Brunswick to Middleburg Heights
Ohio municipal income tax, Chapter 718 framework · credit set by Brunswick ordinance · tax year 2026
Work city takes
2%
Middleburg Heights, on income earned there
Home city charges
2%
Brunswick, residents
Credit back
$600
capped by the ceiling
Cost of the commute
$600
a year, above working at home
What it costs you
ceiling bindsBrunswick'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 Brunswick 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. Brunswick hands back $600 of what Middleburg Heights took and then stops, because its own rules cap the credit at about 1% of income. You make up the difference yourself. Over a year that difference is $600 you would not owe if you worked where you live.
- Middleburg Heights draws workers from 5 places in this data, and Brunswick is 3 of them by size, with about 621 people. It is a short list. Smaller routes into the city exist below the counting threshold.
- The credit here is real but bounded. Brunswick allows residents about 100% of tax paid to another municipality, subject to a ceiling of about 1% of income, and on this pairing it is the ceiling rather than the share that binds. Middleburg Heights withholds $1,200 at about 2%; Brunswick returns $600 of that and collects the remainder of its own about 2% resident levy. The workplace accordingly costs $600 above the home-only position, against a total of $1,800.
- Middleburg Heights records 5 qualifying commuting origins in this dataset, of which Brunswick ranks 3 by worker count at approximately 621. A workplace of this size draws from a small enough set of origins that the comparison is indicative rather than statistical, and the published floor excludes an unknown tail of smaller flows.
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
| Middleburg Heights takes, on income earned there | $1,200 |
|---|---|
| Brunswick charges residents | $1,200 |
| Less the credit Brunswick gives back | $600 |
| Total local tax | $1,800 |
| If you also lived in Middleburg Heights | $1,200 |
| Difference | $600 |
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
- Two guesses about this are wrong, and they miss in opposite directions. The rates are not added together. Nor do you simply pay whichever is higher, which is how it works across the border in Pennsylvania. Middleburg Heights taxes what you earn there, Brunswick taxes everything you earn, and then Brunswick decides how much of the first bill to give back.
- The credit rule on this page belongs to Brunswick, not to the state. Its council sets it and its council can change it. Nothing needs to happen in Middleburg Heights or at the state level for these numbers to move. Check the current rule before you rely on it.
- 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 Brunswick rather than your workplace in Middleburg Heights, and it is not credited against anything.
- These figures are the local layer alone. Whatever Brunswick and Middleburg Heights 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.
- 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 Middleburg Heights charges and what Brunswick 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. Middleburg Heights taxes what is earned within its boundaries, Brunswick taxes its residents on everything, and Brunswick then credits some, all or none of what Middleburg Heights collected. The credit is the entire mechanism, and it is set by Brunswick rather than by the state.
- The credit rule modeled here is Brunswick's own, adopted by ordinance and amendable by Brunswick 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 Brunswick can therefore change every figure on this page without anything altering in Middleburg Heights 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 Middleburg Heights, and no municipal credit applies to it. A resident of Brunswick 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 Brunswick and Middleburg Heights, 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 Brunswick to Middleburg Heights 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. Middleburg Heights takes about 2% because you work there, Brunswick charges about 2% 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 $600 a year here. The same salary earned in Brunswick would not carry it.
Is this commute common enough for the numbers to mean anything?
621 workers make this journey — enough to be published, but not a major corridor. The tax rules do not depend on how many people travel a route, so the figures hold regardless; the count only tells you how typical this pairing is.
Both towns charge the same — does the boundary matter at all then?
The rates match at about 2%, so the crossing moves money between authorities rather than out of your pocket.
How does a resident credit allocate liability between two municipalities?
Both jurisdictions assert a claim: Middleburg Heights on the basis of work location at about 2%, Brunswick on residence at about 2%. 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 $600 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 measurement basis for a route of this size?
Route volume is 621 workers per Census LODES, above the publication floor but below the dataset's upper quartile. Liability is determined by jurisdictional rates and residence rules alone; commuter volume has no bearing on it and is reported only as context.
What is the effect of identical rates either side of the boundary?
Both jurisdictions levy about 2%, so the governing rate is identical regardless of which rule allocates it. The boundary affects revenue attribution between authorities, not employee liability.