Retiring in New Jersey
Every figure below is sourced to New Jersey’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.
Brokerage account growth
Long-term index-fund growth after expense-ratio drag — and what your state takes from the gains at withdrawal.
Roth vs. Traditional
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.
Contribution limit optimizer
2026 limits, employer match, the 60-63 super catch-up, and whether the Roth catch-up mandate applies to you.
Required minimum distribution
When your RMDs start under SECURE 2.0, how much this year's is, and what missing it costs.
Backdoor Roth pro-rata
What a backdoor Roth conversion would actually cost you in tax — the pro-rata rule most calculators only describe.
Self-directed IRA real estate (UDFI)
The tax a leveraged rental owes inside a self-directed IRA — computed at trust rates, not the rate you'd assume.
New Jersey at a glance
- 401(k) and IRA withdrawals
- Partly excluded
- From age 62.
- Social Security
- Not taxed
- Top marginal rate
- 10.75%
- The top of 8 graduated brackets.
- Tax year
- 2026
- Brackets are legislated and change on a fixed calendar, so the year matters.
- NEW JERSEY BRACKETS AND EXEMPTIONS ARE NOT INFLATION-INDEXED — they are hard-coded dollar figures changeable only by statutory amendment. A full-text search of all of Title 54A for cost-of-living, consumer price index, inflation, CPI and indexed returns two hits, neither about brackets or exemptions, and the amendment history of 54A:2-1 ends at P.L. 2020 c.94. An indexing bill (A4427) is pending but not enacted. So these figures do not drift year to year the way most states' do, and the 2026 record will remain correct until the Legislature acts.
- A THIRD EXCLUSION EXISTS AND IS NOT MODELLED: the Other Retirement Income Exclusion at N.J.S.A. 54A:6-15 lets a qualifying filer aged 62 or over apply the UNUSED portion of the maximum exclusion against non-pension income — but only where wages, business profits, partnership and S corporation income together total $3,000 or less. Its own worksheet applies the phase-out percentages to GROSS INCOME rather than to pension payments, which contradicts the line 28a chart; the wording traces to the enrolled statute and is very likely a scrivener's error, but the Division implements it as written.
- A FOURTH, SEPARATE EXCLUSION, also not modelled: the Special Exclusion at 54A:6-15(b) gives $6,000 (married-joint, head-of-household, qualifying widow(er)) or $3,000 (single, married-separate) to a filer who will NEVER be able to receive Social Security or Railroad Retirement because their employer participated in neither. The instructions warn against claiming it if the filer will EVER be eligible.
- NEW JERSEY BASIS RULES DIVERGE FROM FEDERAL AND THIS CALCULATOR DOES NOT MODEL THEM. 401(k) elective deferrals made on or after 1984-01-01 were excluded from New Jersey wages just as federally, so those distributions are fully taxable with no basis. But TRADITIONAL IRA CONTRIBUTIONS WERE NEVER DEDUCTIBLE IN NEW JERSEY, so an IRA carries basis equal to all contributions, recovered PRO RATA via the NJ-1040's Worksheet C rather than first-out. Roth contributions were likewise taxed when made. A calculator reusing the federally taxable amount will overstate New Jersey tax for an IRA holder. New Jersey also has no income averaging for lump-sum distributions.