Retiring in Arkansas

Every figure below is sourced to Arkansas’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: Partly excluded; From age 59.5.
Social Security: Not taxed
Top marginal rate: 3.9%; The top of 5 graduated brackets.
Tax year: 2025; Brackets are legislated and change on a fixed calendar, so the year matters.

Arkansas exempts Social Security outright and separately from the $6,000 retirement exemption, so the two do not compete.
The $6,000 is a single per-taxpayer ceiling shared across all employer plans and IRAs combined -- not $6,000 per plan -- and a surviving spouse gets one $6,000, not two.
Military retirement is fully exempt but OFFSETS the $6,000 rather than stacking with it.
The age 59 1/2 trigger applies to traditional IRA distributions only; employer-sponsored plan income gets the $6,000 at any age.