Retiring in California

Every figure below is sourced to California’s own publications and dated. Estimates only, and not tax advice.

Retirement tax by state

What your state actually takes from a 401(k) withdrawal, a pension, and Social Security — in dollars, not a yes/no list.

Long-term index-fund growth after expense-ratio drag — and what your state takes from the gains at withdrawal.

Decided on the two rates that actually govern it — yours now, and yours at withdrawal, in the state you'll retire in rather than the one you're in.

2026 limits, employer match, the 60-63 super catch-up, and whether the Roth catch-up mandate applies to you.

When your RMDs start under SECURE 2.0, how much this year's is, and what missing it costs.

What a backdoor Roth conversion would actually cost you in tax — the pro-rata rule most calculators only describe.

The tax a leveraged rental owes inside a self-directed IRA — computed at trust rates, not the rate you'd assume.

401(k) and IRA withdrawals: Taxed
Social Security: Not taxed
Top marginal rate: 12.3%; The top of 9 graduated brackets.
Tax year: 2025; Brackets are legislated and change on a fixed calendar, so the year matters.

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.
There is no general age-based retirement income exclusion in California of the kind Georgia, Colorado, and Delaware offer -- a 70-year-old drawing a private pension and a 40-year-old drawing the same dollars are taxed identically.