What Massachusetts 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.
Massachusetts guide
On the ordinary retirement profile — $34,000 of Social Security and $61,000 of plan distributions — Massachusetts takes $2,830 a year in state income tax.
That is the number people compare, and it is the smallest of three. Property tax adds about $6,900 on the state's $690,000 median home, and insurance another $2,075. The three together come to $11,805, placing Massachusetts 46th of 50.
A note before you start. This is general education, not tax advice. Every Massachusetts 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 at every income level. Massachusetts never adopted IRC section 86, so benefits are simply not part of Massachusetts gross income — there is no income-based phase-in, no partial inclusion, and no age test. One consequence worth knowing: because benefits are excluded, Medicare premiums withheld from them are not deductible either.
On 401(k) and IRA distributions. 401(k) and 403(b) distributions are fully taxable at 5%. Massachusetts never allowed a deduction for traditional IRA contributions, so every contribution created Massachusetts basis, and distributions are excluded from Massachusetts income until that previously-taxed basis is recovered — basis-first, not pro-rata, computed on a Schedule X line 2 worksheet with separate worksheets per spouse. One edge case runs the other way: a Massachusetts resident who inherits a non-Massachusetts IRA is taxed on the entire distribution, since no Massachusetts tax was ever paid on the contributed income.
Read the full Massachusetts guide →17 min read · Updated 2026-09-03