Springfield to Urbana
Ohio municipal income tax, Chapter 718 framework · credit set by Springfield ordinance · tax year 2026
Work city takes
1.4%
Urbana, on income earned there
Home city charges
2.4%
Springfield, residents
Credit back
$420
a share of the work tax
Cost of the commute
$420
a year, above working at home
What it costs you
partial creditSpringfield credits only part of what Urbana takes, so the remainder is taxed twice. Solid is what you pay; the faded part of the Springfield 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
- Springfield gives back some of what Urbana takes, but not all of it. The credit covers about 50% of the work city's tax and no more. Whatever is left over, you pay twice. That comes to $420 a year beyond what living and working in Springfield would have cost.
- This is the only route into Urbana large enough to show up in the data. About 588 people travel it from Springfield. Other people commute there too. Their numbers are simply too small to be counted separately.
- Springfield credits only part of what its residents pay elsewhere. Its ordinance allows about 50% of tax paid to another municipality, and on this pairing that share, rather than the income ceiling, is what limits the relief. Against $840 withheld by Urbana, the credit returns $420, leaving Springfield to collect the balance of its about 2.4% resident levy. The workplace accounts for $420; the year's local total is $1,860.
- Within this dataset Urbana draws a single recorded commuting flow of qualifying size — the one from Springfield, carrying roughly 588 workers. That reflects the reporting floor rather than the labor market: smaller flows certainly exist and fall below the threshold at which Census origin-destination statistics are published. No ranking against sibling routes is therefore available for this workplace.
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
| Urbana takes, on income earned there | $840 |
|---|---|
| Springfield charges residents | $1,440 |
| Less the credit Springfield gives back | $420 |
| Total local tax | $1,860 |
| If you also lived in Urbana | $1,440 |
| Difference | $420 |
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. Urbana taxes what you earn there, Springfield taxes everything you earn, and then Springfield decides how much of the first bill to give back.
- These figures rest on a local rule, not a state one. Springfield decides how much credit to give for tax already paid to Urbana. It is worth confirming the current position with the city or its collection agency, because this is the part most likely to have changed.
- 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 Springfield rather than your workplace in Urbana, 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 Springfield and Urbana. 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 Urbana charges and what Springfield 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. Urbana taxes what is earned within its boundaries, Springfield taxes its residents on everything, and Springfield then credits some, all or none of what Urbana collected. The credit is the entire mechanism, and it is set by Springfield rather than by the state.
- The credit rule modeled here is Springfield's own, adopted by ordinance and amendable by Springfield 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 Springfield can therefore change every figure on this page without anything altering in Urbana 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 Urbana, and no municipal credit applies to it. A resident of Springfield 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 Springfield and Urbana, 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 Springfield to Urbana 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. Urbana takes about 1.4% because you work there, Springfield charges about 2.4% because you live there, and the home city credits some of the first against the second.
What does crossing this boundary actually cost me?
$420 a year more than if you worked where you live. It is not a commuting charge and it buys you nothing — it is what falls out of two jurisdictions both having a claim and only one of them yielding.
Why does my home town not credit the whole of what the other one took?
Full credit would mean Springfield collecting nothing from anyone who works out of town. Councils rarely do that, and the shortfall is what a commuter pays.
Is this commute common enough for the numbers to mean anything?
It is a smaller route: 588 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: Urbana on the basis of work location at about 1.4%, Springfield on residence at about 2.4%. 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 $420 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 588 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.