What Wisconsin 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.
Wisconsin guide
On the ordinary retirement profile — $34,000 of Social Security and $61,000 of plan distributions — Wisconsin takes $936 a year in state income tax.
That is the number people compare, and it is the smallest of three. Property tax adds about $4,594 on the state's $358,877 median home, and insurance another $2,465. The three together come to $7,995, placing Wisconsin 28th of 50.
A note before you start. This is general education, not tax advice. Every Wisconsin 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 income threshold, no phase-out, and no age condition. The Department of Revenue states it flatly: social security benefits are not taxable by Wisconsin. Railroad retirement benefits are likewise not taxable, whether treated federally as a social security equivalent benefit or as a pension or annuity, because federal law prohibits states from taxing them.
On 401(k) and IRA distributions. New and substantial, and it carries a trap. Starting with the 2025 taxable year, an individual who is at least 67 years of age before the close of the taxable year may subtract up to $24,000 of qualifying retirement income — taxable distributions from a qualified retirement plan or an IRA. A married couple filing jointly where both spouses are at least 67 at the close of the year may subtract up to $48,000, regardless of how the retirement income splits between them; if only one spouse is 67, the couple's maximum is $24,000, so the $48,000 figure recorded for married-joint is conditional on both spouses qualifying. the trap, and it is severe: an individual who claims this subtraction may not claim any tax credit on Schedule CR or Form 1/1NPR for that taxable year. That means forgoing every credit otherwise computed for the year, including carryforward amounts that would have been generated, and being unable to use any credit carried forward from a prior year to offset that year's tax. For a filer with meaningful credits, claiming the subtraction can cost more than it saves, and it must be computed both ways.
Read the full Wisconsin guide →19 min read · Updated 2026-09-03