QuantCalcState Tax

Retirement Tax by State 2026

All 50 states plus DC, grouped by retiree friendliness. Top marginal rate, Social Security treatment, 401(k) / IRA / Roth treatment, estate tax — and a state-specific Roth-conversion + ACA cliff worked example for each.

How to use this

Pick your state. Each page covers the 2026 brackets, whether the state taxes Social Security and traditional retirement distributions, whether there's a state estate tax, and a fully-worked $30,000 Roth conversion example showing the federal + state + ACA cliff stack-up.

For an all-states-at-once comparison, see the single-page state tax calculator. For the underlying methodology, see our methodology page.

Tax-free No state income tax
Friendly Meaningful retirement-income exemptions
Moderate Middle of the road
High-tax Meaningful drag on traditional withdrawals + Roth conversions

What changes from state to state

Three variables move per-state in retirement tax planning: the marginal income tax rate on Roth conversions and traditional withdrawals; whether Social Security and qualified-pension income are exempted (and at what income threshold); and whether the state imposes its own estate or inheritance tax independently of the federal exemption.

What does not change is the federal ACA premium-tax-credit cliff at 400% FPL — that's a federal threshold and applies identically in all states. What does change is how big the cost of crossing the cliff is in your specific state, because state tax stacks on top of federal tax and the subsidy clawback.