Retiring in Massachusetts

Every figure below is sourced to Massachusetts’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: 9%; The top of 2 graduated brackets.
Tax year: 2026; Brackets are legislated and change on a fixed calendar, so the year matters.

The 4% surtax threshold does NOT vary by filing status and does NOT double for joint filers. M.G.L. c. 62 sec. 4(d) states one figure per return with no filing-status modifier, and the Department reinforces it by requiring federally-joint couples to file jointly in Massachusetts with no exception for surtax purposes. A married couple gets $1,107,750, not $2,215,500 — encoded above as an identical threshold across all four statuses.
Massachusetts does NOT adopt the new federal OBBBA individual deductions. The senior deduction, the qualified tips deduction, the qualified overtime deduction, the car-loan interest deduction, and the section 199A qualified business income deduction are all disallowed, and all tips and overtime must be reported in full.
Not modelled: No Tax Status and the Limited Income Credit, which can zero out or sharply reduce tax for lower-income filers (neither available to married-separate filers), and the refundable Senior Circuit Breaker Credit for filers 65 and over.