Dayton to Centerville
Ohio municipal income tax, Chapter 718 framework · credit set by Dayton ordinance · tax year 2026
Work city takes
2.25%
Centerville, on income earned there
Home city charges
2.5%
Dayton, residents
Credit back
$1,350
a share of the work tax
Cost of the commute
$0
a year, above working at home
What it costs you
no extra local taxDayton credits only part of what Centerville takes, so the remainder is taxed twice. Solid is what you pay; the faded part of the Dayton 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
- You can stop worrying about this one. Dayton credits everything Centerville withholds, right up to its own rate of about 2.5%. Crossing the line to work adds nothing. Local income tax comes to $1,500 for the year, exactly as it would if the job were on your own street.
- There is room here, and it is measurable. Centerville could take another $150 a year from you before Dayton's credit ran out. Until then the two cities settle it between themselves and you pay what you would have paid at home.
- This data records 2 commutes into Centerville, and the one from Dayton ranks 2, carrying roughly 1,019 workers. That is a handful of routes rather than a full map of who works there.
- This pairing is neutral to the worker. Centerville withholds about 2.25% on income earned there, and Dayton, which levies about 2.5% on residents, credits that payment in full without reaching its own ceiling. Liability at the reference salary is therefore $1,500 — precisely what the same earnings would attract with no commute at all. What the arrangement alters is the division of revenue between Centerville and Dayton, not the sum leaving the worker's pay.
- The margin is worth knowing, because it is not large. Dayton credits tax paid to Centerville only up to a ceiling set as a share of income, and Centerville's levy currently sits below it with $150 of annual room to spare at the reference salary. Were Centerville to raise its rate past that point, the excess would cease to be credited and would fall on the worker rather than on either treasury.
- Centerville records 2 qualifying commuting origins in this dataset, of which Dayton ranks 2 by worker count at approximately 1,019. 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
| Centerville takes, on income earned there | $1,350 |
|---|---|
| Dayton charges residents | $1,500 |
| Less the credit Dayton gives back | $1,350 |
| Total local tax | $1,500 |
| If you also lived in Centerville | $1,500 |
| Difference | $0 |
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 Dayton: it may credit all of what Centerville 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.
- One thing to keep in mind. Ohio does not require Dayton to give any credit at all. That choice sits with the city, and cities revisit it. A vote in Dayton could change what this commute to Centerville costs you, with no change in the law itself.
- Ohio has a second local tax that is not on this page. Some school districts levy their own income tax. It depends on where you live, not on your job in Centerville, and the credit from Dayton does not touch it. If your district charges one, add it to everything here.
- These figures are the local layer alone. Whatever Dayton and Centerville 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.
- Sixty thousand a year is the assumption behind the dollars. It is stated rather than measured. No wage figure exists for a place the size of Dayton. The percentages are the durable part of this page, and they do not shift with what you earn in Centerville.
- 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. Centerville taxes what is earned within its boundaries, Dayton taxes its residents on everything, and Dayton then credits some, all or none of what Centerville collected. The credit is the entire mechanism, and it is set by Dayton rather than by the state.
- The credit rule modeled here is Dayton's own, adopted by ordinance and amendable by Dayton 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 Dayton can therefore change every figure on this page without anything altering in Centerville 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 Centerville, and no municipal credit applies to it. A resident of Dayton 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 Dayton and Centerville, 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 Dayton to Centerville 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 Centerville costs about 2.25%; living in Dayton costs about 2.5%, reduced by whatever share of the work tax the home city recognizes.
Does working in a different town cost me anything?
Not a cent on this one. The crossing changes where the money is sent, not how much of it leaves, so your total matches a stay-at-home commute.
Is this a common enough commute to be worth modeling?
Yes — 1,019 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: Centerville on the basis of work location at about 2.25%, Dayton 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.
Why is the marginal cost of this crossing zero?
Marginal liability from working outside the residence jurisdiction is zero on this route. The crossing alters the distribution of revenue between jurisdictions but not the employee's total. ⚠️ This is route-specific and does not generalise to other pairs in the same dataset.
What is the basis for including this route?
Route volume is 1,019 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.