Franklin Township to Columbus
Ohio municipal income tax, Chapter 718 framework · credit set by Franklin Township ordinance · tax year 2026
Work city takes
2.5%
Columbus, on income earned there
Home city charges
2%
Franklin Township, residents
Credit back
$1,200
capped by the ceiling
Cost of the commute
$300
a year, above working at home
What it costs you
ceiling bindsFranklin Township'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 Franklin 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
- There is a ceiling on this, and you have hit it. Franklin Township will credit tax paid to Columbus, but only up to about 2% of what you earn. Past that point you pay Franklin Township too. The gap runs to $300 over a year, on top of $1,500 already withheld where you work.
- The run from Franklin Township is one of 50 recorded commutes into Columbus, and it comes 22 by the number of workers on it, about 2,098. Every one of those routes meets the same rate in Columbus. What separates them is what each home city gives back.
- Around 2,098 workers make this trip from Franklin Township into Columbus. It is one of the busier commutes in the state, which is part of why it gets a page of its own.
- The credit here is real but bounded. Franklin Township allows residents about 100% of tax paid to another municipality, subject to a ceiling of about 2% of income, and on this pairing it is the ceiling rather than the share that binds. Columbus withholds $1,500 at about 2.5%; Franklin Township returns $1,200 of that and collects the remainder of its own about 2% resident levy. The workplace accordingly costs $300 above the home-only position, against a total of $1,500.
- Columbus is a major regional workplace, drawing recorded flows from 50 separate origins in this dataset. The route from Franklin Township ranks 22 among them by worker count, at roughly 2,098. 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 2,098 workers commuting from Franklin Township 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 Franklin Township 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 |
|---|---|
| Franklin Township charges residents | $1,200 |
| Less the credit Franklin Township gives back | $1,200 |
| Total local tax | $1,500 |
| If you also lived in Columbus | $1,200 |
| Difference | $300 |
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, Franklin Township taxes everything you earn, and then Franklin Township decides how much of the first bill to give back.
- One thing to keep in mind. Ohio does not require Franklin Township to give any credit at all. That choice sits with the city, and cities revisit it. A vote in Franklin Township could change what this commute to Columbus 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 Columbus, and the credit from Franklin Township does not touch it. If your district charges one, add it to everything here.
- Do not read this as your whole tax bill. It is the part that answers to the commute between Franklin Township and Columbus. State and federal tax carry on regardless, unchanged by which side of a city line your desk is on.
- Every dollar amount here uses a salary of sixty thousand a year. It is a benchmark, not a guess at what people in Franklin Township earn, because nobody publishes average pay for single municipalities. Scale the figures to your own salary. The rates and the credit work the same way at any income, so the Columbus conclusion holds.
- 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, Franklin Township taxes its residents on everything, and Franklin Township then credits some, all or none of what Columbus collected. The credit is the entire mechanism, and it is set by Franklin Township rather than by the state.
- The credit rule modeled here is Franklin Township's own, adopted by ordinance and amendable by Franklin 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 Franklin 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 Franklin 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 Franklin 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 Franklin 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?
Two claims, one partly canceled. Columbus takes about 2.5% because you work there, Franklin Township 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?
About $300 a year. That is the gap between this commute and an identical job in Franklin Township, and it exists purely because the boundary sits between them.
Is this a common enough commute to be worth modeling?
It is. 2,098 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%, Franklin Township 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 $300 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 2,098 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.