Plain Township to Akron
Ohio municipal income tax, Chapter 718 framework · credit set by Plain Township ordinance · tax year 2026
Work city takes
2.5%
Akron, on income earned there
Home city charges
1.5%
Plain Township, residents
Credit back
$0
nothing is credited
Cost of the commute
$1,500
a year, above working at home
What it costs you
no creditPlain Township credits nothing for tax paid to Akron, so both bills stand in full. Solid is what you pay; the faded part of the Plain Township 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
- Plain Township gives its residents no credit for tax paid to another city. That single fact is the whole story of this commute. Work in Akron and the same income is taxed twice, once where you earn it and once where you sleep. Together the two bills come to $2,400 a year. Bringing the job home would wipe out $1,500 of it.
- The run from Plain Township is one of 19 recorded commutes into Akron, and it comes 17 by the number of workers on it, about 777. Every one of those routes meets the same rate in Akron. What separates them is what each home city gives back.
- Neither municipality yields on this pairing. Akron taxes income earned inside its boundaries at about 2.5%, and Plain Township taxes its residents' income wherever it is earned at about 1.5%. Plain Township allows no credit for tax paid to another municipality, so both liabilities stand undiminished — $1,500 to the workplace and $900 to the residence, $2,400 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.
- Akron is a major regional workplace, drawing recorded flows from 19 separate origins in this dataset. The route from Plain Township ranks 17 among them by worker count, at roughly 777. Rank is not a proxy for tax outcome: every origin faces the same Akron 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
| Akron takes, on income earned there | $1,500 |
|---|---|
| Plain Township charges residents | $900 |
| Less the credit Plain Township gives back | $0 |
| Total local tax | $2,400 |
| If you also lived in Akron | $900 |
| Difference | $1,500 |
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 Akron and Plain Township charge you. Plain Township may then hand back what Akron 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 Plain Township to give any credit at all. That choice sits with the city, and cities revisit it. A vote in Plain Township could change what this commute to Akron costs you, with no change in the law itself.
- Watch for one more local tax. School district income tax is separate from what Plain Township and Akron 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 Plain Township and Akron. 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 Plain Township 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 Akron 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. Akron taxes what is earned within its boundaries, Plain Township taxes its residents on everything, and Plain Township then credits some, all or none of what Akron collected. The credit is the entire mechanism, and it is set by Plain Township rather than by the state.
- The credit rule modeled here is Plain Township's own, adopted by ordinance and amendable by Plain Township 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 Plain Township can therefore change every figure on this page without anything altering in Akron 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 Akron, and no municipal credit applies to it. A resident of Plain Township 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 Plain Township and Akron, 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 Plain Township to Akron 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?
Both places charge you, but the city you live in gives back some of what the other one took. Akron taxes you for working there at about 2.5%; Plain Township then charges its own about 1.5% and credits part of the first against it. Whether anything is left over depends on how generous that credit is.
What does crossing this boundary actually cost me?
Working across the line costs $1,500 a year here. The same salary earned in Plain Township would not carry it.
Why does my home town not credit the whole of what the other one took?
It is a local choice, and a costly one to make generous. Crediting in full would surrender the tax on every resident working outside Plain Township, so the credit is capped and the remainder lands on you.
Is this commute common enough for the numbers to mean anything?
It is a smaller route: 777 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: Akron on the basis of work location at about 2.5%, Plain Township on residence at about 1.5%. 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.
What is the marginal local tax cost of this commute?
Marginal annual liability attributable to working outside the residence jurisdiction is $1,500 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 measurement basis for a route of this size?
Route volume is 777 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.