Updated July 30, 2026. Quick answer: In 2026, 9 states levy no broad income tax, only a handful still tax any Social Security, 13 jurisdictions levy their own estate tax, and the federal estate exclusion is $15 million per person. Below, the state-tax numbers writers ask for most, formatted for citation. Every figure below comes from Clear Money Guide’s statute-cited tables — retirement taxes by state, estate tax by state and inheritance tax by state — where each statute is linked. Free to cite with attribution (how to cite).
State income tax in retirement
- 9 states levy no broad individual income tax at all: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming.
- Most states with an income tax now fully exempt Social Security benefits. Only a handful still tax any portion — Colorado, Minnesota, Montana and Utah among them — generally only above income or age thresholds.
- 3 states — Illinois, Mississippi and Pennsylvania — fully exempt pension, 401(k) and IRA withdrawals from state income tax, while other states tax them with no retiree break at all.
Estate and inheritance taxes
- 13 jurisdictions levy their own estate tax in 2026, with exemptions as low as $1 million (Oregon).
- 5 states levy an inheritance tax; Maryland levies both; 34 states levy neither.
- $15 million per person / $30 million per married couple — the federal estate and gift tax exclusion for 2026. The scheduled TCJA sunset did not occur; the roughly $7 million figure older articles still cite is out of date.
To test two states against a specific retiree’s numbers: the retirement tax comparison tool and best states to retire for taxes.
Cite this data
Free to cite with attribution and a link. Suggested citation: “Retirement Tax Statistics,” Clear Money Guide, 2026, clearmoneyguide.com/retirement-tax-statistics/.
State-level detail with statute citations sits on the linked tables above; single-state deep dives are indexed on the data page. Questions about the data: [email protected].
License: the datasets and tables published on this page are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). You may copy, republish, and adapt them — including commercially — with attribution to Clear Money Guide and a link to clearmoneyguide.com. Statutes and primary-source citations remain public domain; the compilation, verification, and presentation are ours.