What North Dakota 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 Dakota guide
On the ordinary retirement profile — $34,000 of Social Security and $61,000 of plan distributions — North Dakota 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 $2,888 on the state's $313,885 median home, and insurance another $3,510. The three together come to $6,398, placing North Dakota 16th of 50.
A note before you start. This is general education, not tax advice. Every North Dakota 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 Dakota exempts Social Security benefits in full, with no income threshold, no age condition, and no phase-out. The mechanism is a subtraction on Form ND-1 line 15 of 'the taxable portion of your Social Security benefits reported on Form 1040 or 1040-SR, line 6b' — so the exemption is of the federally taxed portion, and a retiree whose benefits are not federally taxable gets no further North Dakota benefit. One edge the instructions spell out and summaries drop: taxable Tier 1 Social Security equivalent benefits reported on a Form RRB-1099 do not go on this line; they belong on line 8 with other Railroad Retirement Board benefits, which are separately exempt. A retiree receiving both must split line 6b in proportion to the gross amount of each type.
On 401(k) and IRA distributions. North Dakota has NO general exclusion for 401(k), 403(b), 457, or traditional IRA distributions. They are embedded in federal taxable income, which is where the North Dakota return starts, and they are taxed at the graduated rates above. The narrow exception is not an account-type rule: Form ND-1 line 9 excludes certain retirement benefits of a licensed peace officer with at least 20 years of licensed status or who was medically retired, and only benefits issued by the employer's retirement plan. Everyone else pays.
Read the full North Dakota guide →18 min read · Updated 2026-09-03