Plain Township to Jackson Township
Ohio municipal income tax, Chapter 718 framework · credit set by Plain Township ordinance · tax year 2026
Work city takes
1.5%
Jackson Township, on income earned there
Home city charges
1.5%
Plain Township, residents
Credit back
$0
nothing is credited
Cost of the commute
$900
a year, above working at home
What it costs you
no creditPlain Township credits nothing for tax paid to Jackson Township, 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
- Most Ohio cities soften this. Plain Township does not. It charges residents about 1.5% whether or not another city has already taken a share of the same pay. Jackson Township takes about 1.5% first, and none of it comes back. The year's local tax works out at $1,800.
- This data records 8 commutes into Jackson Township, and the one from Plain Township ranks 2, carrying roughly 2,072 workers. That is a handful of routes rather than a full map of who works there.
- Around 2,072 workers make this trip from Plain Township into Jackson Township. It is one of the busier commutes in the state, which is part of why it gets a page of its own.
- Neither municipality yields on this pairing. Jackson Township taxes income earned inside its boundaries at about 1.5%, 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 — $900 to the workplace and $900 to the residence, $1,800 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.
- Jackson Township records 8 qualifying commuting origins in this dataset, of which Plain Township ranks 2 by worker count at approximately 2,072. 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.
- Census origin-destination statistics record approximately 2,072 workers commuting from Plain Township to Jackson Township, placing this among the larger intra-state flows in Ohio. The outcome set out above therefore has aggregate fiscal consequence for both municipalities, not merely individual consequence for the worker: the credit Plain Township does or does not extend is applied to every one of them at once.
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
| Jackson Township takes, on income earned there | $900 |
|---|---|
| Plain Township charges residents | $900 |
| Less the credit Plain Township gives back | $0 |
| Total local tax | $1,800 |
| If you also lived in Jackson Township | $900 |
| Difference | $900 |
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
- Two guesses about this are wrong, and they miss in opposite directions. The rates are not added together. Nor do you simply pay whichever is higher, which is how it works across the border in Pennsylvania. Jackson Township taxes what you earn there, Plain Township taxes everything you earn, and then Plain Township decides how much of the first bill to give back.
- The credit rule on this page belongs to Plain Township, not to the state. Its council sets it and its council can change it. Nothing needs to happen in Jackson Township or at the state level for these numbers to move. Check the current rule before you rely on it.
- This page covers city income tax only. Your school district may charge its own on top, and many in Ohio do. That one follows your address in Plain Township rather than your workplace in Jackson Township, and it is not credited against anything.
- Do not read this as your whole tax bill. It is the part that answers to the commute between Plain Township and Jackson Township. State and federal tax carry on regardless, unchanged by which side of a city line your desk is on.
- 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 Plain Township. The percentages are the durable part of this page, and they do not shift with what you earn in Jackson Township.
- 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. Jackson Township 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 Jackson Township 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 Jackson 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 Jackson Township, 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 Jackson 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 Plain Township to Jackson 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?
Two claims, one partly canceled. Jackson Township takes about 1.5% because you work there, Plain Township charges about 1.5% 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 $900 a year. That is the gap between this commute and an identical job in Plain Township, 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 Plain Township 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?
It is. 2,072 workers travel this pair, per the federal origin-destination survey; smaller routes fall below the publication floor and get no page.
Both towns charge the same — does the boundary matter at all then?
The rates match at about 1.5%, 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: Jackson Township on the basis of work location at about 1.5%, 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 $900 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 2,072 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 1.5%, so the governing rate is identical regardless of which rule allocates it. The boundary affects revenue attribution between authorities, not employee liability.