What North Carolina 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.
North Carolina guide
On the ordinary retirement profile — $34,000 of Social Security and $61,000 of plan distributions — North Carolina takes $1,925 a year in state income tax.
That is the number people compare, and it is the smallest of three. Property tax adds about $2,525 on the state's $382,500 median home, and insurance another $3,025. The three together come to $7,475, placing North Carolina 26th of 50.
A note before you start. This is general education, not tax advice. Every North Carolina 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. North Carolina does not tax Social Security or Railroad Retirement benefits. The mechanism is a deduction rather than a non-inclusion: the benefits arrive in North Carolina income through federal adjusted gross income and are then deducted in full on Form D-400 Schedule S. There is no income threshold, no age condition, and no phase-out. The deduction is limited to the amount actually taxed federally, so a retiree whose benefits are not federally taxable gets no additional North Carolina benefit.
On 401(k) and IRA distributions. North Carolina has NO general exclusion for 401(k), 403(b), 457, or traditional IRA distributions. They flow through federal AGI and are taxed at the full flat rate. The only route to exemption runs through the two named carve-outs described in the pensions block — the Bailey settlement and the military retirement deduction — and both are defined by who the payer is and when the taxpayer vested, not by the account type. A private-sector retiree living on 401(k) withdrawals pays the full 3.99% on every dollar.
Read the full North Carolina guide →18 min read · Updated 2026-09-03