Medina to Cleveland
Ohio municipal income tax, Chapter 718 framework · credit set by Medina ordinance · tax year 2026
Work city takes
2.5%
Cleveland, on income earned there
Home city charges
1.25%
Medina, residents
Credit back
$375
a share of the work tax
Cost of the commute
$1,125
a year, above working at home
What it costs you
partial creditMedina credits only part of what Cleveland takes, so the remainder is taxed twice. Solid is what you pay; the faded part of the Medina 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
- Medina gives back some of what Cleveland takes, but not all of it. The credit covers about 25% of the work city's tax and no more. Whatever is left over, you pay twice. That comes to $1,125 a year beyond what living and working in Medina would have cost.
- The run from Medina is one of 66 recorded commutes into Cleveland, and it comes 43 by the number of workers on it, about 1,381. Every one of those routes meets the same rate in Cleveland. What separates them is what each home city gives back.
- Medina credits only part of what its residents pay elsewhere. Its ordinance allows about 25% of tax paid to another municipality, and on this pairing that share, rather than the income ceiling, is what limits the relief. Against $1,500 withheld by Cleveland, the credit returns $375, leaving Medina to collect the balance of its about 1.25% resident levy. The workplace accounts for $1,125; the year's local total is $1,875.
- Cleveland is a major regional workplace, drawing recorded flows from 66 separate origins in this dataset. The route from Medina ranks 43 among them by worker count, at roughly 1,381. Rank is not a proxy for tax outcome: every origin faces the same Cleveland 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
| Cleveland takes, on income earned there | $1,500 |
|---|---|
| Medina charges residents | $750 |
| Less the credit Medina gives back | $375 |
| Total local tax | $1,875 |
| If you also lived in Cleveland | $750 |
| Difference | $1,125 |
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 Cleveland and Medina charge you. Medina may then hand back what Cleveland took, or part of it, or none of it. Everything on this page turns on which of those it does.
- One thing to keep in mind. Ohio does not require Medina to give any credit at all. That choice sits with the city, and cities revisit it. A vote in Medina could change what this commute to Cleveland 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 Cleveland, and the credit from Medina 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 Medina and Cleveland. 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 Medina 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 Cleveland 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. Cleveland taxes what is earned within its boundaries, Medina taxes its residents on everything, and Medina then credits some, all or none of what Cleveland collected. The credit is the entire mechanism, and it is set by Medina rather than by the state.
- The credit rule modeled here is Medina's own, adopted by ordinance and amendable by Medina 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 Medina can therefore change every figure on this page without anything altering in Cleveland 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 Cleveland, and no municipal credit applies to it. A resident of Medina 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 Medina and Cleveland, 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 Medina to Cleveland 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. Cleveland takes about 2.5% because you work there, Medina charges about 1.25% 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 $1,125 a year. That is the gap between this commute and an identical job in Medina, 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 Medina 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?
1,381 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: Cleveland on the basis of work location at about 2.5%, Medina on residence at about 1.25%. 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.
What is the marginal local tax cost of this commute?
Marginal annual liability attributable to working outside the residence jurisdiction is $1,125 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 1,381 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.