The same retiree. The same $95,000. Fifty different answers.
$30,000 of Social Security, $45,000 of 401(k) withdrawals, $20,000 of private pension, single, age 65:
| States charging nothing at all | 20 |
| Median among the thirty that do charge | $1,985 |
| Most expensive: Oregon | $5,114 |
A $5,114 annual spread on identical income, which across a thirty-year retirement is well into six figures before a dollar of growth.
And the ranking is not what you would guess
Because forty-nine states out of fifty exempt Social Security entirely.
On a $40,000 Social-Security-only income, exactly one state in fifty charges anything. So a comparison built on headline income tax rates tells you almost nothing about what a retiree pays — the entire variation lives in how a state treats pensions and 401(k) withdrawals, and they differ enormously.
Which means the map redraws itself depending on what kind of income you have:
| Your income is mostly | States charging $0 |
|---|---|
| 401(k) withdrawals | 19 |
| A public / government pension | 25 |
| A military pension | 34 |
Thirty-four states charge nothing on military retirement, including several that tax other retirement income in full. If you have one, the map you have been reading is the wrong map.
By the end of this guide you will have all fifty states computed on your own income mix, what changes with age, the taxes a no-income-tax state charges instead, the domicile evidence a residency audit actually examines, the order to do things in if you move, and an honest accounting of what a move costs that no tax table contains.
A note on the figures. Every state figure is computed by this site's own fifty-state income-tax dataset, which records each state's exclusions, brackets and deductions with a citation per state, and by its retirement state-tax engine. The figures shown are for one specific retiree — single, age 65, that income mix — and every one of those variables changes the answer materially, which is why section 4 exists. Property tax, sales tax and estate tax figures are not computed here: they vary by county and by purchase, and section 5 tells you where to get yours rather than printing an average. Nothing here is personalised tax or legal advice, and domicile in particular is a legal question where advice before the move is worth far more than advice after it. This site takes no lead-generation and no affiliate money.
The three questions this guide actually answers
They are separate, and conflating them is why most relocation advice is unhelpful.
1. What would I pay there?
A factual question with a computable answer, provided you use your own income mix rather than a headline rate. Sections 1 to 4.
Most published rankings answer a different question — what a hypothetical average person pays — and the hypothetical person's income mix is nothing like yours.
2. What else changes?
Income tax is one line. Property tax, sales tax, health insurance before Medicare, and the price of the house itself are all larger for many people, and a no-income-tax state raises the money from at least one of them. Sections 5 and 6.
3. Can I actually leave?
The question nobody asks until it is expensive. Several high-tax states pursue departing residents and go back years, and the test is not the one most people assume it is. Sections 7 and 8.
A move that saves $2,000 a year and produces a residency assessment for three prior years has not saved anything.
Why the order matters
Most people do these backwards. They read a ranking, decide, move, and then discover the property tax, the insurance premium, or a letter from the state they left.
Doing them in order costs a weekend and can change the answer entirely — including, quite often, to "stay where I am, and take the saving that is available without moving."
One thing worth saying early
This guide will tell you honestly when the answer is not to move. Section 9 exists because the arithmetic here is genuinely smaller than most people expect once a move is costed properly, and because a retirement relocation that reverses within five years is expensive in ways no table captures.
If you were going to move anyway, everything here helps you do it efficiently. If you were considering moving because of tax, section 9 is the section to read first.