Estimates only — this is not tax advice. Consult a CPA or enrolled agent before acting on these figures. The calculator does not model the alternative minimum tax, wash sales, like-kind exchanges, QSBS, installment sales, or state additions and subtractions. See what is out of scope.
Show your work — 0 steps, each with its rule and citation
How Ohio taxes a capital gain
Statutory authority: Ohio Rev. Code § 5747.02
Ohio moves to a single rate in 2026
Ohio has spent several years collapsing its income tax brackets, and 2026 is the year the process finishes. Ohio Revised Code 5747.02 provides that for taxable years beginning in 2026 and thereafter there is a single rate of 2.75%, expressed in the statute as "$332.00 plus 2.75% of the amount in excess of $26,050".
For 2025 there were still two brackets, with income above $100,000 taxed at a higher rate. If you are comparing this year against last, or reading a table published before the change, that difference is real and not a transcription error.
Capital gains get no special treatment
Ohio taxes capital gains as ordinary income. There is no preferential long-term rate and no exclusion, so a gain is taxed at the same 2.75% as a paycheque once you are above the floor.
At 2.75%, Ohio is one of the cheaper states in which to realise a large gain among those that tax income at all. The marginal rate does not rise with the size of the sale, so there is no state-level benefit to spreading a disposal across tax years.
The floor is indexed every August
The $26,050 figure below which the rate does not bite is adjusted annually. The statute directs the tax commissioner, in August of each year, to recompute the income amounts using the gross domestic product deflator, rounding to the nearest fifty dollars.
That means the floor this calculator uses will move for 2026, and the figure here is the most recently published one rather than a confirmed 2026 amount. For anyone with a substantial gain the effect is negligible — the floor is small relative to the sale — but it is the kind of detail worth stating rather than glossing.
Municipal income taxes are a separate question
Ohio has one of the most extensive municipal income tax systems in the country, with hundreds of cities and villages levying their own tax. Most municipal taxes reach earned income and business net profits rather than investment gains, but the rules are set locally and vary.
This calculator computes the state layer only and flags the municipal question rather than silently ignoring it. If you live in a taxing municipality, confirm its treatment of capital gains before treating the figure here as your total Ohio bill.
Why 2026 is a genuine break from previous years
If you are comparing an Ohio figure against a previous return, or against a rate table published before the change, expect a real difference rather than a rounding one. For 2025 Ohio still operated two brackets, with income above $100,000 taxed at a higher rate than income below it. From 2026 that upper bracket is gone and a single 2.75% applies throughout.
For a large capital gain the effect is straightforwardly favourable: a sale that would previously have pushed a taxpayer into the upper band now attracts the same 2.75% as the first dollar above the floor. It also removes the one state-level reason an Ohio resident had to spread a disposal across tax years. Any remaining case for splitting a sale is federal — the 0/15/20% ceilings and the net investment income tax threshold — and those are unaffected by where you live.
A worked Ohio example
Every figure below is computed by the same engine that powers the calculator above, at the moment this page was built — not typed in by hand. When the tax-year data is updated, this example updates with it.
A $200,000 gain at Ohio's new single rate
A single Ohio resident earning $120,000 realises a $200,000 long-term gain in 2026, the first year of the single-rate structure.
- Taxable income after deduction
- $303,900
- Taxable gain
- $200,000
- Tax owed without the sale
- $17,570
- Tax the sale added
- $34,560
- of which net investment income tax
- $4,560
- Total federal tax
- $52,130
- Ohio state tax
- $5,500
- Effective rate on the gain
- 17.28%
At 2.75% the Ohio bill is modest next to the federal one — this is a case where almost all the tax, and all the planning leverage, is federal.
Caveats on this example (2)
- Net investment income was derived from capital gains and qualified dividends only. Interest, non-qualified dividends, rents, royalties and passive business income inside ordinaryIncome are also net investment income under IRC 1411(c) and are not counted here.
- Ohio: local income taxes are not modelled and apply on top of the state figure. Ohio municipalities levy SEPARATE local income taxes. Most do not reach capital gains, but this varies by municipality and is not modelled.
Show the working — 13 steps, each with its citation
- Net short-term capital gain or loss for the year$0
Assets held one year or less. Taxed at ordinary rates if a net gain.
- Net long-term capital gain or loss for the year$200,000
Assets held more than one year. Eligible for the 0/15/20% rates.
- Standard deduction-$16,100
Adjusted gross income of $320,000 less $16,100.
- Taxable income$303,900
The figure the rate tables and the capital gain ceilings are both measured against.
- Ordinary income taxed at 10%$1,240
$12,400 of taxable income between $0 and $12,400.
- Ordinary income taxed at 12%$4,560
$38,000 of taxable income between $12,400 and $50,400.
- Ordinary income taxed at 22%$11,770
$53,500 of taxable income between $50,400 and $103,900.
- Ordinary income stacked below the long-term gain$103,900
Long-term gain is taxed by reference to where it sits ON TOP of $103,900 of other taxable income, not from the bottom of the rate table.
- Long-term gain taxed at 15%$30,000
Gain between the $49,450 zero-rate ceiling and the $545,500 15% ceiling.
- Net investment income tax threshold$200,000
Modified AGI of $320,000 against the $200,000 threshold for a single filer. This threshold is statutory and is not adjusted for inflation.
- Net investment income tax at 3.8%$4,560
3.8% of $120,000, the lesser of net investment income ($200,000) and the amount by which modified AGI exceeds the threshold ($120,000). Here the binding figure is the excess of modified AGI over the threshold.
- Ohio income tax at 2.75%$5,500
CONFLICT RESOLVED: Ohio Rev. Code 5747.02 provides that for taxable years beginning in 2026 and thereafter there is a SINGLE rate of 2.75%, applying above a $26,050 floor with a $332 base. So Ohio does move to one rate in 2026 - the other source's flat-tax list simply omitted it. Capital gains are taxed as ordinary income. The floor is inflation-indexed annually in August.
- Total tax$57,630
$57,630 on $320,000 of total income, an effective rate of 18.01%.
What this calculator does not cover for Ohio
The Ohio figure stacks your gain on your federal ordinary taxable income. Ohio computes its own taxable income with its own additions and subtractions, which are not modelled here — so treat the state number as a close approximation for a straightforward wage-and-sale situation, and as a rough one if your return carries significant state adjustments.
Full-year residency is assumed throughout. Part-year residents, non-residents, and gains sourced to property in another state all turn on rules this calculator does not model. The complete list of what is in and out of scope is on the methodology page.
Other states
- IllinoisFlat 4.95% on everything. No preferential rate, no exclusion.
- PennsylvaniaFlat 3.07%, no holding-period distinction, and unusual loss rules.
- New JerseyOrdinary income to 10.75%. Fixed thresholds, and no loss carryforward.
See the full 2026 capital gains guide for the federal rules that apply wherever you live — the rate ladder, the net investment income tax, the home-sale exclusion and depreciation recapture — plus every state we currently cover.