1.79% | $1,346 |
| Yours80.33% | $60,246 |
The arithmetic, step by step
| Akron takes, on income earned there | $1,500 |
|---|---|
| Barberton charges residents | $1,350 |
| Less the credit Barberton gives back | $1,350 |
| Total local tax | $1,500 |
| If you also lived in Akron | $1,350 |
| Difference | $150 |
On a reference salary of $60,000 a year. Both rates and the credit ceiling are shares of income, so every figure scales with your own pay.
What this page does not cover
- Do not add the two rates up, and do not assume the bigger one simply wins. Neither is how Ohio works. Both Akron and Barberton charge you. Barberton may then hand back what Akron took, or part of it, or none of it. Everything on this page turns on which of those it does.
- One thing to keep in mind. Ohio does not require Barberton to give any credit at all. That choice sits with the city, and cities revisit it. A vote in Barberton could change what this commute to Akron costs you, with no change in the law itself.
- Watch for one more local tax. School district income tax is separate from what Barberton and Akron charge, and plenty of Ohio districts levy it. Working elsewhere makes no difference to it, and no credit offsets it.
- These figures are the local layer alone. Whatever Barberton and Akron take sits on top of state, federal and payroll tax. Those three are the same wherever in Ohio you work, so putting them in would bury the difference this page is about.
- Every dollar amount here uses a salary of sixty thousand a year. It is a benchmark, not a guess at what people in Barberton earn, because nobody publishes average pay for single municipalities. Scale the figures to your own salary. The rates and the credit work the same way at any income, so the Akron conclusion holds.
- Two misreadings bracket the correct answer and both are common. Ohio does not simply add the two rates together, which would overstate the charge; nor does it apply only the higher of them, which is Pennsylvania's rule and would understate it wherever the credit is partial. Akron taxes what is earned within its boundaries, Barberton taxes its residents on everything, and Barberton then credits some, all or none of what Akron collected. The credit is the entire mechanism, and it is set by Barberton rather than by the state.
- The credit rule modeled here is Barberton's own, adopted by ordinance and amendable by Barberton alone. Ohio's uniform framework governs definitions, filing and withholding; it does not compel any municipality to credit tax paid to another. A council vote in Barberton can therefore change every figure on this page without anything altering in Akron or in state law, which is a materially different exposure from a rate set by statute.
- Ohio school district income tax is a separate levy from municipal income tax and is excluded from these figures. It is imposed by school district of residence rather than by municipality, it is unaffected by employment in Akron, and no municipal credit applies to it. A resident of Barberton whose school district levies one owes it in addition to everything shown here, which is why the totals on this page are a municipal position rather than a complete local one.
- Only municipal income tax is modeled. Ohio's state income tax, federal income tax and payroll taxes all apply in addition and are invariant to the boundary between Barberton and Akron, which is precisely why they are excluded: isolating the layer that responds to the commute is the point of the comparison. A complete tax position requires adding them; a comparison of the two locations does not.
- Dollar figures are computed against a stated reference salary of sixty thousand rather than a municipal wage average, which no published source provides for Ohio municipalities. Both rates and the credit ceiling are proportional to income, so every figure scales linearly: the Barberton to Akron differential doubles at twice the salary and halves at half of it, and the rate relationship holds at every level. The one caveat is that whether the ceiling binds at all is itself scale-invariant here, because it too is expressed as a share of income rather than as a fixed dollar cap.
Questions people ask
Do I pay local tax twice — once where I work and once where I live?
Two claims, one partly canceled. Akron takes about 2.5% because you work there, Barberton charges about 2.25% because you live there, and the home city credits some of the first against the second.
What does crossing this boundary actually cost me?
Working across the line costs $150 a year here. The same salary earned in Barberton would not carry it.
Is this a common enough commute to be worth modeling?
Yes — 2,331 people make this exact journey, according to the federal employment survey that tracks where workers live against where they work. Routes below a volume floor are not published, so a page existing here means the commute is real and measured.
How does a resident credit allocate liability between two municipalities?
Both jurisdictions assert a claim: Akron on the basis of work location at about 2.5%, Barberton on residence at about 2.25%. The residence municipality grants a credit for tax paid to the work municipality, commonly capped as a share of income. Net liability is the residence tax less that credit, floored at zero, plus the work tax.
What is the marginal local tax cost of this commute?
Marginal annual liability attributable to working outside the residence jurisdiction is $150 at the reference salary. This is a tax cost rather than a commuting expense and is not deductible as one. It scales with income and with the rate differential, not with distance traveled.
What is the basis for including this route?
Route volume is 2,331 workers, sourced from Census LODES origin-destination data. Pairs below the publication threshold are excluded rather than imputed, so page existence reflects measured commuting volume.