Policy Matters Ohio: Flat Tax Would Make Most Ohioans Pay More
ITEP Work in ActionUsing a sophisticated model of Ohio’s tax system, the national research group, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), found that with a 3.5 percent flat tax, 72 percent of Ohioans would pay more state income tax, while just 4 percent would pay less. The remaining 24 percent would pay the same amount as they do now. Results are similar with a flat tax rate of 3.75 percent: 74 percent would pay more. Ohio, like most states, has a progressive income tax, under which rates increase on new income as income rises. Rates rise gradually to just under 5 percent on income greater than $210,600 a year. At a 3.5 percent flat tax the top 1 percent of earners, with incomes greater than $397,000 a year, would get tax cuts averaging more than $4,000 per year.