Retiring in Kansas: What the State Actually Takes

On the ordinary retirement profile — $34,000 of Social Security and $61,000 of plan distributions — Kansas takes $2,604 a year in state income tax.

That is the number people compare, and it is the smallest of three. Property tax adds about $3,801 on the state's $304,048 median home, and insurance another $4,219. The three together come to $10,624, placing Kansas 40th of 50.

A note before you start. This is general education, not tax advice. Every Kansas 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 2026. Property tax is assessed locally in most states, so the effective rate here is a statewide figure rather than your county's.

1. What Kansas takes from retirement income

On Social Security. Fully exempt, and the famous $75,000 cliff is gone - this is the single most out-of-date fact circulating about Kansas tax. Kansas historically allowed the Social Security subtraction only to taxpayers with federal AGI of $75,000 or less, producing a genuine cliff where one dollar of extra income cost thousands in tax. Section 18 of 2024 Special Session SB 1 amended K.S.A. 79-32,117(c)(xviii) to remove the income limitation entirely and allow all taxpayers receiving Social Security benefits included in federal adjusted gross income to claim the subtraction, regardless of the amount of their federal AGI, effective for all taxable years beginning after December 31, 2023. There is no age trigger, no income limit and no partial phase-in for 2026.

On 401(k) and IRA distributions. taxed. Kansas has no general exclusion for distributions from a 401(k), 403(b) or traditional IRA, and no age at which one becomes available. Kansas grants retirement relief by naming specific retirement systems on Schedule S line A14, and a private-sector defined contribution account is not among them. Two narrow exceptions exist and should not be generalised: the federal Thrift Savings Plan is exempt, because it is grouped with federal employment retirement benefits rather than treated as an ordinary defined contribution plan; and a KPERS lump-sum distribution rolled into a qualified account is subtracted on Schedule S line A11. Neither reaches an ordinary private 401(k) or IRA.

2. The rule that decides your Kansas bill

The asymmetry is total and must not be collapsed: named public and military pensions are exempt in full with no cap, no age trigger and no income limit, while private pensions are taxed in full from the first dollar. military: retirement benefits for service in the United States Armed Forces are fully excluded. Public, but only the enumerated systems - Schedule S line A14 is an exhaustive list, not a category: KPERS annuities; the Kansas Police and Firemen's Retirement System; Overland Park police and fire retirement plans; the Kansas Teachers' Retirement system; the Kansas Highway Patrol; the Kansas Justices and Judges Retirement System; the Board of Public Utilities; State Board of Regents faculty retirement annuity contracts; the Washburn University retirement plan; certain Kansas first-class-city pensions not covered by KPERS; the Federal Civil Service Retirement or Disability Fund and any other federal employment retirement benefits including the Thrift Savings Plan; and U.S. Railroad Retirement Board plans (Tier I, Tier II, dual vested and supplemental annuities). The consequence that catches retirees moving to Kansas: an out-of-state public pension is not exempt. The list is Kansas-specific plus federal, so a retired Missouri or Colorado teacher living in Kansas is taxed on their pension exactly like a private-sector retiree, while their Kansas-employed neighbour pays nothing. publicPension is recorded as exempt because that is the correct answer for every system Kansa

Kansas is now a genuinely good state for a retiree whose income is Social Security plus a Kansas or federal government pension - both are fully exempt with no cap - and an ordinary one for a retiree living on a private 401(k), which is taxed in full.

Any source describing Kansas as taxing Social Security above $75,000 of federal AGI is describing law repealed effective for tax years beginning after December 31, 2023. The repeal is the most consequential recent change in the figure here.

3. What Kansas charges at three income levels

The same state, three retirements. All figures are for a single filer aged 70.

The marginal rate at the typical profile is 5.6%. That is what an extra dollar of distribution costs — a larger number than the 2.7% 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 $1,843.

4. Property tax, and why it lands harder in retirement

An effective rate of 1.2% on the state's $304,048 median home is about $3,801 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.

Kansas does have a homestead provision, and it is the one lever on this line worth understanding.

Kansas does not have a broad ad-valorem homestead exemption that reduces assessed value like FL or TX. Instead it offers the Homestead Property Tax Refund (Form K-40H): an income-based annual refund of a portion of property taxes actually paid, for Kansas homeowners (or renters, via a different calculation) who owned and occupied their home on January 1 of the tax year. For tax year 2025 (filed in 2026), total household income must be $43,389 or less, and the maximum refund is $700. Kansas also runs two related programs for specific populations: SAFESR (K-40PT), a larger refund for qualifying low-income seniors, and K-40SVR for disabled veterans/surviving spouses. None of these are automatic — homeowners must file an annual claim with the Kansas Department of Revenue by April 15.

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 Kansas: $4,219 a year — 42nd 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 Kansas actually costs

Income tax on the typical retirement profile, plus property tax and insurance on each state's own median home. Kansas is shown against its own neighbours in the ranking, and against the extremes.

Kansas comes to $10,624, 40th of 50.

Income tax is 25% 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. Whose pension it is changes the bill

Kansas does not tax all pensions the same way. The same $50,000 costs $1,990 if it is a private employer pension and $0 if it is a government one. The asymmetry is total and must not be collapsed: named public and military pensions are exempt in full with no cap, no age trigger and no income limit, while private pensions are taxed in full from the first dollar. military: retirement benefits for service in the United States Armed Forces are fully excluded. Public, but only the enumerated systems - Schedule S line A14 is an exhaustive list, not a category: KPERS annuities; the Kansas Police and Firemen's Retirement System; Overland Park police and fire retirement plans; the Kansas Teachers' Retirement system; the Kansas Highway Patrol; the Kansas Justices and Judges Retirement System; the Board of Public Utilities; State Board of Regents faculty retirement annuity contracts; the Washburn University retirement plan; certain Kansas first-class-city pensions not covered by KPERS; the Federal Civil Service Retirement or Disability Fund and any other federal employment retirement benefits including the Thrift Savings Plan; and U.S. Railroad Retirement Board plans (Tier I, Tier II, dual vested and supplemental annuities). The consequence that catches retirees moving to Kansas: an out-of-state public pension is not exempt. The list is Kansas-specific plus federal, so a retired Missouri or Colorado teacher living in Kansas is taxed on their pension exactly like a private-sector retiree, while their Kansas-employed neighbour pays nothing. publicPension is recorded as exempt because that is the correct answer for every system Kansa This is the distinction most published comparisons flatten. A state described as exempting pension income may exempt only the government kind — and a private-sector career is the case most states treat least generously.

8. What a Roth conversion costs in Kansas

Converting $50,000 to a Roth costs an extra $2,790 in Kansas tax — 5.6 cents on the dollar.

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 5.6%. The federal tax is due either way.

9. What part-time work costs here

$20,000 of part-time work costs an extra $1,116 in Kansas tax — an effective 5.6% on the earnings.

Compare that with the 5.6% a Roth conversion costs. The state treats the two identically, which keeps the decision a non-tax one.

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.

Kansas 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 5.6%, 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 Kansas 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.

Missouri is the cheapest of the group at $7,467, $3,157 below Kansas. 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 Kansas from somewhere else

The eight most populous states people leave, measured against Kansas on the same three lines.

Kansas is cheaper than 1 of these eight. The move is not obviously about cost, on these lines.

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.

Kansas charges no transfer tax on the purchase, which is one closing cost you will not meet here and do meet in most states. Closing costs here run about 2% to 5% of the price — $6,081 to $15,202 on the median home, which is the real entry fee for the annual saving this article has been describing.

13. What Kansas 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 Kansas 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 Kansas 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 Kansas actually suits

A military retiree, whose pension is exempt here while a private one is not.

Someone with a government pension, which this state treats better than a private one of the same size.

It suits an affluent retiree least. At the affluent profile the bill is $7,012, and whatever exclusion helps a modest income has stopped helping by then.

It suits a homeowner less than a renter, because $4,219 of average insurance attaches to the property rather than to the income.

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. $4,219 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 Kansas 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 Kansas tax Social Security? No. Fully exempt, and the famous $75,000 cliff is gone - this is the single most out-of-date fact circulating about Kansas tax. Kansas historically allowed the Social Security subtraction only to taxpayers with federal AGI of $75,000 or less, producing a genuine cliff where one dollar of extra income cost thousands in tax. Section 18 of 2024 Special Session SB 1 amended K.S.A. 79-32,117(c)(xviii) to remove the income limitation entirely and allow all taxpayers receiving Social Security benefits included in federal adjusted gross income to claim the subtraction, regardless of the amount of their federal AGI, effective for all taxable years beginning after December 31, 2023.

Does Kansas tax 401(k) or IRA withdrawals? taxed. Kansas has no general exclusion for distributions from a 401(k), 403(b) or traditional IRA, and no age at which one becomes available. Kansas grants retirement relief by naming specific retirement systems on Schedule S line A14, and a private-sector defined contribution account is not among them. Two narrow exceptions exist and should not be generalised: the federal Thrift Savings Plan is exempt, because it is grouped with federal employment retirement benefits rather than treated as an ordinary defined contribution plan; and a KPERS lump-sum distribution rolled into a qualified account is subtracted on Schedule S line A11.

What about pensions — private, government, or military? A $50,000 pension costs $1,990 if private, $0 if a government pension, and $0 if military retired pay. Those differences are the state's own policy, not an accident of the arithmetic.

What does retiring in Kansas actually cost? Income tax of $2,604 on the typical profile, plus about $3,801 of property tax and $4,219 of insurance on the median home — $10,624, which is 40th of 50.

Is Kansas a cheap state to retire in? On these three lines it ranks 40th 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 Kansas? An extra $2,790 in state tax on $50,000 converted, and $5,580 on $100,000. That is 5.6% 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 $1,116 in state tax, an effective 5.6%.

Would a neighbouring state be cheaper than Kansas? Missouri is the cheapest of Kansas and its neighbours at $7,467 against Kansas's $10,624.

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 Kansas on the figures used here.

Will Kansas'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