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Retirement Accounts · State Tax Context

State income tax in retirement and estate planning

State income tax can affect Roth conversions, inherited retirement accounts, pension income, and whether a family moves assets before or after retirement. This page uses the 2026 state individual income-tax dataset as context for planning conversations, with status labels intact.

Dataset 2026.v10 · published August 10, 2026.

Why it matters

Federal tax rules usually get the first look in retirement-account planning. State rules still matter because a dollar converted, distributed, inherited, or relocated can land in a different state tax base. The right planning question is not “which state is cheapest”; it is whether the state rule changes the timing, location, or beneficiary conversation.

What the 2026 dataset says

Jurisdictions in file51
Rows with a state individual income tax42
Rows without a state individual income tax9
Rows verified at row level13
Rows pending final 2026 instructionsAR, HI, ID, KS, ND, OK, OR, VT

Highest single-filer top marginal rates in the file

StateTop rateStatusSource as of
California12.3%source unavailable2026-06-20
Hawaii11%pending final 2026 instructions2026-06-20
New York10.9%verified2026-06-20
New Jersey10.75%source unavailable2026-06-20
District of Columbia10.75%source unavailable2026-06-20

How to use this in planning

  • Roth-conversion timing needs both federal brackets and the state schedule for the conversion year.
  • Beneficiary conversations should distinguish a state with no individual income tax from a state whose retirement treatment is partial or source-unavailable.
  • Pending-final rows should not be used as if final 2026 return instructions had already published.

Example state row

New York’s single-filer top marginal rate in this dataset is 10.9%. Texas is marked as having no state individual income tax; its rate schedule is therefore absent by law, not silently treated as a guessed zero. The difference matters when comparing inherited IRA distributions or conversion income across family members in different states.

Sources and reuse

Methodology & sources

The downloadable files are on the open-data page, and the reusable widget is at state income-tax embed.Sakineh Majd, J.D. reviewed the income-tax dataset at dataset level; that credit is separate from per-row verification. Row statuses and figure source links remain the controlling record. Dataset review memo

Dataset 2026.v10 · 42 rows with state income tax · 9 rows without state income tax · source-linked as of year 2026.