Sunbury to Columbus
Ohio municipal income tax, Chapter 718 framework · credit set by Sunbury ordinance · tax year 2026
Work city takes
2.5%
Columbus, on income earned there
Home city charges
1%
Sunbury, residents
Credit back
$0
nothing is credited
Cost of the commute
$1,500
a year, above working at home
What it costs you
no creditSunbury credits nothing for tax paid to Columbus, so both bills stand in full. Solid is what you pay; the faded part of the Sunbury 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. Sunbury does not. It charges residents about 1% whether or not another city has already taken a share of the same pay. Columbus takes about 2.5% first, and none of it comes back. The year's local tax works out at $2,100.
- The run from Sunbury is one of 50 recorded commutes into Columbus, and it comes 27 by the number of workers on it, about 1,425. Every one of those routes meets the same rate in Columbus. What separates them is what each home city gives back.
- Neither municipality yields on this pairing. Columbus taxes income earned inside its boundaries at about 2.5%, and Sunbury taxes its residents' income wherever it is earned at about 1%. Sunbury allows no credit for tax paid to another municipality, so both liabilities stand undiminished — $1,500 to the workplace and $600 to the residence, $2,100 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.
- Columbus is a major regional workplace, drawing recorded flows from 50 separate origins in this dataset. The route from Sunbury ranks 27 among them by worker count, at roughly 1,425. Rank is not a proxy for tax outcome: every origin faces the same Columbus 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
| Columbus takes, on income earned there | $1,500 |
|---|---|
| Sunbury charges residents | $600 |
| Less the credit Sunbury gives back | $0 |
| Total local tax | $2,100 |
| If you also lived in Columbus | $600 |
| 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 Columbus and Sunbury charge you. Sunbury may then hand back what Columbus 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 Sunbury to give any credit at all. That choice sits with the city, and cities revisit it. A vote in Sunbury could change what this commute to Columbus 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 Columbus, and the credit from Sunbury does not touch it. If your district charges one, add it to everything here.
- One tax is on this page and it is the city one. State tax, federal tax and Social Security all still come out of your pay. None of them change when you cross the line between Sunbury and Columbus. That is exactly why they are left out.
- Every dollar amount here uses a salary of sixty thousand a year. It is a benchmark, not a guess at what people in Sunbury 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 Columbus 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. Columbus taxes what is earned within its boundaries, Sunbury taxes its residents on everything, and Sunbury then credits some, all or none of what Columbus collected. The credit is the entire mechanism, and it is set by Sunbury rather than by the state.
- The credit rule modeled here is Sunbury's own, adopted by ordinance and amendable by Sunbury 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 Sunbury can therefore change every figure on this page without anything altering in Columbus 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 Columbus, and no municipal credit applies to it. A resident of Sunbury 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 Sunbury and Columbus, 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 Sunbury to Columbus 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?
You are taxed by both, then given credit for one. Working in Columbus costs about 2.5%; living in Sunbury costs about 1%, reduced by whatever share of the work tax the home city recognizes.
What does crossing this boundary actually cost me?
Working across the line costs $1,500 a year here. The same salary earned in Sunbury 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 Sunbury, so the credit is capped and the remainder lands on you.
Is this a common enough commute to be worth modeling?
1,425 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: Columbus on the basis of work location at about 2.5%, Sunbury on residence at about 1%. 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 basis for including this route?
Route volume is 1,425 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.