What Kentucky actually takes from a 401(k) withdrawal, a pension, and Social Security — in dollars, against the state’s own brackets and exclusions rather than a yes-or-no list.
Long-term index-fund growth after expense-ratio drag — and what your state takes from the gains at withdrawal.
When your RMDs start under SECURE 2.0, how much this year's is, and what missing it costs.
2026 limits, employer match, the 60-63 super catch-up, and whether the Roth catch-up mandate applies to you.
A required minimum distribution is ordinary income, taxed at your top bracket and often pushing you into the next one. Here is the federal tax on RMDs from $20,000 to $75,000 at different income levels, why the default 10% withholding usually leaves a bill, how to avoid an underpayment penalty, and the three side effects that make the real rate higher than the bracket.
The required minimum distribution on every common balance at every age from 73 to 95, worked from the IRS table, plus what happens to the account over twenty years of withdrawals at 0%, 5% and 7% returns. The short version: the share you must take rises every year, and at good returns the dollar amount keeps rising with it.
What moving actually saves, on your own income mix rather than a headline rate — and how to establish domicile so the state you left cannot follow you.
Which account to draw first, priced. The three cliffs a withdrawal can cross without warning, the conversion window almost nobody uses, and why the order is the last big decision you can still change.
Kentucky guide
On the ordinary retirement profile — $34,000 of Social Security and $61,000 of plan distributions — Kentucky takes $929 a year in state income tax.
That is the number people compare, and it is the smallest of three. Property tax adds about $2,099 on the state's $279,900 median home, and insurance another $3,795. The three together come to $6,823, placing Kentucky 19th of 50.
A note before you start. This is general education, not tax advice. Every Kentucky figure comes from this site's own fifty-state income-tax dataset and its retirement tax engine, computed for a single filer aged 70 unless stated otherwise; property tax, median home price and insurance figures come from the site's core state dataset. Rates are for tax year 2026. Property tax is assessed locally in most states, so the effective rate here is a statewide figure rather than your county's.
On Social Security. Fully exempt. KRS 141.019(1)(e) directs the taxpayer to exclude Social Security and railroad retirement benefits subject to federal income tax, and KRS 141.019(1)(b) separately excludes supplemental Railroad Retirement Act annuities. No income threshold, no age condition, no phase-out.
On 401(k) and IRA distributions. UP TO $31,110 per person of total pension and retirement income. Three things people get wrong. the breadth: KRS 141.019(1)(g)1.b excludes up to $31,110 of total distributions from pension plans, annuity contracts, profit-sharing plans, retirement plans or employee savings plans - so a private pension, a 401(k), a 403(b), an IRA, death benefits and similar accounts all draw on the same allowance, qualified or unqualified under IRC section 401 and including IRAs under section 408. A retiree with a $20,000 pension and $20,000 of 401(k) withdrawals has $40,000 against one $31,110 allowance, not two. It is per person: Schedule P instructs that the exclusion is for each taxpayer and that a taxpayer and spouse must compute and claim their own exclusion regardless of filing status - the basis for the $62,220 joint figure, which is two individual allowances and is not available where only one spouse has retirement income. Schedule P is required only where retirement income exceeds $31,110.
Read the full Kentucky guide →19 min read · Updated 2026-09-03