Bexley to Columbus
Ohio municipal income tax, Chapter 718 framework · credit set by Bexley ordinance · tax year 2026
Work city takes
2.5%
Columbus, on income earned there
Home city charges
2.5%
Bexley, residents
Credit back
$975
a share of the work tax
Cost of the commute
$525
a year, above working at home
What it costs you
partial creditBexley credits only part of what Columbus takes, so the remainder is taxed twice. Solid is what you pay; the faded part of the Bexley 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
- Bexley gives back some of what Columbus takes, but not all of it. The credit covers about 65% of the work city's tax and no more. Whatever is left over, you pay twice. That comes to $525 a year beyond what living and working in Bexley would have cost.
- The run from Bexley is one of 50 recorded commutes into Columbus, and it comes 15 by the number of workers on it, about 3,216. Every one of those routes meets the same rate in Columbus. What separates them is what each home city gives back.
- Around 3,216 workers make this trip from Bexley into Columbus. It is one of the busier commutes in the state, which is part of why it gets a page of its own.
- Bexley credits only part of what its residents pay elsewhere. Its ordinance allows about 65% of tax paid to another municipality, and on this pairing that share, rather than the income ceiling, is what limits the relief. Against $1,500 withheld by Columbus, the credit returns $975, leaving Bexley to collect the balance of its about 2.5% resident levy. The workplace accounts for $525; the year's local total is $2,025.
- Columbus is a major regional workplace, drawing recorded flows from 50 separate origins in this dataset. The route from Bexley ranks 15 among them by worker count, at roughly 3,216. Rank is not a proxy for tax outcome: every origin faces the same Columbus 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 3,216 workers commuting from Bexley to Columbus, 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 Bexley 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
| Columbus takes, on income earned there | $1,500 |
|---|---|
| Bexley charges residents | $1,500 |
| Less the credit Bexley gives back | $975 |
| Total local tax | $2,025 |
| If you also lived in Columbus | $1,500 |
| Difference | $525 |
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
- Here is the shape of it, because the arithmetic is easy to get wrong. You are taxed by both cities. What happens next is up to Bexley: it may credit all of what Columbus took, some of it, or none at all. That choice belongs to the city rather than to the state, which is why identical salaries in neighboring towns land so differently.
- These figures rest on a local rule, not a state one. Bexley decides how much credit to give for tax already paid to Columbus. It is worth confirming the current position with the city or its collection agency, because this is the part most likely to have changed.
- This page covers city income tax only. Your school district may charge its own on top, and many in Ohio do. That one follows your address in Bexley rather than your workplace in Columbus, and it is not credited against anything.
- Do not read this as your whole tax bill. It is the part that answers to the commute between Bexley and Columbus. State and federal tax carry on regardless, unchanged by which side of a city line your desk is on.
- The dollar figures rest on one assumed salary, sixty thousand. Double your pay and they double. Halve it and they halve. What stays put is the relationship between what Columbus charges and what Bexley gives back, which is the part worth carrying away.
- 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. Columbus taxes what is earned within its boundaries, Bexley taxes its residents on everything, and Bexley then credits some, all or none of what Columbus collected. The credit is the entire mechanism, and it is set by Bexley rather than by the state.
- The credit rule modeled here is Bexley's own, adopted by ordinance and amendable by Bexley 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 Bexley can therefore change every figure on this page without anything altering in Columbus 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 Columbus, and no municipal credit applies to it. A resident of Bexley 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 Bexley and Columbus, 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 Bexley to Columbus 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?
You are taxed by both, then given credit for one. Working in Columbus costs about 2.5%; living in Bexley costs about 2.5%, reduced by whatever share of the work tax the home city recognizes.
What does crossing this boundary actually cost me?
About $525 a year. That is the gap between this commute and an identical job in Bexley, and it exists purely because the boundary sits between them.
Why does my home town not credit the whole of what the other one took?
Because the credit is set locally, and Bexley chose not to make it whole. A city that credits everything gives up revenue from every resident who works elsewhere, so most cap it — which is exactly where a commuter's extra cost comes from.
Is this a common enough commute to be worth modeling?
It is. 3,216 workers travel this pair, per the federal origin-destination survey; smaller routes fall below the publication floor and get no page.
Both towns charge the same — does the boundary matter at all then?
Not to your total. Bexley and Columbus both levy about 2.5%, so the amount is settled either way — what the boundary decides is which authority receives it, and that is an accounting question rather than a cost to you.
How does a resident credit allocate liability between two municipalities?
Both jurisdictions assert a claim: Columbus on the basis of work location at about 2.5%, Bexley on residence at about 2.5%. 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 $525 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.
Why is the residence credit less than the full work-district tax?
Credit rates and ceilings are set by the residence municipality, not by state law. A full credit would forgo residence-based revenue from every outbound commuter, so credits are commonly partial or capped as a share of income. The uncredited remainder is the commuter's marginal cost.
What is the basis for including this route?
Route volume is 3,216 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.
What is the effect of identical rates either side of the boundary?
Both jurisdictions levy about 2.5%, so the governing rate is identical regardless of which rule allocates it. The boundary affects revenue attribution between authorities, not employee liability.