Every cent counts for retirees, and for that reason, state taxes are about as welcome as a bear in a beehive. Although you shouldn’t basewhere you retireon taxes alone, they are an important consideration, especially if you’regoing to live in a new statewhen you retire.
States get tax revenue from a number of sources. Some states, such as Alaska, South Dakota and Wyoming, sit on enough natural resources that their mineral rights sales enable them to keep most taxes extraordinarily low and skip income taxes altogether. Oil-rich Alaska, for example, has no taxes on income, estates or retirement benefits. In fact, residents get an annual payment from the state for their share of those oil riches. In 2023 that was $1,312 per citizen.
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No income tax
The federal government considers distributions from pensions, 401(k)s and traditional individual retirement accounts (IRAs) as income — the same as it does the income you get from work. Eight states have no income tax whatsoever: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. That means retirement income, includingSocial Security retirement benefits, remains untouched by the state taxman.
A ninth state, New Hampshire, also has no income tax, so it doesn’t taxretirement distributions. New Hampshire does, however, tax interest and dividends, although that will be phased out by 2025.
Four other states have income taxes but give retirees a break on pensions and retirement plan distributions.
- Illinois, which has a 4.95 percent flat income tax, won’t tax distributions from most pensions and 401(k) plans, or from IRAs and Social Security payouts. Earnings from investments are taxable, however.
- Mississippi has a maximum state tax of 5 percent. It doesn’t tax retirement distributions or Social Security benefits.
- Pennsylvania has a 3.07 percent flat tax and doesn’t tax retirement plans or Social Security benefits.
- Iowa, which has a maximum 5.7 percent income tax, doesn’t tax retirement plans or Social Security payouts for people 55 and older.
What about everyone else? Most states carve out some exemptions for retirement income. For example, in addition to the nine states with no income tax, 29 states don’ttaxmilitary retirement pay: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin. In Virginia, you won’t pay taxes on any of your military retirement pay — provided you’ve won the Congressional Medal of Honor.
