What Michigan 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.
Michigan guide
On the ordinary retirement profile — $34,000 of Social Security and $61,000 of plan distributions — Michigan takes $0 a year in state income tax.
That is the number people compare, and it is the smallest of three. Property tax adds about $3,569 on the state's $299,900 median home, and insurance another $2,415. The three together come to $5,984, placing Michigan 9th of 50.
A note before you start. This is general education, not tax advice. Every Michigan 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 with no cap, no age test, and no tier test. MCL 206.30(1)(f)(iii) deducts Social Security benefits as defined in IRC section 86; because Michigan begins from federal AGI, only the federally-taxable portion is ever added in and that portion is then fully subtracted. Michigan taxes $0 of Social Security. One historical interaction is now suspended: a filer electing the Michigan standard deduction under MCL 206.30(9) previously had to give up or net against the Social Security subtraction, and Public Act 24 of 2025 lifts that for tax years 2026 through 2028 — see the record notes.
On 401(k) and IRA distributions. The four-year phase-in under public Act 4 of 2023 is complete in 2026, and the birth-year gate is gone. Revenue Administrative Bulletin 2026-1, Issue 2: 'Tax year 2026 and each year thereafter — regardless of year of birth, taxpayers may deduct combined public and private retirement benefits up to the inflation-adjusted private retirement maximum.' 2026 caps are $67,610 single or married-separate and $135,220 joint, up 2.6% from 2025's $65,897 / $131,794. No age trigger for 2026, which is the headline change — the phrase 'regardless of year of birth' removes it. The cap is shared, not per-stream: a filer born in 1946 or later must combine all deductible public retirement income (federal, Michigan, or another state's with a reciprocal deduction) with any private retirement income and apply the single limit to the combined total (MCL 206.30(10)(d)). Distributions that never qualify regardless of age: 457 deferred compensation, 401(k) amounts attributable to employee contributions alone, 403(b) other than annuities purchased by a 501(c)(3) or public school system, premature distributions before retirement eligibility, and early-retirement incentive payments not from a pension trust. On a joint return the older spouse's age governs any birth-year test.
Read the full Michigan guide →20 min read · Updated 2026-09-03