Harrison to Cincinnati
Ohio municipal income tax, Chapter 718 framework · credit set by Harrison ordinance · tax year 2026
Work city takes
1.8%
Cincinnati, on income earned there
Home city charges
1%
Harrison, residents
Credit back
$0
nothing is credited
Cost of the commute
$1,080
a year, above working at home
What it costs you
no creditHarrison credits nothing for tax paid to Cincinnati, so both bills stand in full. Solid is what you pay; the faded part of the Harrison 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
- Two cities tax this pay, and neither gives way. Cincinnati takes about 1.8% of what you earn there. Harrison then taxes the same money at about 1% and hands back nothing for what Cincinnati already took. You pay both in full. On a salary of sixty thousand that is $1,680 a year.
- The run from Harrison is one of 20 recorded commutes into Cincinnati, and it comes 9 by the number of workers on it, about 1,397. Every one of those routes meets the same rate in Cincinnati. What separates them is what each home city gives back.
- Neither municipality yields on this pairing. Cincinnati taxes income earned inside its boundaries at about 1.8%, and Harrison taxes its residents' income wherever it is earned at about 1%. Harrison allows no credit for tax paid to another municipality, so both liabilities stand undiminished — $1,080 to the workplace and $600 to the residence, $1,680 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.
- Cincinnati is a major regional workplace, drawing recorded flows from 20 separate origins in this dataset. The route from Harrison ranks 9 among them by worker count, at roughly 1,397. Rank is not a proxy for tax outcome: every origin faces the same Cincinnati 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
| Cincinnati takes, on income earned there | $1,080 |
|---|---|
| Harrison charges residents | $600 |
| Less the credit Harrison gives back | $0 |
| Total local tax | $1,680 |
| If you also lived in Cincinnati | $600 |
| Difference | $1,080 |
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 Cincinnati and Harrison charge you. Harrison may then hand back what Cincinnati took, or part of it, or none of it. Everything on this page turns on which of those it does.
- These figures rest on a local rule, not a state one. Harrison decides how much credit to give for tax already paid to Cincinnati. It is worth confirming the current position with the city or its collection agency, because this is the part most likely to have changed.
- 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 Harrison rather than your workplace in Cincinnati, and it is not credited against anything.
- One tax is on this page and it is the city one. State tax, federal tax and Social Security all still come out of your pay. None of them change when you cross the line between Harrison and Cincinnati. That is exactly why they are left out.
- 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 Cincinnati charges and what Harrison 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. Cincinnati taxes what is earned within its boundaries, Harrison taxes its residents on everything, and Harrison then credits some, all or none of what Cincinnati collected. The credit is the entire mechanism, and it is set by Harrison rather than by the state.
- The credit rule modeled here is Harrison's own, adopted by ordinance and amendable by Harrison 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 Harrison can therefore change every figure on this page without anything altering in Cincinnati 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 Cincinnati, and no municipal credit applies to it. A resident of Harrison 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 Harrison and Cincinnati, 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 Harrison to Cincinnati 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. Cincinnati takes about 1.8% because you work there, Harrison charges about 1% 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 $1,080 a year. That is the gap between this commute and an identical job in Harrison, and it exists purely because the boundary sits between them.
Why does my home town not credit the whole of what the other one took?
Because the credit is set locally, and Harrison chose not to make it whole. A city that credits everything gives up revenue from every resident who works elsewhere, so most cap it — which is exactly where a commuter's extra cost comes from.
Is this a common enough commute to be worth modeling?
1,397 workers make it. The pairing comes from federal commuting data rather than from guesswork, and thin routes are excluded rather than estimated.
How does a resident credit allocate liability between two municipalities?
Both jurisdictions assert a claim: Cincinnati on the basis of work location at about 1.8%, Harrison 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 $1,080 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 1,397 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.