Lorain to North Ridgeville
Ohio municipal income tax, Chapter 718 framework · credit set by Lorain ordinance · tax year 2026
Work city takes
1%
North Ridgeville, on income earned there
Home city charges
2.5%
Lorain, residents
Credit back
$600
a share of the work tax
Cost of the commute
$0
a year, above working at home
What it costs you
no extra local taxLorain credits only part of what North Ridgeville takes, so the remainder is taxed twice. Solid is what you pay; the faded part of the Lorain 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. Lorain credits everything North Ridgeville withholds, right up to its own rate of about 2.5%. Crossing the line to work adds nothing. Local income tax comes to $1,500 for the year, exactly as it would if the job were on your own street.
- This is closer than it looks. Lorain covers what North Ridgeville takes, but only up to a limit, and North Ridgeville is $900 a year short of it. Raise the work rate past that and the commute stops being free.
- This route from Lorain is 2 of 2 recorded commutes into North Ridgeville, with around 519 people on it. Treat the ranking loosely. Only flows above a certain size are published at all.
- This pairing is neutral to the worker. North Ridgeville withholds about 1% on income earned there, and Lorain, which levies about 2.5% on residents, credits that payment in full without reaching its own ceiling. Liability at the reference salary is therefore $1,500 — precisely what the same earnings would attract with no commute at all. What the arrangement alters is the division of revenue between North Ridgeville and Lorain, not the sum leaving the worker's pay.
- The margin is worth knowing, because it is not large. Lorain credits tax paid to North Ridgeville only up to a ceiling set as a share of income, and North Ridgeville's levy currently sits below it with $900 of annual room to spare at the reference salary. Were North Ridgeville 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.
- North Ridgeville records 2 qualifying commuting origins in this dataset, of which Lorain ranks 2 by worker count at approximately 519. 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
| North Ridgeville takes, on income earned there | $600 |
|---|---|
| Lorain charges residents | $1,500 |
| Less the credit Lorain gives back | $600 |
| Total local tax | $1,500 |
| If you also lived in North Ridgeville | $1,500 |
| 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 Lorain: it may credit all of what North Ridgeville 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.
- One thing to keep in mind. Ohio does not require Lorain to give any credit at all. That choice sits with the city, and cities revisit it. A vote in Lorain could change what this commute to North Ridgeville 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 North Ridgeville, and the credit from Lorain does not touch it. If your district charges one, add it to everything here.
- These figures are the local layer alone. Whatever Lorain and North Ridgeville 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 North Ridgeville charges and what Lorain 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. North Ridgeville taxes what is earned within its boundaries, Lorain taxes its residents on everything, and Lorain then credits some, all or none of what North Ridgeville collected. The credit is the entire mechanism, and it is set by Lorain rather than by the state.
- The credit rule modeled here is Lorain's own, adopted by ordinance and amendable by Lorain 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 Lorain can therefore change every figure on this page without anything altering in North Ridgeville 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 North Ridgeville, and no municipal credit applies to it. A resident of Lorain 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 Lorain and North Ridgeville, 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 Lorain to North Ridgeville 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. North Ridgeville takes about 1% because you work there, Lorain charges about 2.5% because you live there, and the home city credits some of the first against the second.
Does working in a different town cost me anything?
On this route, nothing. You owe exactly what you would have owed working at home — the boundary is real on a map and invisible on your pay stub, which is not true of every pair of towns here.
Is this commute common enough for the numbers to mean anything?
It is a smaller route: 519 workers. That affects how representative it is, not whether the tax arithmetic applies — the rules are the same on a quiet road as a busy one.
How does a resident credit allocate liability between two municipalities?
Both jurisdictions assert a claim: North Ridgeville on the basis of work location at about 1%, Lorain on residence at about 2.5%. 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 measurement basis for a route of this size?
Route volume is 519 workers per Census LODES, above the publication floor but below the dataset's upper quartile. Liability is determined by jurisdictional rates and residence rules alone; commuter volume has no bearing on it and is reported only as context.