Kettering to Centerville
Ohio municipal income tax, Chapter 718 framework · credit set by Kettering ordinance · tax year 2026
Work city takes
2.25%
Centerville, on income earned there
Home city charges
2.25%
Kettering, 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 taxKettering credits only part of what Centerville takes, so the remainder is taxed twice. Solid is what you pay; the faded part of the Kettering 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. Kettering credits everything Centerville withholds, right up to its own rate of about 2.25%. Crossing the line to work adds nothing. Local income tax comes to $1,350 for the year, exactly as it would if the job were on your own street.
- This one is balanced on a knife edge. What Centerville takes is exactly what Kettering is willing to credit — no more. It costs you nothing today. It would cost you from the very first dollar if either city moved its rate.
- Of all the places people commute to Centerville from, Kettering sends the most. The count is about 1,029 workers, top of 2 recorded routes. A rule that costs money on this pairing costs it at scale.
- This pairing is neutral to the worker. Centerville withholds about 2.25% on income earned there, and Kettering, which levies about 2.25% on residents, credits that payment in full without reaching its own ceiling. Liability at the reference salary is therefore $1,350 — precisely what the same earnings would attract with no commute at all. What the arrangement alters is the division of revenue between Centerville and Kettering, not the sum leaving the worker's pay.
- This pairing sits exactly on its limit. Centerville's rate and the ceiling Kettering places on its credit coincide to the cent, so the credit absorbs the work-city tax precisely and not a dollar further. The commute is costless today and has no margin whatsoever: any increase by Centerville, or any reduction in the ceiling by Kettering, falls directly on the worker from the first dollar.
- This is the largest recorded flow into Centerville. Of 2 origins feeding that workplace in this dataset, Kettering supplies the most workers at approximately 1,029. The credit outcome described above therefore applies to more commuters than any other single route into the city, which matters when the outcome is an adverse one: the same ordinance governs every origin, but the populations behind each are very different.
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 |
|---|---|
| Kettering charges residents | $1,350 |
| Less the credit Kettering gives back | $1,350 |
| Total local tax | $1,350 |
| If you also lived in Centerville | $1,350 |
| 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
- Do not add the two rates up, and do not assume the bigger one simply wins. Neither is how Ohio works. Both Centerville and Kettering charge you. Kettering may then hand back what Centerville 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. Kettering decides how much credit to give for tax already paid to Centerville. It is worth confirming the current position with the city or its collection agency, because this is the part most likely to have changed.
- Watch for one more local tax. School district income tax is separate from what Kettering and Centerville charge, and plenty of Ohio districts levy it. Working elsewhere makes no difference to it, and no credit offsets it.
- 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 Kettering and Centerville. That is exactly why they are left out.
- 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 Kettering. 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, Kettering taxes its residents on everything, and Kettering then credits some, all or none of what Centerville collected. The credit is the entire mechanism, and it is set by Kettering rather than by the state.
- The credit rule modeled here is Kettering's own, adopted by ordinance and amendable by Kettering 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 Kettering 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 Kettering 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 Kettering 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 Kettering 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 Kettering costs about 2.25%, 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 — 1,029 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.
Both towns charge the same — does the boundary matter at all then?
The rates match at about 2.25%, so the crossing moves money between authorities rather than out of your pocket.
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%, Kettering 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.
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 1,029 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.
What is the effect of identical rates either side of the boundary?
Both jurisdictions levy about 2.25%, so the governing rate is identical regardless of which rule allocates it. The boundary affects revenue attribution between authorities, not employee liability.