Kettering to Washington Township
Ohio municipal income tax, Chapter 718 framework · credit set by Kettering ordinance · tax year 2026
Work city takes
1.95%
Washington Township, on income earned there
Home city charges
2.25%
Kettering, residents
Credit back
$1,170
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 Washington Township 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
- Here is the good news. Working in Washington Township costs you nothing extra in local tax. Kettering charges residents about 2.25%, and it credits back every dollar Washington Township collects from you. Either way your bill is $1,350 a year. What changes is which city keeps the money, not how much of it you hand over.
- There is room here, and it is measurable. Washington Township could take another $180 a year from you before Kettering's credit ran out. Until then the two cities settle it between themselves and you pay what you would have paid at home.
- This route from Kettering is 2 of 2 recorded commutes into Washington Township, with around 1,138 people on it. Treat the ranking loosely. Only flows above a certain size are published at all.
- This pairing is neutral to the worker. Washington Township withholds about 1.95% 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 Washington Township and Kettering, not the sum leaving the worker's pay.
- The margin is worth knowing, because it is not large. Kettering credits tax paid to Washington Township only up to a ceiling set as a share of income, and Washington Township's levy currently sits below it with $180 of annual room to spare at the reference salary. Were Washington Township 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.
- Washington Township records 2 qualifying commuting origins in this dataset, of which Kettering ranks 2 by worker count at approximately 1,138. 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
| Washington Township takes, on income earned there | $1,170 |
|---|---|
| Kettering charges residents | $1,350 |
| Less the credit Kettering gives back | $1,170 |
| Total local tax | $1,350 |
| If you also lived in Washington Township | $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
- 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 Kettering: it may credit all of what Washington Township 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.
- These figures rest on a local rule, not a state one. Kettering decides how much credit to give for tax already paid to Washington Township. 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 Washington Township charge, and plenty of Ohio districts levy it. Working elsewhere makes no difference to it, and no credit offsets it.
- Do not read this as your whole tax bill. It is the part that answers to the commute between Kettering and Washington Township. State and federal tax carry on regardless, unchanged by which side of a city line your desk is on.
- 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 Washington Township charges and what Kettering 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. Washington Township taxes what is earned within its boundaries, Kettering taxes its residents on everything, and Kettering then credits some, all or none of what Washington Township 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 Washington Township 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 Washington Township, 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 Washington Township, 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 Washington Township 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 Washington Township costs about 1.95%; 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 — 1,138 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: Washington Township on the basis of work location at about 1.95%, 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 1,138 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.