Clinton Township to Columbus
Ohio municipal income tax, Chapter 718 framework · credit set by Clinton Township ordinance · tax year 2026
Work city takes
2.5%
Columbus, on income earned there
Home city charges
1%
Clinton Township, residents
Credit back
$0
nothing is credited
Cost of the commute
$1,500
a year, above working at home
What it costs you
no creditClinton Township credits nothing for tax paid to Columbus, so both bills stand in full. Solid is what you pay; the faded part of the Clinton Township 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
- Most Ohio cities soften this. Clinton Township does not. It charges residents about 1% whether or not another city has already taken a share of the same pay. Columbus takes about 2.5% first, and none of it comes back. The year's local tax works out at $2,100.
- The run from Clinton Township is one of 50 recorded commutes into Columbus, and it comes 33 by the number of workers on it, about 1,047. Every one of those routes meets the same rate in Columbus. What separates them is what each home city gives back.
- Neither municipality yields on this pairing. Columbus taxes income earned inside its boundaries at about 2.5%, and Clinton Township taxes its residents' income wherever it is earned at about 1%. Clinton Township allows no credit for tax paid to another municipality, so both liabilities stand undiminished — $1,500 to the workplace and $600 to the residence, $2,100 together at the reference salary. Ohio's uniform framework for municipal income tax standardizes administration across the state but leaves the credit itself to local ordinance, which is why it can be set at nothing at all.
- Columbus is a major regional workplace, drawing recorded flows from 50 separate origins in this dataset. The route from Clinton Township ranks 33 among them by worker count, at roughly 1,047. 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.
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 |
|---|---|
| Clinton Township charges residents | $600 |
| Less the credit Clinton Township gives back | $0 |
| Total local tax | $2,100 |
| If you also lived in Columbus | $600 |
| Difference | $1,500 |
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. Columbus taxes what you earn there, Clinton Township taxes everything you earn, and then Clinton Township decides how much of the first bill to give back.
- The credit rule on this page belongs to Clinton Township, not to the state. Its council sets it and its council can change it. Nothing needs to happen in Columbus 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 Clinton Township 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 Clinton Township 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 Clinton Township 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, Clinton Township taxes its residents on everything, and Clinton Township then credits some, all or none of what Columbus collected. The credit is the entire mechanism, and it is set by Clinton Township rather than by the state.
- The credit rule modeled here is Clinton Township's own, adopted by ordinance and amendable by Clinton Township 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 Clinton Township 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 Clinton Township 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 Clinton Township 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 Clinton Township 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 Clinton Township costs about 1%, reduced by whatever share of the work tax the home city recognizes.
What does crossing this boundary actually cost me?
$1,500 a year more than if you worked where you live. It is not a commuting charge and it buys you nothing — it is what falls out of two jurisdictions both having a claim and only one of them yielding.
Why does my home town not credit the whole of what the other one took?
Full credit would mean Clinton Township collecting nothing from anyone who works out of town. Councils rarely do that, and the shortfall is what a commuter pays.
Is this a common enough commute to be worth modeling?
It is. 1,047 workers travel this pair, per the federal origin-destination survey; smaller routes fall below the publication floor and get no page.
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%, Clinton Township on residence at about 1%. 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 $1,500 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 1,047 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.