Ohio Tax Explainer
Who taxes you in Ohio, what they charge, and where the money goes — in five maps and charts.
State and local taxes collected each year ($33B state, $39B local)
Real property tax, the single largest tax (about $1,915 per resident)
Share of property tax that goes to school districts
Governments that tax a typical Ohio address
Property tax collected by the State of Ohio (it charges none)
88 counties · 900+ cities and villages · about 1,300 townships · 600+ school districts. Source: Ohio Department of Taxation Tax Data Series; U.S. Census / ACS.
Every Ohio address is taxed by several governments at once: the state, a county, a city or township, a school district, and a few special districts. That's why an Ohio tax bill is hard to read.
This page collects the maps and key numbers behind our newsletter series, Ohio's Taxes, Explained. Everything is built from public Ohio Department of Taxation data. We'll add to it as the series continues.
1 · Who taxes you?
Hover anywhere in Ohio to see every government that can tax that spot. You'll usually see a city or a township, not both — cities cover incorporated land, townships the rest. The map shows the main governments only; libraries, parks, transit, and other special districts also tax the same address but aren't drawn.
Every Ohio address sits under a stack of taxing governments. No single tax is the problem — it's the stack. Read the full piece: Who taxes you in Ohio? →
2 · What kinds of taxes?
Those governments choose from a short menu. The state relies on a 5.75% sales tax (counties add to it) and a nearly flat 2.75% income tax on income above about $26,000, plus a small 0.26% tax on business receipts. Local governments rely on the property tax — at $22.6 billion a year, the largest tax Ohioans pay. Read the full piece: What kinds of taxes do we pay in Ohio? →
3 · Who can charge which tax?
Ohio law gives each type of government a different slice of that menu:
A note on rates. Property-tax rates are quoted in mills — dollars per $1,000 of assessed value, which in Ohio is 35% of market value. One mill works out to about $35 a year per $100,000 of home value. The effective rate is what a homeowner actually pays after state reduction factors (HB 920) trim the voted rate. That's the number on the map below, and the one to compare across places.
3b · Map: tax rates by government
Four layers — counties, cities and villages, school districts, townships — each shaded by the tax rate it charges. Hover or tap any shape for its name and rates.
Two patterns stand out. Most local governments can charge only the property tax; income and sales taxes are limited to a few. And rates vary a lot from place to place — on the school-district layer, 366 of the 606 districts we can match sit at the state's 20-mill minimum for homes (the red outlines). Read the full piece: What can each Ohio government actually tax? →
4 · How much, and who gets it?
Ohio's state and local governments collect about $72 billion a year in taxes — roughly $33 billion by the state and $39 billion locally, or about $6,100 per resident. Local governments collect more than the state does, and they collect it differently: three-quarters of the state's total is sales and income tax, while 58% of local tax revenue is property tax. Follow a property-tax dollar and about 67 cents goes to a school district, 2 to a vocational school district, 15 to the county, 7 to a township, 5 to special districts like libraries and parks, and 4 to a city or village. Read the full piece: Who collects Ohio's $72 billion in taxes? →
4b · Map: where each tax is collected
County totals for the three biggest local taxes, with a per-resident toggle. Switch layers and different counties light up: shopping centers for sales tax, job centers for city income tax, and a third pattern for property tax. Keep in mind that where a tax is collected isn't where it's paid — sales tax is collected where you shop and city income tax where you work, not where you live.
Two things to know before adding up the counties. The property layer is real property only ($22.6B); it leaves out the separate $2.6B tax on utility equipment. The sales layer is the county share only ($3.0B); Ohio's eleven regional transit authorities collect about $1.0B more, but their districts cross county lines, so they can't be assigned to one county. The map says both on screen.
5 · What it buys
Ohio's local governments spent about $68.6 billion in 2022. That's a different total from the $39 billion in local taxes above, because spending also draws on state and federal aid, fees, and charges. Education is 43% of it — $29.6 billion, almost all in school districts, and more than the next five services combined. After administration (a catch-all, 12%), the largest single services are police and utilities at about 5.5% each. Viewed by government instead of by service, school districts account for 42% of all local spending, well ahead of cities and villages (24%).
5b · Chart: where each dollar goes
Toggle between spending by government (see how completely education dominates the school-district bar) and spending by service (see which government does each job). Hover any segment for the dollar amount and share.
This is spending, not tax collections — a different Census survey, a different year (2022), and a wider funding base than taxes alone. Don't add it to the $72 billion above. Read the full piece: What do Ohio taxes buy? →
Sources & notes
- Tax totals: Ohio Department of Taxation Tax Data Series. Boundaries: U.S. Census TIGER (counties, school districts) and Ohio ODOT/OGRIP (cities, townships).
- The map names general-purpose governments only; special districts (library, parks, transit, etc.) also levy taxes and are not shown.
- Income tax follows where you work, not only where you live, so it isn't fully captured by a residence map.
- Authority-map vintages: property rates TY2025 (incl. the Class I 20-mill Floor Rate column); school-district income-tax rate FY2026 (SD-2, Q4); municipal income-tax rate CY2024 (LG-11). The map shows rates only, not collections; ODT does not publish a per-county permissive sales-tax rate table (Table S-1 reports dollars collected, not the rate), so the county layer is shaded by county property rate instead, and the map says so.
- County-collections map vintages: real property taxes charged TY2025 (PD-23, Class I + Class II, net of HB 920 reduction factors); county permissive sales/use CY2025 (S-1); municipal income CY2024 (LG-11); population ACS 2020–24. The property layer excludes the public-utility tangible personal property tax ($2.6B), and the sales layer excludes the regional transit authorities ($1.0B), which levy across county lines.
- Collections totals are statewide sums across all local governments in a county, not any one government's take, and the three taxes have different bases — do not compare the layers directly.
- Spending chart: U.S. Census Bureau Survey of State & Local Government Finances, 2022 (Government Finance Database). Covers Ohio's local governments (counties, municipalities, townships, school districts, special districts) only — state direct spending is excluded. Spending is funded from all revenue sources (taxes, fees, and state and federal aid), not taxes alone, and 2022 is a different vintage than the tax figures elsewhere on this page — do not add this total to the $72B collections figure above.
Last updated: August 25, 2026