Retirement Tax by State: All 50 States and DC, Side by Side
Enter one set of retirement income and see what every state would charge on it: the nine with no income tax, the eight that still tax Social Security, and the thirty-four in between, each with its own idea of what a pension exclusion is. The table ranks all fifty-one, and the section below it shows every line of every state's arithmetic, with the figure and the instruction page it came from. Federal tax is the same in every row and is shown once.
Two companion pages go deeper: the eight states that tax Social Security, rule by rule, and how much of your Social Security is taxable federally, worked through the IRS worksheet.
Your numbers
Result
- Your state
- Other states
Federal income tax is the same in every state and is not in the bars. Pick a different state in the form to move the highlight. Figures to the cent are in the ranked table below.
All 51, ranked
Sorted by . Ties share a rank.
| Rank | State | State taxable income | State tax | Rate on total income | Left after federal + state | Note |
|---|
How each state gets there
Your state is opened first. Every line is a step from that state's own form instructions.
What the tool assumes
- Income is as entered: Social Security at the gross amount, pension and IRA at the taxable amount, other income as ordinary income. Nothing is added or subtracted that you did not enter.
- Standard deduction only, no dependents, no itemizing. Credits are included only where a state builds them into the ordinary computation for a retiree (a personal or exemption credit, a retirement-income credit, an age credit); credits that depend on property tax paid, rent, or income far below the examples here are left out and named in the state's notes.
- Pension income is treated as a private-employer pension. Federal, state, local government and military pensions are fully or partly exempt in many states; that treatment is not applied.
- IRA and 401(k) withdrawals are treated as taken after age 59½ (no early-distribution penalty) and, where a state asks, as distributions from a plan you have retired from.
- The federal $6,000 senior deduction (tax years 2025-2028) is applied at 65 and older and phased out at 6% of modified AGI over $75,000 (single) or $150,000 (joint). States that start from federal taxable income inherit it unless the state has said otherwise.
- On a joint return both spouses are the age you enter, both receive the aged add-ons, and per-person caps are doubled.
- Where a state had not published its 2026 figures when we checked, the 2025 figures are carried forward and the row is marked. Rate cuts already enacted for 2026 are applied. The federal 2026 figures are final.
- Local income taxes (Maryland counties, Indiana counties, New York City, and others), property tax, sales tax, and estate or inheritance tax are not included. A state that is cheap on this table may not be cheap overall.
Every state's rule for a retiree, in a sentence or two
Parameters used, with sources
The figures below are what the tool actually uses. They are loaded from the same files the calculation reads, so the page cannot show one thing and compute another. Status final means the state has published the year's figures; carried means the previous year's figures are used until the state publishes; partial means some figures for the year are published and the rest are carried. The eight states that tax Social Security use the parameter file of the eight-state tool, so the two pages cannot drift apart.
Test cases
Every combination below was computed independently by a reference implementation and by this page's code; the two must agree to the cent before the page is published. You can rerun that comparison in your browser right now.
Sources
Corrections
If a rule or a figure is wrong, tell us. We fix it, update the checked date, and note the change here.
- , Vermont's partial exclusion. Between $55,000 and $65,000 of AGI (single; $70,000 and $80,000 joint), Vermont's worksheet rounds the share of benefits it excludes to two decimal places. The tool had used the unrounded share. It now rounds the same way, which moves Vermont's tax by a few dollars at most. One new test case checks it.
- , New Mexico and Rhode Island limits. New Mexico's Social Security exemption applies when federal AGI is $100,000 or less (single) or $150,000 or less (joint): the law sets those amounts as a maximum, and the tool had treated AGI exactly at the limit as over it. Rhode Island's Social Security and pension modifications require federal AGI below $107,000 (single) or $133,500 (joint): the law requires less than those amounts, and the tool had allowed AGI exactly at the limit. Only an income exactly at a limit changes. Two new test cases sit on those limits. The sources are listed on the eight-state tool.
- , 2026 figures. We re-checked every state whose 2026 figures had been carried from 2025. Montana: the tool had used the 2025 rate table for 2026, but House Bill 337 (2025) widens the 4.7% bracket to $47,500 single / $95,000 joint and lowers the top rate from 5.9% to 5.65%, so Montana's 2026 tax fell by $34 to $763 in 8 of our 13 test cases for 2026. Utah: 4.45% for 2026, and the Social Security credit uses the same rate; Utah's tax fell by $12 to $101 in 11 of 13. Louisiana's 2026 standard deduction is $12,875 / $25,750 (tax down $11.25 to $22.50 in 11 of 13). Arizona's follows the federal basic amount, $16,100 / $32,200 (down $8.75 to $17.50 in 11 of 13). Oregon's 2026 standard deduction is $2,910 / $5,820 and its exemption credit $263, replacing the October 2025 estimates (down $0.88 to $7.75 in 12 of 13). Michigan's 2026 retirement subtraction cap is $67,610 / $135,220 (down $72.80 in 1 of 13), and for 2026 through 2028 the Michigan Standard Deduction of people born after 1952 is no longer reduced by Social Security; we added a test case for that rule, where Michigan's tax fell by $386.75. Maine's exemption starts to phase out at $341,000 / $409,150 for 2026. Ohio's exemptions and joint filing credit end at $500,000 of income from 2026 instead of $750,000. Arkansas's 2026 table above $94,700 starts at $369.90, not the $289.90 the tool had derived, which had overstated Arkansas's 2026 tax by up to $80 between $94,700 and $97,600 of taxable income. Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Michigan and Oregon are now final for 2026. Still not published: Montana's 2026 subtraction at 65 (due by November 1), Utah's credit phase-out amounts, Idaho's zero bracket, Louisiana's retirement exemption, Maryland's pension exclusion, Maine's pension deduction phase-out, Ohio's indexed amounts, Rhode Island's thresholds, and California's and Vermont's rate schedules.
- , Ohio. Ohio's statute writes each line of its rate schedule with a fixed dollar amount: $342.00 plus 2.75% of the amount over $26,050 for 2025 ($2,394.32 plus 3.125% of the amount over $100,000), and $332.00 plus 2.75% of the amount over $26,050 from 2026. The tool had applied the rates without those amounts, so for anyone with Ohio taxable income over $26,050 it showed Ohio's tax, before credits, $342 too low for 2025 ($360.69 above $100,000) and $332 too low for 2026. It also tested the credits against Ohio AGI instead of income less exemptions, took the joint filing credit before the exemption credit, and dropped the joint filing credit above $100,000 of income, where Ohio allows it up to $750,000. All four are fixed. In our 24 test cases Ohio's tax rose by $136 to $342 in 18 of them. Ohio's 2025 figures are now final.
- , South Carolina, 2026. Act 110 of 2026 reduces the new South Carolina deduction ($15,000 single, $30,000 joint) once federal AGI passes $40,000 ($80,000 joint) and removes it at $95,000 ($190,000). The tool had allowed the full deduction at every income, which understated South Carolina's 2026 tax by up to $781.50 single and $1,563 joint. In our test cases it rose by $121 to $1,563 in 7 of 24. We also confirmed that the act leaves the retirement and age-65 deductions in place. South Carolina's 2026 figures are now final.
This tool shows what published tax rules do to the numbers you enter. It is not tax, legal or financial advice, and it does not know your situation. For a decision that matters, take the numbers to a professional who is licensed to advise you.