Which Columbus Suburb Has the Lowest Income Tax? What a $200,000 Household Pays in 10 Places

A physician couple relocating to Central Ohio asked me last month which suburb would cost them the least in local income tax. I gave them the number: on $200,000, somewhere between $0 and $6,500 a year, and I could not tell them which end until I knew where they were going to work.

That is the entire local income tax question in this region, and almost nobody explains it that way. So here it is on 2026 rates for ten places, with the arithmetic for three household types, and one uncomfortable footnote for Westerville.

I pulled every rate from the city's own tax page or ordinance and the school district rates from the Ohio Department of Taxation's 2026 list. No calculator sites, no forum posts.

How does local income tax actually work in Ohio?

Three rules, and the third one is the one that costs people money.

First, the city where you work taxes your wages at its rate, and your employer withholds it. If you work at Wexner, Nationwide Children's, Grant, or anywhere else inside Columbus city limits, that is 2.5 percent before you ever pick a suburb.

Second, the city where you live also taxes your total income at its rate, but every suburb in this post gives residents a credit for tax already paid to the workplace city, capped at the home city's own rate. Live in Dublin at 2.0 percent, work in Columbus at 2.5 percent, and Dublin's credit wipes out Dublin's tax entirely. You are left paying 2.5 percent to Columbus and nothing to Dublin.

Third, a school district income tax is different. It is residence-based, it has no workplace credit, and it stacks on top of whatever municipal tax you owe. In Franklin County only four districts levy one: Westerville, Bexley, Canal Winchester and Reynoldsburg. Big Walnut in Delaware County, which serves Sunbury and Galena, has one too. Olentangy, Dublin, New Albany-Plain, Worthington, Upper Arlington, Hilliard, Gahanna-Jefferson and Columbus City Schools do not.

Two more facts that matter. Townships cannot levy an income tax in Ohio, which is why Lewis Center, an unincorporated part of Orange Township, has none. And if you work from home, your home is your workplace, so the only municipal tax in play is the one where you live.

What are the 2026 rates in each suburb?

Place	Municipal rate	Credit for tax paid where you work	School district income tax
Columbus	2.5%	100%, up to 2.5%	None
Westerville	2.0%	100%, up to 2.0%	0.75% on earned income (Westerville CSD, new 2026)
Dublin	2.0%	100%, up to 2.0%	None
New Albany	2.0%	100%, up to 2.0%	None
Powell	2.0%	100%, up to 2.0%	None
Worthington	2.5%	100%, up to 2.5%	None
Upper Arlington	2.5%	Up to 2.5%	None
Hilliard	2.5%	100%, up to 2.5%	None
Gahanna	2.5%	100%, lesser of tax paid or Gahanna's tax	None
Lewis Center (Orange Township)	None	Not applicable	None (Olentangy)

The table looks like it has a lot of variation in it. It does not. Read on.

What does a $200,000 household pay if both work in Columbus?

This is the most common case for the couples I work with, because the hospitals, the universities and most of the large employers sit inside Columbus city limits.

Live in	Columbus withholds	Owed to home city after credit	School district tax	Total local income tax
Columbus	$5,000	$0	$0	$5,000
Dublin	$5,000	$0	$0	$5,000
New Albany	$5,000	$0	$0	$5,000
Powell	$5,000	$0	$0	$5,000
Worthington	$5,000	$0	$0	$5,000
Upper Arlington	$5,000	$0	$0	$5,000
Hilliard	$5,000	$0	$0	$5,000
Gahanna	$5,000	$0	$0	$5,000
Lewis Center	$5,000	$0	$0	$5,000
Westerville	$5,000	$0	$1,500	$6,500

Nine identical rows. If both of you work inside Columbus, the suburb you pick changes your local income tax by exactly nothing, with one exception. Westerville's school district tax is the only line that survives the workplace credit, and it adds $1,500 a year on $200,000. Over a ten-year hold that is $15,000 against Dublin, New Albany or Powell, and it will not show up on any listing sheet.

So if you are a Wexner physician deciding between Dublin and Upper Arlington on income tax, stop. Decide on the house, the commute and the property tax, which is where the real money is, and I will get to that.

What if you work from home?

Now the table moves, because your home city is your workplace and there is no credit to hide behind.

Live in	Municipal tax on $200,000	School district tax	Total local income tax
Lewis Center	$0	$0	$0
Dublin	$4,000	$0	$4,000
New Albany	$4,000	$0	$4,000
Powell	$4,000	$0	$4,000
Columbus	$5,000	$0	$5,000
Worthington	$5,000	$0	$5,000
Upper Arlington	$5,000	$0	$5,000
Hilliard	$5,000	$0	$5,000
Gahanna	$5,000	$0	$5,000
Westerville	$4,000	$1,500	$5,500

Here the spread is $5,500 a year, and it is decided entirely by a township line. A remote household in Lewis Center pays no local income tax at all. The same household four miles south in Powell pays $4,000. Ten years in Lewis Center instead of Columbus is $50,000, which is a kitchen.

This is the case that is quietly getting more common. Two remote salaries, or one remote plus one at an employer outside any city, and the suburb choice becomes a five-figure decision that most relocation guides do not mention because the person writing them has never filed a RITA return.

What about a split household?

The realistic version for a lot of my clients: one spouse at $120,000 inside Columbus, one at $80,000 working from home.

Live in	Tax on the Columbus job	Tax on the remote job	School district tax	Total
Lewis Center	$3,000	$0	$0	$3,000
Dublin	$3,000	$1,600	$0	$4,600
New Albany	$3,000	$1,600	$0	$4,600
Powell	$3,000	$1,600	$0	$4,600
Columbus	$3,000	$2,000	$0	$5,000
Worthington, Upper Arlington, Hilliard, Gahanna	$3,000	$2,000	$0	$5,000
Westerville	$3,000	$1,600	$1,500	$6,100

Same shape, smaller gaps. The remote income is the only piece the suburb touches.

Why is Westerville the outlier?

Because in 2026 the Westerville City School District began collecting a 0.75 percent income tax on earned income, continuing with no expiration, per the Ohio Department of Taxation's list. Earned income means wages and self-employment, not retirement or investment income. It is levied on residents of the school district, which reaches beyond the city of Westerville into parts of Columbus and Blendon Township, and it does not care where you work.

I sell in Westerville every week and I am not going to pretend the $1,500 is nothing. I am also not going to pretend it is the deciding number for a household choosing between a Westerville house and a Dublin house, because the property tax gap between two specific parcels is usually bigger than that in either direction. I broke down the school tax on its own in what Westerville's 0.75 percent actually costs. Read it, then read the property tax posts, then decide on the house. In that order.

Is Lewis Center really free?

Free of municipal income tax, yes. Free, no.

Lewis Center is unincorporated Orange Township. Townships cannot levy an income tax under Ohio law, and Olentangy Local Schools has no school district income tax. If you work from home, your local income tax is zero, full stop. If you work in Columbus, you pay Columbus 2.5 percent exactly like a Powell resident does, and the difference between the two disappears.

What Lewis Center does have is Delaware County property tax at Olentangy's rates, no city services, and the Powell-versus-Lewis Center tradeoff I wrote up in which costs less, Lewis Center or Powell. The honest summary is that the income tax advantage is real for remote households and imaginary for everyone else.

How should you actually use this?

In my experience the couples who get this right do three things.

1. Answer the workplace question first. Both in Columbus, neither, or split. That single answer decides whether the suburb matters at all for income tax.
2. Price the school district tax as a line item, not a dealbreaker. Westerville's $1,500 on $200,000 is real, it is annual, and it belongs in the carrying cost next to the property tax and the insurance. It is not a reason to skip a house you like. It is a reason to know the number.
3. Then go to property tax, where the spread is bigger. The City of New Albany publishes $2,421.88 per $100,000 of value for 2025. On a $700,000 house that is about $16,950 a year, and a comparable Delaware County parcel can run several thousand dollars less. That gap dwarfs anything in the income tax tables above, and I laid it out for Dublin and Franklin County separately.

If you are relocating in for a hospital or university job, the physician relocation guide walks the whole sequence, and the salary you need to buy here puts the income tax next to the mortgage.

Send me the three addresses you are deciding between and where each of you works, and I will send back one sheet: municipal tax, school district tax and the effective property tax on each parcel, annual and ten-year. That sheet ends the suburb argument in about four minutes, which is faster than the argument usually takes.

Selling to make the move? Start with a home value estimate so the other side of the ledger is real too. The Westerville, Dublin, New Albany, Powell and Lewis Center submarket pages have the current listings.

Thinking about a move inside Central Ohio? Let's talk. Contact Adam Geuy at Blacktree Realty, or book a call at calendly.com/adam-geuy.