On the ordinary retirement profile — $34,000 of Social Security and $61,000 of plan distributions — California takes $1,853 a year in state income tax.
That is the number people compare, and it is the smallest of three. Property tax adds about $6,332 on the state's $904,640 median home, and insurance another $1,335. The three together come to $9,520, placing California 36th of 50.
A note before you start. This is general education, not tax advice. Every California figure comes from this site's own fifty-state income-tax dataset and its retirement tax engine, computed for a single filer aged 70 unless stated otherwise; property tax, median home price and insurance figures come from the site's core state dataset. Rates are for tax year 2025. Property tax is assessed locally in most states, so the effective rate here is a statewide figure rather than your county's.
1. What California takes from retirement income
| Income stream | California tax |
|---|---|
| Social Security | $0 on $40,000 |
| 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), traditional IRA | $1,853 on the typical profile |
| Private employer pension | $1,193 on $50,000 |
| Public and federal government pension | $1,193 on $50,000 |
| Military retired pay | $375 on $50,000 |
On Social Security. Fully exempt, with no income threshold and no age condition. The 2025 Instructions for Schedule CA (540) state that California excludes U.S. Social Security benefits and equivalent Tier 1 railroad retirement benefits from taxable income; the federally taxable portion is entered as a subtraction. FTB Publication 1005 adds that Tier 2 railroad retirement benefits reported on federal Form RRB-1099-R are also untaxed. Two narrow exceptions worth stating: Foreign social security IS taxable by California as annuity income, and retirement benefits paid by an individual railroad rather than the Railroad Retirement Board are taxable.
On 401(k) and IRA distributions. Fully taxed as ordinary income at the regular 1%-12.3% schedule. There is no age-based exclusion, no dollar exclusion, and no income threshold — California is one of the least generous states in the country on 401(k), 403(b), and traditional IRA withdrawals. The 2025 Schedule CA (540) instructions say plainly that generally no adjustment is made on the IRA-distribution and pension lines, so the federally taxable amount flows straight through. Separate early-withdrawal penalty, and it is on top of the federal one: California imposes its own additional tax of 2.5% on the taxable part of a distribution taken before age 59 1/2 (form FTB 3805P, Part I, line 4), which is stacked on the federal 10% penalty. For a distribution from a simple IRA within the first two years, the California rate is 6% rather than 2.5%.
2. The rule that decides your California bill
Private and public pensions are both fully taxed, and California draws no distinction between them — CalPERS, CalSTRS, federal civil service, and out-of-state government pensions are all taxed exactly as a private pension is. FTB Publication 1005 states that California residents are taxed on all income including income from sources outside California, so a pension attributable to services performed elsewhere but received after becoming a California resident is taxable in its entirety. Military retirement — the premise changed in 2025, and most published lists are now wrong. California was for decades the notable state that fully taxed military retirement pay. It no longer does so without qualification. SB 132 (Stats. 2025, Ch.
California exempts Social Security in full but taxes essentially every other form of retirement income at its ordinary rates, which are the highest state rates in the country at the top end.
The one break for retirees that does exist is the new and time-limited $20,000 military retirement exclusion for tax years 2025 through 2029, and it is AGI-gated.
3. What California charges at three income levels
The same state, three retirements. All figures are for a single filer aged 70.
| Profile | Income | California tax | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Modest | $24,000 Social Security + $31,000 distributions | $395 | 0.7% |
| Typical | $34,000 Social Security + $61,000 distributions | $1,853 | 1.9% |
| Affluent | $40,000 + $100,000 + $40,000 other | $8,928 | 5% |
The marginal rate at the typical profile is 6%. That is what an extra dollar of distribution costs — a larger number than the 1.9% effective rate, and the one that matters when deciding how much to withdraw.
A married couple with $48,000 of Social Security and $62,000 of distributions pays $790.
Run your own income against California and every other state4. Property tax, and why it lands harder in retirement
An effective rate of 0.7% on the state's $904,640 median home is about $6,332 a year.
For a retiree this is a harder cost than income tax, and the reason is structural: property tax is levied on the house, while retirement income falls. A bill sized to a working income arrives every year after the income has gone.
It is also assessed locally almost everywhere, so a statewide effective rate conceals real variation between counties. Treat the figure above as the state's shape rather than as your bill.
California does have a homestead provision, and it is the one lever on this line worth understanding.
California's homestead exemption (Code of Civil Procedure §704.730, as amended by AB 1885) protects home equity from most creditors' judgments — it is a debtor/creditor-protection exemption, not a property-tax exemption. The exemption is the greater of $300,000 or the county's median single-family home sale price for the prior calendar year, capped at $600,000, and both the floor and ceiling are adjusted annually for inflation (for 2026, roughly $371,841-$743,681 depending on county, per multiple bankruptcy-law trackers). Separately, California also has a small annual property-tax Homeowners' Exemption (a flat $7,000 reduction in assessed value, worth roughly $70-$80/year in actual tax savings) — a different, much smaller benefit that predates AB 1885 and is unrelated to the equity-protection homestead exemption described above.
Two things about homestead rules catch people out after a move. They almost always require the property to be your primary residence, which a snowbird splitting the year has to be able to demonstrate. And several states require an application to the county rather than granting it automatically — a benefit you qualify for and never claimed is worth nothing.
5. Insurance, the line nobody prices
Average home insurance in California: $1,335 a year — 3rd cheapest of the fifty states.
This is the line almost no retirement comparison includes, and across the country it varies more than income tax does: from Hawaii's $900 to Florida's $8,375, a ninefold spread.
For a retiree it behaves like a second property tax. It rises independently of income, a fixed-income household absorbs the whole increase, and it is a condition of the mortgage if you still have one.
6. What retiring in California actually costs
Income tax on the typical retirement profile, plus property tax and insurance on each state's own median home. California is shown against its own neighbours in the ranking, and against the extremes.
| State | Income tax | Property tax | Insurance | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wyoming | $0 | $2,083 | $1,900 | $3,983 |
| Nevada | $0 | $2,489 | $2,025 | $4,514 |
| Colorado | $2,416 | $2,871 | $3,312 | $8,599 |
| Utah | $4,228 | $2,672 | $1,810 | $8,710 |
| Rhode Island | $0 | $6,247 | $2,650 | $8,897 |
| California | $1,853 | $6,332 | $1,335 | $9,520 |
| Texas | $0 | $4,830 | $4,915 | $9,745 |
| New York | $1,617 | $6,960 | $1,710 | $10,287 |
| New Hampshire | $0 | $8,498 | $1,880 | $10,378 |
| Minnesota | $4,937 | $3,750 | $3,615 | $12,302 |
| Connecticut | $4,475 | $8,779 | $2,690 | $15,944 |
California comes to $9,520, 36th of 50.
Income tax is 19% of that total. It is the line every comparison leads with and, here, not the largest of the three.
One large caveat, and it matters. Each row uses that state's own median home, and those differ a great deal. So this compares the typical house in each state, not the same house in each state — buying below a state's median improves its figure materially.
7. No special treatment, and what that simplifies
California gives retirement income no special treatment. Distributions are taxed as ordinary income at the ordinary schedule, with no age trigger, no source distinction and no phase-out to plan around. Fully taxed as ordinary income at the regular 1%-12.3% schedule. There is no age-based exclusion, no dollar exclusion, and no income threshold — California is one of the least generous states in the country on 401(k), 403(b), and traditional IRA withdrawals. The 2025 Schedule CA (540) instructions say plainly that generally no adjustment is made on the IRA-distribution and pension lines, so the federally taxable amount flows straight through. Separate early-withdrawal penalty, and it is on top of the federal one: California imposes its own additional tax of 2.5% on the taxable part of a distribution taken before age 59 1/2 (form FTB 3805P, Part I, line 4), which is stacked on the federal 10% penalty. For a distribution from a simple IRA within the first two years, the California rate is 6% rather than 2.5%. That simplicity cuts both ways. There is nothing to lose by withdrawing more in one year than another, and nothing to gain by waiting — which makes California an unusually clean state to plan a withdrawal order in, even though it is not a generous one.
8. What a Roth conversion costs in California
Converting $50,000 to a Roth costs an extra $4,378 in California tax — 8.8 cents on the dollar.
| Converted | Extra California tax | Cost per dollar |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $4,378 | 8.8% |
| $100,000 | $9,028 | 9% |
These are computed, not read off the bracket table, which matters because a conversion large enough to be worth making usually leaves the bracket it started in.
The state's share is the part you can move. Convert in a year you are resident somewhere with no income tax and it is zero; convert here and it is 8.8%. The federal tax is due either way.
9. What part-time work costs here
$20,000 of part-time work costs an extra $1,588 in California tax — an effective 7.9% on the earnings.
Compare that with the 8.8% a Roth conversion costs. Earned income is the cheaper dollar here, which is unusual.
Two federal rules apply on top and neither depends on your state. Earnings can raise the taxable share of Social Security, and claiming before full retirement age exposes you to the federal earnings test.
10. The order to draw your accounts in
The order you draw accounts in is worth real money, and the right order depends on the state.
California applies the same treatment whenever you withdraw, so the order is a federal question rather than a state one — with the exception that the marginal rate is 6%, and a year of unusually high withdrawals pays that on the excess.
Smoothing withdrawals across years therefore beats lumping them, modestly. Take a large one-off distribution in a single year and it climbs the bracket schedule; spread the same amount over three and more of it stays low.
Required minimum distributions overrule all of this from 73 onward. Once they begin you must take the calculated amount whether the order suits you or not, which is the argument for drawing down or converting the pre-tax balance in the years before.
11. Or move across the state line
For most people the real alternative to California is not Wyoming — it is the state on the other side of the line, near the same family, the same doctors and the same weather.
| State | Income tax | Property tax | Insurance | Total | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nevada | $0 | $2,489 | $2,025 | $4,514 | 2 |
| Arizona | $1,131 | $2,152 | $2,135 | $5,418 | 4 |
| California | $1,853 | $6,332 | $1,335 | $9,520 | 36 |
| Oregon | $4,764 | $4,223 | $2,065 | $11,052 | 42 |
Nevada is the cheapest of the group at $4,514, $5,006 below California. Whether that is worth a move is a question about your life rather than your spreadsheet — but it is the comparison worth running, because it is the one you could actually act on.
One thing this table cannot show is the county. Property tax is set locally, and the spread inside a single state is routinely wider than the gap between two neighbouring states. A border move to a cheaper state and an expensive county can leave you worse off.
12. If you are moving to California from somewhere else
The eight most populous states people leave, measured against California on the same three lines.
| Moving from | Their total | California | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | $9,745 | $9,520 | $225 cheaper |
| Florida | $11,690 | $9,520 | $2,170 cheaper |
| New York | $10,287 | $9,520 | $767 cheaper |
| Pennsylvania | $6,465 | $9,520 | $3,055 dearer |
| Illinois | $8,391 | $9,520 | $1,129 dearer |
| Ohio | $6,380 | $9,520 | $3,140 dearer |
| Georgia | $6,033 | $9,520 | $3,487 dearer |
| North Carolina | $7,475 | $9,520 | $2,045 dearer |
California is cheaper than 3 of these eight. Which means the answer genuinely depends on where you are starting from.
A move is not free, and this table does not price it. Transaction costs on both houses run to several per cent of the sale price, and at typical values that is often more than the first two or three years of the saving.
California charges a transfer tax on the purchase itself — 0.1%, customarily paid by the seller. On the state's $904,640 median home that is about $995, once, at the point of sale. Closing costs here run about 2% to 5% of the price — $18,093 to $45,232 on the median home, which is the real entry fee for the annual saving this article has been describing.
13. What California does not exempt you from
The federal system, entirely. This is the commonest misunderstanding about state retirement taxation, and it is worth stating plainly.
Required minimum distributions still apply. The amount is federal — your prior-year balance divided by an IRS life expectancy factor — and identical in all fifty states. A state changes what the distribution costs you, not whether you must take it.
Social Security is still federally taxable, on the federal provisional-income calculation, whatever your state does with it.
IRMAA still applies, with its two-year lag. A large conversion or distribution raises a Medicare premium two years later regardless of address.
And capital gains are still federally taxed. What California adds on top is a separate question from what the federal system takes.
14. Establishing that you actually live here
Any state tax advantage is worth nothing until California is your domicile, and the state you left may disagree about when that happened.
High-tax states audit departing residents. The question is not whether you own a home here; it is whether you genuinely abandoned the old domicile. Days spent in each state, voter registration, vehicle registration, where your doctors are and where you claim a homestead all bear on it.
The snowbird case is the risky one. Splitting the year between two states while keeping a home in both is exactly the profile a residency audit is built for. If a plan depends on the saving, count the days from the first year rather than reconstructing them afterwards.
15. Who California actually suits
It suits an affluent retiree least. At the affluent profile the bill is $8,928, and whatever exclusion helps a modest income has stopped helping by then.
And it suits someone buying below the median, because $6,332 of property tax on the median home is the largest single line in this article.
16. What to check before you decide
Get your county's actual property tax rate, not the state average. Property tax is levied locally almost everywhere, and the spread inside a state is often wider than the spread between states.
Get a real insurance quote on a real address. $1,335 is the state average; construction, roof age and exposure move it a long way.
Work out your own income tax rather than using the profile above. $95,000 split one way is not $95,000 split another, and in California the mix between Social Security and distributions changes the answer.
And check what your current state actually charges you before assuming it is worse. On these three lines the ranking surprises people in both directions.
Frequently asked questions
Does California tax Social Security? No. Fully exempt, with no income threshold and no age condition. The 2025 Instructions for Schedule CA (540) state that California excludes U.S. Social Security benefits and equivalent Tier 1 railroad retirement benefits from taxable income; the federally taxable portion is entered as a subtraction. FTB Publication 1005 adds that Tier 2 railroad retirement benefits reported on federal Form RRB-1099-R are also untaxed.
Does California tax 401(k) or IRA withdrawals? Fully taxed as ordinary income at the regular 1%-12.3% schedule. There is no age-based exclusion, no dollar exclusion, and no income threshold — California is one of the least generous states in the country on 401(k), 403(b), and traditional IRA withdrawals. The 2025 Schedule CA (540) instructions say plainly that generally no adjustment is made on the IRA-distribution and pension lines, so the federally taxable amount flows straight through. Separate early-withdrawal penalty, and it is on top of the federal one: California imposes its own additional tax of 2.5% on the taxable part of a distribution taken before age 59 1/2 (form FTB 3805P, Part I, line 4), which is stacked on the federal 10% penalty.
What about pensions — private, government, or military? A $50,000 pension costs $1,193 if private, $1,193 if a government pension, and $375 if military retired pay. Those differences are the state's own policy, not an accident of the arithmetic.
What does retiring in California actually cost? Income tax of $1,853 on the typical profile, plus about $6,332 of property tax and $1,335 of insurance on the median home — $9,520, which is 36th of 50.
Is California a cheap state to retire in? On these three lines it ranks 36th of 50. Whether that makes it cheap for you depends far more on the house than on the tax code.
What does a Roth conversion cost in California? An extra $4,378 in state tax on $50,000 converted, and $9,028 on $100,000. That is 8.8% of the amount converted, on top of the federal tax.
Does part-time work get taxed differently from my 401(k) withdrawals? $20,000 of part-time earnings costs $1,588 in state tax, an effective 7.9%.
Would a neighbouring state be cheaper than California? Nevada is the cheapest of California and its neighbours at $4,514 against California's $9,520.
Do required minimum distributions change if I move here? No. The required amount is a federal calculation and identical in every state. What changes is what the distribution costs once taken.
Does this article include local income tax? No local income tax applies to retirement income in California on the figures used here.
Will California's treatment still apply in ten years? State legislatures revise retirement taxation regularly — several states have changed theirs in the past three years. Figures here are for tax year 2026 and are worth re-checking before a move.
What to do next
Two numbers decide this and neither is the one in the headline: your county's actual property tax rate, and a real insurance quote on a real address.
- Retirement state tax calculator — what any state charges on your income, cited per state
- RMD calculator — the distribution you must take, which no state changes
- Home insurance premium estimator — the line this article says decides it
- The Relocation Tax Playbook — establishing domicile, and the states that contest it