Elyria to Lorain
Ohio municipal income tax, Chapter 718 framework · credit set by Elyria ordinance · tax year 2026
Work city takes
2.5%
Lorain, on income earned there
Home city charges
2.25%
Elyria, 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 bindsElyria'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 Elyria 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
- There is a ceiling on this, and you have hit it. Elyria will credit tax paid to Lorain, but only up to about 2.25% of what you earn. Past that point you pay Elyria too. The gap runs to $150 over a year, on top of $1,500 already withheld where you work.
- No other commute into Lorain is big enough to appear here, so there is nothing to rank this one against. The route from Elyria carries around 1,020 workers. Smaller streams get folded away by the counting rules rather than by the map.
- The credit here is real but bounded. Elyria 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. Lorain withholds $1,500 at about 2.5%; Elyria 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.
- Within this dataset Lorain draws a single recorded commuting flow of qualifying size — the one from Elyria, carrying roughly 1,020 workers. That reflects the reporting floor rather than the labor market: smaller flows certainly exist and fall below the threshold at which Census origin-destination statistics are published. No ranking against sibling routes is therefore available for this workplace.
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
| Lorain takes, on income earned there | $1,500 |
|---|---|
| Elyria charges residents | $1,350 |
| Less the credit Elyria gives back | $1,350 |
| Total local tax | $1,500 |
| If you also lived in Lorain | $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 Lorain and Elyria charge you. Elyria may then hand back what Lorain 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 Elyria to give any credit at all. That choice sits with the city, and cities revisit it. A vote in Elyria could change what this commute to Lorain 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 Lorain, and the credit from Elyria does not touch it. If your district charges one, add it to everything here.
- These figures are the local layer alone. Whatever Elyria and Lorain 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 Lorain charges and what Elyria 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. Lorain taxes what is earned within its boundaries, Elyria taxes its residents on everything, and Elyria then credits some, all or none of what Lorain collected. The credit is the entire mechanism, and it is set by Elyria rather than by the state.
- The credit rule modeled here is Elyria's own, adopted by ordinance and amendable by Elyria 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 Elyria can therefore change every figure on this page without anything altering in Lorain 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 Lorain, and no municipal credit applies to it. A resident of Elyria 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 Elyria and Lorain, 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 Elyria to Lorain 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 Lorain costs about 2.5%; living in Elyria costs about 2.25%, reduced by whatever share of the work tax the home city recognizes.
What does crossing this boundary actually cost me?
$150 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.
Is this a common enough commute to be worth modeling?
Yes — 1,020 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: Lorain on the basis of work location at about 2.5%, Elyria 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 1,020 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.