Retiring in North Dakota

Every figure below is sourced to North Dakota’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: 2.5%; The top of 3 graduated brackets.
Tax year: 2026; Brackets are legislated and change on a fixed calendar, so the year matters.

North Dakota's structure makes it one of the mildest income tax states in the country for a retiree without being a no-tax state: a zero-rate first bracket runs to $49,575 of North Dakota taxable income for a single filer and $82,800 for a joint one, and taxable income is measured AFTER the federal standard deduction, so a couple can have well over $115,000 of gross income before any North Dakota tax at all.
The zero bracket is the thing to get right in any calculation. North Dakota is not a flat 1.95% state and it is not a 2.5% state; most residents pay 0% on a large first slice and 1.95% on the rest.
DELIBERATE OMISSION: autoIraProgram is not populated. North Dakota has no state-facilitated auto-IRA employer mandate.