Updated August 25, 2026. Quick answer (2026): Maryland is the single most common place to move when you leave the District — 16,780 people a year, more than any other state — and for a retiree it is not a tax cut. The District’s top rate of 10.75% is higher than Maryland’s 6.50%, but Maryland is the only one of the two that adds a mandatory county income tax of 2.25% to 3.30% on top, taxes a slice of capital gains twice, and levies both an estate tax and a 10% inheritance tax. Four taxes change on this move and three of them move against you.
The District of Columbia vs Maryland: every tax that changes
| What changes | the District of Columbia (leaving) | Maryland (arriving) |
|---|---|---|
| State income tax | graduated, 7 brackets from 4% to 10.75%; the top rate bites above $1,000,000 of taxable income (D.C. Code §47-1806.03(a)(11)) | graduated, 10 brackets from 2% to 6.50%, the top rate reaching taxable income above $1,000,000 (single) or $1,200,000 (joint) — and that is only the State half (Md. Code, Tax-General §10-105(a)(1)–(2)) |
| Local income tax | none. The District is a single taxing jurisdiction; there is no county or city income tax on top of the rate above (D.C. Code §47-1806.03) | mandatory, and it is not small. Every county must levy a county income tax of at least 2.25% and no more than 3.30% of Maryland taxable income, set by county ordinance or resolution (Md. Code, Tax-General §10-106(a)(1)) |
| Social Security | not taxed — Social Security and tier 1 railroad retirement are excluded from District gross income (D.C. Code §47-1803.02(a)(2)(L)) | not taxed — a payment received under Title II of the Social Security Act, or as a benefit under the Railroad Retirement Act, is subtracted from federal adjusted gross income (Md. Code, Tax-General §10-207(j)) |
| Pension / 401(k) / IRA | fully taxable, no retirement-income exclusion. The old $3,000 exclusion for District and federal pensions at 62+ applies only to tax years beginning before 1 January 2015 (D.C. Code §47-1803.02(a)(2)(N)(i)) | a retirement-income subtraction at 65+, but only for an “employee retirement system” — a plan qualified under §401(a), §403 or §457(b) of the Internal Revenue Code. The definition expressly excludes an IRA, a Roth IRA, a rollover IRA and a SEP. The amount is capped at the maximum annual Social Security benefit and reduced dollar-for-dollar by the Social Security or Railroad Retirement you actually receive (Md. Code, Tax-General §10-209(a), (b)) |
| Estate tax | yes. The 2026 zero-bracket amount is $4,988,400; the statutory ladder tops out at 16%, and because the 2026 zero bracket sits just under $5 million the first taxed dollar lands in the 11.2% band (Office of Tax and Revenue, Notice of Oct. 1, 2025 Tax Changes; D.C. Code §47-3702(a-1)) | yes — $5,000,000 for a decedent dying on or after 1 January 2019, plus any deceased spousal unused exclusion amount, so a married couple can carry the first spouse’s unused exclusion forward (Md. Code, Tax-General §7-309(b)(3)(i)6) |
| Inheritance tax | none — an inheritance-tax return is required only for deaths before 1 April 1987 (Office of Tax and Revenue, DC Estate, Inheritance and Fiduciary Tax Information) | yes — 10% of clear value, and Maryland is one of the very few jurisdictions that levies both an estate tax and an inheritance tax. It does not apply to property passing to a spouse, child, lineal descendant, parent, grandparent, brother or sister, or their spouses (Md. Code, Tax-General §7-204(b) and §7-203(b)(2)) |
| Probate fee model | a personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation for services, with no percentage schedule (D.C. Code §20-751) | a statutory commission the court may allow, capped at 9% of the first $20,000 of property subject to administration, plus $1,800 and 3.6% of the excess (Md. Code, Estates & Trusts §7-601(b)(2)) |
| Probate filing cost | not published here. The District has a single Superior Court probate division rather than county courts, so the “varies by county” answer that fits 50 states does not apply. (we could not read a current District filing-fee schedule at source this session.) | set by the register of wills on a sliding scale by estate value; we did not read a current schedule at source this session, so no figure is printed here |
| Small-estate limit | $80,000 — small-estate administration, as amended by D.C. Law 25-302 effective 21 March 2025 (previously $40,000) (D.C. Code §20-351) | $50,000, or $100,000 where the surviving spouse is the sole legatee or heir (Md. Code, Estates & Trusts §5-601(a), (c)) |
1. What changes on your annual tax bill
The headline rate comparison is the wrong comparison, and this is the corridor where that matters most. The District taxes retirement withdrawals as ordinary income: graduated, 7 brackets from 4% to 10.75%; the top rate bites above $1,000,000 of taxable income (D.C. Code §47-1806.03(a)(11)). Maryland’s State schedule tops out lower — graduated, 10 brackets from 2% to 6.50%, the top rate reaching taxable income above $1,000,000 (single) or $1,200,000 (joint) — and that is only the State half (Md. Code, Tax-General §10-105(a)(1)–(2)). But Maryland charges an income tax twice. mandatory, and it is not small. Every county must levy a county income tax of at least 2.25% and no more than 3.30% of Maryland taxable income, set by county ordinance or resolution (Md. Code, Tax-General §10-106(a)(1)). The District does not: none. The District is a single taxing jurisdiction; there is no county or city income tax on top of the rate above (D.C. Code §47-1806.03). A retiree comparing 10.75% against 6.50% is comparing a number that applies to almost nobody against half of the number that will apply to them.
The retirement break has a hole in it exactly where most retirees sit. The District gives none at all: fully taxable, no retirement-income exclusion. The old $3,000 exclusion for District and federal pensions at 62+ applies only to tax years beginning before 1 January 2015 (D.C. Code §47-1803.02(a)(2)(N)(i)). Maryland gives one, but read the definition: a retirement-income subtraction at 65+, but only for an “employee retirement system” — a plan qualified under §401(a), §403 or §457(b) of the Internal Revenue Code. The definition expressly excludes an IRA, a Roth IRA, a rollover IRA and a SEP. The amount is capped at the maximum annual Social Security benefit and reduced dollar-for-dollar by the Social Security or Railroad Retirement you actually receive (Md. Code, Tax-General §10-209(a), (b)). The statute lists what is excluded in terms: “a rollover individual retirement account” (Md. Code, Tax-General §10-209(a)(2)(iii)). If you rolled your 401(k) into an IRA when you retired — the ordinary thing to do — the money is in an account Maryland’s own definition excludes. That is a sequencing question, not a rate question, and it is decided before you move.
And there is a third income tax nobody prices. an additional 2% on net capital gain for anyone with federal adjusted gross income above $350,000. Assets inside a 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), IRA, Roth IRA or other retirement plan are carved out — and so is a primary residence, but only if it sells for less than $1,500,000 (Md. Code, Tax-General §10-105(a)(3)–(4)). The carve-out for a home is written narrowly — “any residential dwelling sold for less than $1,500,000 that is the individual’s primary residence” (Md. Code, Tax-General §10-105(a)(3)(ii)1) — which is a live problem on this particular corridor, because a District row house that clears $1.5 million is not an unusual one. Social Security is the one line that does not move: the District excludes it (D.C. Code §47-1803.02(a)(2)(L)) and so does Maryland (Md. Code, Tax-General §10-207(j)).
2. What changes at death: state estate tax
This is usually the larger number. The District: yes. The 2026 zero-bracket amount is $4,988,400; the statutory ladder tops out at 16%, and because the 2026 zero bracket sits just under $5 million the first taxed dollar lands in the 11.2% band (Office of Tax and Revenue, Notice of Oct. 1, 2025 Tax Changes; D.C. Code §47-3702(a-1)). The rate the first taxed dollar meets is set out in terms — “The rate of tax on the taxable estate over $4 million but not over $5 million shall be 11.2%” (D.C. Code §47-3702(a-1)(1)(G)). Maryland: yes — $5,000,000 for a decedent dying on or after 1 January 2019, plus any deceased spousal unused exclusion amount, so a married couple can carry the first spouse’s unused exclusion forward (Md. Code, Tax-General §7-309(b)(3)(i)6).
The one asymmetry worth planning around is portability. Maryland’s exclusion is written as $5,000,000 “plus any deceased spousal unused exclusion amount”, so a surviving spouse can carry the first death’s unused exclusion forward. We found no counterpart in the two District sections we read at source this session — the definitions (D.C. Code §47-3701) and the imposition section (§47-3702) — and we did not read the rest of the chapter, so we state that as what we read rather than as a general rule about District law.
3. What changes at death: state inheritance tax
This line moves against you, and it is the one most comparisons miss entirely. The District: none — an inheritance-tax return is required only for deaths before 1 April 1987 (Office of Tax and Revenue, DC Estate, Inheritance and Fiduciary Tax Information). Maryland: yes — 10% of clear value, and Maryland is one of the very few jurisdictions that levies both an estate tax and an inheritance tax. It does not apply to property passing to a spouse, child, lineal descendant, parent, grandparent, brother or sister, or their spouses (Md. Code, Tax-General §7-204(b) and §7-203(b)(2)).
The exemption list is what decides whether this matters to you. The statute exempts “The inheritance tax does not apply to the receipt of property that passes from a decedent to or for the use of: (i) a grandparent of the decedent; (ii) a parent of the decedent; (iii) a spouse of the decedent; (iv) a child of the decedent or a lineal descendant of a child of the decedent” (Md. Code, Tax-General §7-203(b)(2)), and extends the same treatment to siblings and to the spouses of children and descendants. Who is left is the point: a niece, a nephew, a cousin, a godchild, a friend, or an unmarried partner. A District resident who intends to leave anything to someone outside that list creates a 10% liability by moving to Maryland that did not exist before the move.
Price the move against the rest of your money
A state-to-state comparison shows you which taxes change, not what to do about the accounts, the house and the timing sitting behind them, and an adviser can look at those together before a move is set in motion.
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4. The one nobody prices: what probate costs your heirs
The District: a personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation for services, with no percentage schedule (D.C. Code §20-751). Maryland: a statutory commission the court may allow, capped at 9% of the first $20,000 of property subject to administration, plus $1,800 and 3.6% of the excess (Md. Code, Estates & Trusts §7-601(b)(2)). On what it costs to open the proceeding, the District is not published here. The District has a single Superior Court probate division rather than county courts, so the “varies by county” answer that fits 50 states does not apply. (we could not read a current District filing-fee schedule at source this session.); Maryland is set by the register of wills on a sliding scale by estate value; we did not read a current schedule at source this session, so no figure is printed here.
The small-estate route matters more than the fee schedule for most families, because clearing it avoids the proceeding altogether — and on this corridor the threshold moves down. The District: $80,000 — small-estate administration, as amended by D.C. Law 25-302 effective 21 March 2025 (previously $40,000) (D.C. Code §20-351). Maryland: $50,000, or $100,000 where the surviving spouse is the sole legatee or heir (Md. Code, Estates & Trusts §5-601(a), (c)).
Full detail: probate cost by state and small-estate limits by state.
How many people actually make this move
The Census Bureau’s 2024 one-year migration table counts 16,780 people making this move in a single year (±3,634) — the largest destination out of the District, and 31.4% of the 53,452 people the table counts leaving. The IRS, which counts tax returns rather than survey responses, records 9,213 returns carrying $936,201 thousand of adjusted gross income moving from the District to Maryland across filing years 2022 and 2023 — the largest destination on that measure, and 29.6% of the 31,175 state-to-state returns in the file.
Both counts are all ages. No official source publishes state-to-state migration crossed by age, so nothing here is a retiree count and we will not present it as one. Sources: US Census Bureau, ACS 1-year state-to-state migration flows, 2024 (Table T13); IRS Statistics of Income state-to-state outflow file, filing years 2022–2023. Both files were downloaded and re-derived for this page.
Will the District still tax me after I move to Maryland?
Not on your retirement withdrawals, once you genuinely change domicile — but that is a harder test than a change of address, and it is a harder test than usual on this corridor, because the move is a short one and the ties usually survive it.
- Domicile is a test, not a mailing address. A departing jurisdiction can and does examine residency. Days present, voter registration, driver’s licence, where your doctors and advisers are, and where you keep what you value all count — and a move inside the same metropolitan area leaves most of those unchanged unless you change them deliberately.
- Real property left behind stays taxable. Keeping a home in the District can keep part of the estate within reach of District rules even after Maryland becomes your legal home.
- A Roth conversion is taxed where you live in the year you convert. Sequencing a conversion after the new domicile is established is often worth more than the annual saving — see how all 51 jurisdictions tax Roth conversions.
If you keep a home in the District, what happens at death?
Changing domicile moves you. It does not move the house. a tax is imposed on the transfer of every nonresident’s taxable estate having its taxable situs in the District, computed by multiplying the resident tax by the District-situs fraction of the gross estate (D.C. Code §47-3703(a), (b-1)). The practical consequence is the part most summaries skip: the District applies a straight situs fraction rather than taxing the whole estate, and the house also stays within the District’s probate jurisdiction, so the estate faces a separate ancillary proceeding there on top of the probate where you live. The ancillary probate calculator prices that second proceeding. On this corridor that is not a hypothetical: keeping the District house and renting it out is one of the commonest versions of this move.
What we could not read at source, and what it would change
- The county rate for your county. We report the statutory band (2.25% to 3.30%) because that is what we read at source. The Comptroller of Maryland publishes each county’s actual rate, but marylandtaxes.gov returns no rate text to automated retrieval, only an HTTP 200 page saying the browser is not supported, so we did not read a current per-county figure this session and will not print one. Look yours up before you model the move; within that band the difference is worth roughly a percentage point of everything you withdraw.
- The register of wills fee schedule. Same reason. The commission cap in the table above is statutory and was read at source; the filing fee was not.
- Whether the District allows estate-tax portability. We read §47-3701 and §47-3702 and found no such provision; we did not read the whole of Chapter 37, so we do not assert the negative generally.
Full state detail
Every figure above is summarised. The complete statute-cited breakdown for each: District of Columbia retirement taxes and Maryland retirement taxes. The other District corridors, and what each is worth: leaving the District of Columbia in retirement. To compare any other pair, start at the retirement tax relocation hub.
Talking this through
Relocation timing, Roth conversion sequencing and estate exposure interact, and on a short move the order you do them in changes the total more than the destination does. If you want a second opinion, understand what it should cost first — see our advisor cost guide, or what to look for in an advisor who knows both jurisdictions.
Cite or share this comparison
Suggested citation: Clear Money Guide, “District of Columbia to Maryland Retirement Taxes (2026): Every Tax That Changes,” statute-cited; clearmoneyguide.com/district-of-columbia-to-maryland-retirement-taxes/. Free to cite with attribution. Download the full dataset as CSV.
Primary sources read for this page
- D.C. Code §47-1806.03(a)(11)
- Md. Code, Tax-General §10-105(a)(1)–(2)
- D.C. Code §47-1806.03
- Md. Code, Tax-General §10-106(a)(1)
- D.C. Code §47-1803.02(a)(2)(L)
- Md. Code, Tax-General §10-207(j)
- D.C. Code §47-1803.02(a)(2)(N)(i)
- Md. Code, Tax-General §10-209(a), (b)
- Office of Tax and Revenue, Notice of Oct. 1, 2025 Tax Changes; D.C. Code §47-3702(a-1)
- Md. Code, Tax-General §7-309(b)(3)(i)6
- Office of Tax and Revenue, DC Estate, Inheritance and Fiduciary Tax Information
- Md. Code, Tax-General §7-204(b) and §7-203(b)(2)
- D.C. Code §20-751
- Md. Code, Estates & Trusts §7-601(b)(2)
- D.C. Code §20-351
- Md. Code, Estates & Trusts §5-601(a), (c)
- D.C. Code §47-3702(a-1)(1)(G)
- D.C. Code §47-3703(a), (b-1)
- Md. Code, Tax-General §10-209(a)(2)(iii)
- Md. Code, Tax-General §10-105(a)(3)–(4)
- Md. Code, Tax-General §10-105(a)(3)(ii)1
- Md. Code, Tax-General §7-203(b)(2)
Methodology: every figure on this page is quoted from the statute or revenue-department publication named beside it, each of which was downloaded and read on August 25, 2026. Where we could not read a current figure at source, the page says so rather than estimating — that is why no Maryland or District probate filing fee is printed, and why no individual Maryland county rate is named. Nothing here is personalised tax or legal advice. Confirm your own facts with a qualified adviser before you move.