Is there a city income tax in Houghton or Hancock?

Good news for anyone moving to the Copper Country: there’s no city income tax in Houghton County. Michigan does let cities charge a local income tax — about two dozen of them do, including Detroit, Grand Rapids, and Saginaw — but neither of Houghton County’s two cities does. Not Houghton, the county seat and home of Michigan Tech; not Hancock, its twin across the Portage. And no community anywhere in the Upper Peninsula charges one.

Houghton is a city, so it could in theory adopt one someday, but it never has. The nearest town that charges a local income tax is Grayling, clear across the state and well over a hundred miles away in the Lower Peninsula. So as a Houghton County resident, the income taxes you’ll pay are the federal and the state — Michigan’s flat state income tax — and that’s it. Your local taxes here come through your property tax bill, not your paycheck.