Your Retirement Tax in Every State (2026)
The best state to retire in for taxes depends on where your income comes from. Enter your household once and see your 2026 state income tax in all 50 states and DC, ranked from lowest to highest, beside the state you live in now, with the difference per year.
Our state tax studies and the no-income-tax list price fixed example households. This calculator prices yours: your Social Security, pension, IRA withdrawals, wages and investment income.
Your household in 2026
Your 2026 state income tax in all 50 states + DC
Turn on JavaScript to rank the states on your numbers.
| # | State | 2026 tax | vs. your state, per year |
|---|
State income tax for a full-year resident in 2026, computed by the state tax engine. Each state links to its retirement tax page.
What these figures include, and what they leave out
- Included: each state’s 2026 income tax on your household as a full-year resident: its exemptions for Social Security, pensions, military retirement pay and IRA money, its age-based subtractions, its deductions, exemptions, brackets and credits, computed by QuantCalc’s state tax engine from each state’s own rules (how the engine works, with every source). Each state gets the federal figures of your own federal return, which is the same in every state.
- The Indiana and Maryland figures include the county income tax at the engine’s default county rate (Indiana 1.75%, Maryland 3.12%); other local income taxes (city and school-district taxes, and county taxes in other states) are not included.
- Not included: property, sales and estate taxes; itemized deductions (each return takes the standard deduction); Roth conversions; dependents, blindness and disability; for military retirement pay, North Carolina’s years-of-service test, New Jersey’s veteran exemption beyond your own retired pay, and survivor benefit annuities; and the tax in the year you move, when two states can tax part of the year (compare the state you leave with the one you move to; what the state you leave still taxes).
An estimate from QuantCalc’s open tax engine (federal and state engines for 2026) for the 2026 tax year. Not tax advice: your return depends on facts this page does not ask about, so check a move with your tax preparer before acting.
Common questions
- What is the best state to retire in for taxes?
- It depends on where your income comes from. Nine states have no income tax at all, but several states with an income tax charge many retirees nothing, because they exempt Social Security and some or all pension and IRA income. Others tax a pension and leave investment income alone, or the reverse. The same state can rank near the top for one household and near the bottom for another, which is why this calculator ranks the states on your own numbers.
- How is this different from the state tax rankings and studies?
- Rankings and studies, including ours, price fixed example households, such as a couple with $100,000 of retirement income. This calculator prices your household: your Social Security, pension, IRA and 401(k) withdrawals, wages, interest, dividends and capital gains, your ages and your filing status, in every state.
- Which taxes are included?
- Each state’s 2026 income tax for a full-year resident, computed by QuantCalc’s state tax engine from the state’s own rules, using the federal figures of the same household’s federal return. The Indiana and Maryland figures include the county income tax at the engine’s default county rate (Indiana 1.75%, Maryland 3.12%); other local income taxes (city and school-district taxes, and county taxes in other states) are not included. Property, sales and estate taxes are not included.
- Does the federal tax change if I move?
- No. The federal income tax on the same income is the same in every state, so the difference between two states is the difference in state income tax. The calculator shows the federal tax once, beside the ranking.