Toledo to Sylvania Township
Ohio municipal income tax, Chapter 718 framework · credit set by Toledo ordinance · tax year 2026
Work city takes
1.5%
Sylvania Township, on income earned there
Home city charges
2.5%
Toledo, residents
Credit back
$900
a share of the work tax
Cost of the commute
$0
a year, above working at home
What it costs you
no extra local taxToledo credits only part of what Sylvania Township takes, so the remainder is taxed twice. Solid is what you pay; the faded part of the Toledo 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
- Some Ohio commutes cost you real money. This one does not. Toledo gives full credit for the tax Sylvania Township takes out of your pay, so the two settle down to the same bill you would owe at home. On sixty thousand that is $1,500 for the year. The commute shifts money between city halls and leaves your total alone.
- This is closer than it looks. Toledo covers what Sylvania Township takes, but only up to a limit, and Sylvania Township is $600 a year short of it. Raise the work rate past that and the commute stops being free.
- Of all the places people commute to Sylvania Township from, Toledo sends the most. The count is about 4,745 workers, top of 3 recorded routes. A rule that costs money on this pairing costs it at scale.
- Around 4,745 workers make this trip from Toledo into Sylvania Township. It is one of the busier commutes in the state, which is part of why it gets a page of its own.
- This pairing is neutral to the worker. Sylvania Township withholds about 1.5% on income earned there, and Toledo, which levies about 2.5% on residents, credits that payment in full without reaching its own ceiling. Liability at the reference salary is therefore $1,500 — precisely what the same earnings would attract with no commute at all. What the arrangement alters is the division of revenue between Sylvania Township and Toledo, not the sum leaving the worker's pay.
- The margin is worth knowing, because it is not large. Toledo credits tax paid to Sylvania Township only up to a ceiling set as a share of income, and Sylvania Township's levy currently sits below it with $600 of annual room to spare at the reference salary. Were Sylvania Township to raise its rate past that point, the excess would cease to be credited and would fall on the worker rather than on either treasury.
- This is the largest recorded flow into Sylvania Township. Of 3 origins feeding that workplace in this dataset, Toledo supplies the most workers at approximately 4,745. The credit outcome described above therefore applies to more commuters than any other single route into the city, which matters when the outcome is an adverse one: the same ordinance governs every origin, but the populations behind each are very different.
- Census origin-destination statistics record approximately 4,745 workers commuting from Toledo to Sylvania 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 Toledo 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
| Sylvania Township takes, on income earned there | $900 |
|---|---|
| Toledo charges residents | $1,500 |
| Less the credit Toledo gives back | $900 |
| Total local tax | $1,500 |
| If you also lived in Sylvania Township | $1,500 |
| Difference | $0 |
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 Sylvania Township and Toledo charge you. Toledo may then hand back what Sylvania Township took, or part of it, or none of it. Everything on this page turns on which of those it does.
- The credit rule on this page belongs to Toledo, not to the state. Its council sets it and its council can change it. Nothing needs to happen in Sylvania 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 Toledo rather than your workplace in Sylvania Township, and it is not credited against anything.
- These figures are the local layer alone. Whatever Toledo and Sylvania Township take sits on top of state, federal and payroll tax. Those three are the same wherever in Ohio you work, so putting them in would bury the difference this page is about.
- 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 Sylvania Township charges and what Toledo 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. Sylvania Township taxes what is earned within its boundaries, Toledo taxes its residents on everything, and Toledo then credits some, all or none of what Sylvania Township collected. The credit is the entire mechanism, and it is set by Toledo rather than by the state.
- The credit rule modeled here is Toledo's own, adopted by ordinance and amendable by Toledo 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 Toledo can therefore change every figure on this page without anything altering in Sylvania 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 Sylvania Township, and no municipal credit applies to it. A resident of Toledo 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 Toledo and Sylvania 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 Toledo to Sylvania 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?
You are taxed by both, then given credit for one. Working in Sylvania Township costs about 1.5%; living in Toledo costs about 2.5%, reduced by whatever share of the work tax the home city recognizes.
Does working in a different town cost me anything?
Nothing extra. The tax is redirected rather than increased, so this particular crossing costs you no more than working in Toledo would.
Is this a common enough commute to be worth modeling?
Yes — 4,745 people make this exact journey, according to the federal employment survey that tracks where workers live against where they work. Routes below a volume floor are not published, so a page existing here means the commute is real and measured.
How does a resident credit allocate liability between two municipalities?
Both jurisdictions assert a claim: Sylvania Township on the basis of work location at about 1.5%, Toledo on residence at about 2.5%. 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.
Why is the marginal cost of this crossing zero?
Marginal liability from working outside the residence jurisdiction is zero on this route. The crossing alters the distribution of revenue between jurisdictions but not the employee's total. ⚠️ This is route-specific and does not generalise to other pairs in the same dataset.
What is the basis for including this route?
Route volume is 4,745 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.