Retiring in Missouri: What the State Actually Takes

On the ordinary retirement profile — $34,000 of Social Security and $61,000 of plan distributions — Missouri takes $1,930 a year in state income tax.

That is the number people compare, and it is the smallest of three. Property tax adds about $2,632 on the state's $299,064 median home, and insurance another $2,905. The three together come to $7,467, placing Missouri 25th of 50.

A note before you start. This is general education, not tax advice. Every Missouri 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 Missouri takes from retirement income

On Social Security. 100% exempt with no income limit for 2024 forward. Mo. Rev. Stat. 143.125.2, as amended by SB 190 (2023): 'For all tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2024, a taxpayer shall be entitled to the maximum exemption provided by this subsection regardless of the taxpayer's filing status or the amount of the taxpayer's Missouri adjusted gross income.' The old AGI ceilings ($100,000 married-combined / $85,000 other) survive in the statute but are expressly confined to tax years beginning on or before 2023-12-31. Two non-income conditions remain and are not modelled here: the taxpayer must be 62 or older (143.125.1(1); the age limit does not apply to Social Security disability benefits), and the 'Age 62 through 64' box must actually be checked on Form MO-1040 or the deduction is disallowed.

On 401(k) and IRA distributions. 401(k), IRA, Keogh, deferred compensation and self-employed plan distributions are eligible for Missouri's pension exemption — but through the private pension route, which is small and income-limited, not the far larger public one. Mo. Rev. Stat. 143.124.1 defines annuity, pension or retirement allowance to 'include 401(k) plans, deferred compensation plans, self-employed retirement plans, also known as Keogh plans, annuities from a defined pension plan and individual retirement arrangements, also known as IRAs ... but not including Roth IRAs'.

2. The rule that decides your Missouri bill

Public pensions — from any federal, state or local government — get 100% up to $48,967 per taxpayer for 2026 (a CPI-indexed statutory construct under 143.124.5 that is not the actual SSA maximum benefit, despite being named after it), and SB 190 removed the income limit on this for 2024 forward. Private pensions get only the $6,000 income-limited exemption described under qualifiedPlanDistributions. Military retirement is 100% exempt under 143.121.3(12), claimed as a Part 1 subtraction on Form MO-A line 10 rather than through the Part 3 pension exemptions, and is not reduced by the Social Security offset below. Survivor Benefit Plan annuities do not qualify as military retirement but DO qualify as a public pension. Railroad retirement does not qualify as a public pension unless the recipient is 100% disabled.

Mo. Rev. Stat. 143.124.7 requires the public pension subtraction to be 'decreased by an amount equal to any Social Security benefit exemption provided under section 143.125'. On Form MO-A the public pension figure is reduced dollar for dollar by the Social Security deduction and floored at zero.

Missouri has no personal exemption for 2026. Mo. Rev. Stat. 143.151 allows $2,100 only 'provided that the exemption amount as defined under 26 U.S.C. Section 151 is not zero' — and the federal exemption is zero, made permanent by OBBBA. One exemption does survive and is not modelled here: a flat $1,400 additional exemption for head-of-household and qualifying-widow(er) filers only, on Form MO-1040 line 15.

3. What Missouri 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 4.7%. That is what an extra dollar of distribution costs — a larger number than the 2% 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 $1,220.

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

An effective rate of 0.9% on the state's $299,064 median home is about $2,632 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.

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

Missouri has no general homestead exemption that reduces assessed value for all homeowners. Instead, it offers the Missouri Property Tax Credit ('circuit breaker'), which reimburses a portion of property taxes (or rent) paid, up to $1,100/year for owners, but only for qualifying low-income seniors (65+) and disabled residents under income caps (roughly $30,000 single/$34,000 married for the maximum owner credit as of the 2025 filing year) — filed via Form MO-PTC. A new age-65+ homestead exemption (income cap around $125,000, adjusted annually) was created by recent legislation (e.g. HB 1061) but is a separate, narrower senior-only freeze/exemption, not a broad homestead exemption available to all homeowners; marked unavailable here since it does not apply to the general homebuyer population this site's calculator serves.

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 Missouri: $2,905 a year — 31st 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 Missouri actually costs

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

Missouri comes to $7,467, 25th of 50.

Income tax is 26% 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

Missouri 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. 401(k), IRA, Keogh, deferred compensation and self-employed plan distributions are eligible for Missouri's pension exemption — but through the private pension route, which is small and income-limited, not the far larger public one. Mo. Rev. Stat. 143.124.1 defines annuity, pension or retirement allowance to 'include 401(k) plans, deferred compensation plans, self-employed retirement plans, also known as Keogh plans, annuities from a defined pension plan and individual retirement arrangements, also known as IRAs ... but not including Roth IRAs'. 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 Missouri 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 Missouri

Converting $50,000 to a Roth costs an extra $2,350 in Missouri tax — 4.7 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 4.7%. The federal tax is due either way.

9. What part-time work costs here

$20,000 of part-time work costs an extra $940 in Missouri tax — an effective 4.7% on the earnings.

Compare that with the 4.7% 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.

Missouri 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 4.7%, 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 Missouri 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.

Tennessee is the cheapest of the group at $6,215, $1,252 below Missouri. 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 Missouri from somewhere else

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

Missouri is cheaper than 5 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.

Missouri 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 — $5,981 to $14,953 on the median home, which is the real entry fee for the annual saving this article has been describing.

13. Where these Missouri figures are approximate

Every income tax figure above comes from this site's own Missouri record, and that record notes its own limits. They are reproduced here rather than left in the dataset, because a reader who falls into one of these cases is being quoted a number that is wrong for them.

• One modelling detail not captured here: the income tested is Missouri AGI minus taxable Social Security, not Missouri AGI itself, so the income ceiling will withdraw the exclusion slightly earlier than Missouri does for a filer with taxable benefits.
• Because the underlying dataset carries one pension exclusion amount, a private-pension figure from this site's calculator will be materially too generous.
• An anti-double-dip offset this site's calculator does not model.
• A retiree with both substantial Social Security and a public pension therefore does not receive both in full, and a Missouri figure from this site's calculator will understate their tax.
• This site's calculator applies the joint thresholds recorded above to one combined income, which overstates the tax for a two-earner Missouri couple.

None of this affects the property tax or insurance lines, which come from a separate dataset and are not modelled.

If you are in one of the cases above, treat the income tax figure as the shape rather than the amount and get the number from a preparer who can see your actual return.

14. What Missouri 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 Missouri adds on top is a separate question from what the federal system takes.

15. Establishing that you actually live here

Any state tax advantage is worth nothing until Missouri 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.

16. Who Missouri actually suits

It suits an affluent retiree least. At the affluent profile the bill is $5,643, and whatever exclusion helps a modest income has stopped helping by then.

17. 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. $2,905 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 Missouri 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 Missouri tax Social Security? No. 100% exempt with no income limit for 2024 forward. Mo. Rev. Stat.

Does Missouri tax 401(k) or IRA withdrawals? 401(k), IRA, Keogh, deferred compensation and self-employed plan distributions are eligible for Missouri's pension exemption — but through the private pension route, which is small and income-limited, not the far larger public one. Mo. Rev. Stat.

What about pensions — private, government, or military? A $50,000 pension costs $0 if private, $0 if a government pension, and $0 if military retired pay.

What does retiring in Missouri actually cost? Income tax of $1,930 on the typical profile, plus about $2,632 of property tax and $2,905 of insurance on the median home — $7,467, which is 25th of 50.

Is Missouri a cheap state to retire in? On these three lines it ranks 25th 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 Missouri? An extra $2,350 in state tax on $50,000 converted, and $4,700 on $100,000. That is 4.7% 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 $940 in state tax, an effective 4.7%.

Would a neighbouring state be cheaper than Missouri? Tennessee is the cheapest of Missouri and its neighbours at $6,215 against Missouri's $7,467.

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? Some Missouri localities levy their own income tax on top of the state figure above — for example Kansas City earnings tax 1%, St. Louis City earnings tax 1%. Rates vary by municipality, so this is not included in the total; check your own locality.

Will Missouri'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