Sylvania to Toledo
Ohio municipal income tax, Chapter 718 framework · credit set by Sylvania ordinance · tax year 2026
Work city takes
2.5%
Toledo, on income earned there
Home city charges
1.5%
Sylvania, residents
Credit back
$900
capped by the ceiling
Cost of the commute
$600
a year, above working at home
What it costs you
ceiling bindsSylvania's credit stops at its ceiling, so the rest of its own tax still applies. Solid is what you pay; the faded part of the Sylvania 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
- There is a ceiling on this, and you have hit it. Sylvania will credit tax paid to Toledo, but only up to about 1.5% of what you earn. Past that point you pay Sylvania too. The gap runs to $600 over a year, on top of $1,500 already withheld where you work.
- This route from Sylvania is 3 of 9 recorded commutes into Toledo, with around 3,307 people on it. Treat the ranking loosely. Only flows above a certain size are published at all.
- Around 3,307 workers make this trip from Sylvania into Toledo. It is one of the busier commutes in the state, which is part of why it gets a page of its own.
- The credit here is real but bounded. Sylvania allows residents about 100% of tax paid to another municipality, subject to a ceiling of about 1.5% of income, and on this pairing it is the ceiling rather than the share that binds. Toledo withholds $1,500 at about 2.5%; Sylvania returns $900 of that and collects the remainder of its own about 1.5% resident levy. The workplace accordingly costs $600 above the home-only position, against a total of $1,500.
- Toledo records 9 qualifying commuting origins in this dataset, of which Sylvania ranks 3 by worker count at approximately 3,307. 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 3,307 workers commuting from Sylvania to Toledo, 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 Sylvania 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
| Toledo takes, on income earned there | $1,500 |
|---|---|
| Sylvania charges residents | $900 |
| Less the credit Sylvania gives back | $900 |
| Total local tax | $1,500 |
| If you also lived in Toledo | $900 |
| Difference | $600 |
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
- Here is the shape of it, because the arithmetic is easy to get wrong. You are taxed by both cities. What happens next is up to Sylvania: it may credit all of what Toledo took, some of it, or none at all. That choice belongs to the city rather than to the state, which is why identical salaries in neighboring towns land so differently.
- One thing to keep in mind. Ohio does not require Sylvania to give any credit at all. That choice sits with the city, and cities revisit it. A vote in Sylvania could change what this commute to Toledo costs you, with no change in the law itself.
- Watch for one more local tax. School district income tax is separate from what Sylvania and Toledo 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 Sylvania and Toledo. 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 Sylvania 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 Toledo 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. Toledo taxes what is earned within its boundaries, Sylvania taxes its residents on everything, and Sylvania then credits some, all or none of what Toledo collected. The credit is the entire mechanism, and it is set by Sylvania rather than by the state.
- The credit rule modeled here is Sylvania's own, adopted by ordinance and amendable by Sylvania 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 Sylvania can therefore change every figure on this page without anything altering in Toledo 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 Toledo, and no municipal credit applies to it. A resident of Sylvania 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 Sylvania and Toledo, 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 Sylvania to Toledo 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 Toledo costs about 2.5%; living in Sylvania costs about 1.5%, reduced by whatever share of the work tax the home city recognizes.
What does crossing this boundary actually cost me?
About $600 a year. That is the gap between this commute and an identical job in Sylvania, and it exists purely because the boundary sits between them.
Is this a common enough commute to be worth modeling?
It is. 3,307 workers travel this pair, per the federal origin-destination survey; smaller routes fall below the publication floor and get no page.
How does a resident credit allocate liability between two municipalities?
Both jurisdictions assert a claim: Toledo on the basis of work location at about 2.5%, Sylvania 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 $600 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.
What is the basis for including this route?
Route volume is 3,307 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.