Georgia Retirement Income Tax: No Social Security Tax, Pension Break

Georgia retirement income tax leaves Social Security untaxed and lets each resident 65 or older exclude up to $65,000 of other retirement income. Residents aged 62 to 64, or under 62 and permanently and totally disabled, can exclude up to $35,000. Both amounts are the ones printed in Georgia's 2025 IT-511 instruction booklet. The exclusion is claimed per person and not per household, so a married couple who both qualify can each claim their own. Income above the exclusion is taxed at Georgia's flat rate.1

How Georgia Taxes Social Security and Pensions

Social Security first, because it is the cleanest rule. Georgia does not tax Social Security benefits. Your payment from the Social Security Administration is excluded from Georgia taxable income entirely, and it does not even count toward the cap on the retirement exclusion described below. So Social Security comes to you whole.1

Pensions and retirement-account withdrawals are taxable in principle, but Georgia softens that heavily with the Retirement Income Exclusion. According to the Georgia Department of Revenue, this break lets older residents subtract retirement income before the tax is figured: up to $35,000 at ages 62 to 64, or under 62 and permanently and totally disabled, and up to $65,000 at 65 or older, as the 2025 IT-511 instruction booklet prints them. It is broad about what counts as retirement income: pensions, annuities, taxable IRA distributions, interest, dividends, net rental income, capital gains, and royalties all qualify, along with a limited amount of earned income.1

Age is the gate. The Department of Revenue allows the exclusion provided the taxpayer is 62 or older, or totally and permanently disabled. If you are under 62 and not disabled, you do not meet that condition.1

The amount then depends on your age. If you are 62 to 64, or permanently and totally disabled and under 62, you can exclude up to $35,000. Once you turn 65, that rises to up to $65,000. The 2025 IT-511 instruction booklet, the one the Department of Revenue points filers to for the amount, prints both figures. Stacked on top of untaxed Social Security, the exclusion can cover all of a retiree's pension and IRA income when that income comes in under the cap.1

Each Spouse Claims Their Own Exclusion

Georgia's exclusion is claimed per taxpayer, not per household.1

That changes the math for married couples. If both spouses are 65 or older, each one can exclude up to $65,000 of retirement income. That can double the shelter for the household, on top of their Social Security, which is already untaxed.1

Each spouse has to qualify separately, and each claims the exclusion on a separate basis. The 2025 IT-511 booklet also says whose income is whose. Income is allocated to the person who owns the item, and income from anything held jointly is allocated to each spouse at 50 percent.1 The booklet's retirement income exclusion instructions are where you sort your own accounts into those two groups.

Do not assume a spouse with little retirement income can hand an unused exclusion to the other. If most of your retirement income sits with one spouse, work through the IT-511 instruction booklet, or ask a tax preparer who files Georgia returns, before you count on two full exclusions.

One more limit to know: of the income you exclude, no more than $5,000 can be earned income, such as wages. The exclusion is built for retirement income, not for a full-time paycheck. A retiree with a small part-time job can shelter up to $5,000 of those wages under the exclusion; earnings above that are not covered by it.1

If you go looking for that number yourself, be ready to find two of them. Georgia's own publications disagree: the 2025 IT-511 individual income tax booklet states that up to $5,000 of the maximum allowable exclusion may be earned income, and Form 500 Schedule 1 (Rev. 07/09/25) and the booklet's part-year worksheet both work from a "Max Earned Income 5,000" line, while the Department of Revenue's retirees FAQ and Rule 560-7-4-.02 still print the older $4,000.1 We follow the booklet and the form a filer actually files, which is the $5,000 figure. If your preparer works from the FAQ, point them at the IT-511 instructions.

One condition applies to the exclusion itself, not to what it covers: part-year residents and nonresidents must prorate the retirement exclusion rather than claiming the full amount.1 If you moved into or out of Georgia partway through the year, the $35,000 or $65,000 ceiling is reduced accordingly, and the IT-511 part-year worksheet is where that calculation is done.

Where the numbers go: the form behind them is Georgia Form 500 Schedule 1, Adjustments to Income, filled in with the instructions in the 2025 IT-511 booklet.1 On Form 500 itself, Line 8 is your federal adjusted gross income, Line 9 is the total of the Georgia adjustments from Schedule 1, and Line 10 is Georgia adjusted gross income. Line 13 then subtracts Line 11, the standard deduction, or Line 12c from Line 10. Part-year residents and nonresidents skip Lines 9 through 14 and follow the Schedule 3 instructions instead.1

Military and Railroad Retirement

Veterans and rail workers ask about these two constantly, and Georgia handles them differently.

Railroad Retirement benefits are treated like Social Security. Georgia does not tax Railroad Retirement benefits reported on your federal return, and they do not count against the exclusion cap.1

Military retirement pay has its own, separate exclusion, and it is written for retirees under 62. The 2025 IT-511 booklet lists a Military Retirement Income exclusion among its subtractions: up to $17,500 of military retirement income can be excluded for taxpayers under 62 years of age, and an additional $17,500 can be excluded for those taxpayers who have more than $17,500 of earned income in Georgia.1 It is available to the taxpayer and their spouse, but each must qualify on a separate basis. If both spouses qualify, each may claim those amounts.1

Part-year residents and nonresidents can claim the $17,500 against the total military retirement income they received. They can claim the additional $17,500 only after meeting the earned income threshold with Georgia-source earned income.1 Form 500 Schedule 1 (Rev. 07/09/25) labels the line "Military Retirement Income Exclusion (Must be under 62 years of age)" and computes it on Schedule 1, page 3.1

That label is as far as our sources go on age. The booklet does not spell out how military retirement pay is treated once you reach 62, so this guide doesn't either. If you are a military retiree at or near 62, ask the Georgia Department of Revenue directly, or use a tax preparer who files Georgia returns for veterans, before you count on a figure.

If you have a VA disability rating, our guide to Georgia disabled veteran benefits by VA rating covers the state benefits tied to it.

Georgia Retirement Income Tax at a Glance

Here is Georgia retirement income tax condensed into the figures that decide your bill.

Georgia's Flat Income Tax Rate

Georgia taxes income at a single flat rate, and that rate has come down. The 2025 IT-511 booklet states that, effective January 1, 2025, the income tax rate is 5.19 percent, and the Georgia Department of Revenue lists the reduction to a flat 4.99 percent among its 2026 income tax changes.1

Because the rate changed from one year to the next, do not treat any single number as permanent, and match the rate to the tax year you are filing for. Check the current year's rate on the Georgia Department of Revenue site or the year's Form 500 instructions before you do your own math. A lower rate is good news for retirees, but it also means an older guide can overstate what you owe.

The flat rate only touches income that survives the exclusion and then the standard deduction. The 2025 IT-511 booklet's instructions for Form 500 Line 11 give the Georgia standard deduction as $24,000 for married filing jointly and $12,000 for single, married filing separately, head of household, or qualifying surviving spouse. If you itemize on your federal return, you leave Line 11 blank. If you take the standard deduction on your federal return, you must use the Georgia standard deduction on your Georgia return.1

Here is an illustration that keeps to the 2025 booklet's figures from start to finish. A single 67-year-old lives in Georgia all year, has no dependents, and takes the standard deduction. Her only income besides Social Security is $80,000 from a pension and an IRA, all of it retirement income that qualifies. The $65,000 exclusion leaves $15,000. The $12,000 standard deduction leaves $3,000. At 5.19 percent, the Georgia income tax on that $3,000 is $155.70. Social Security is not part of the sum.1 Federal income tax is a separate bill and is not counted in this illustration.

Now take a married couple, both 65 or older, each drawing a $60,000 pension. Each pension is under $65,000, so each spouse's exclusion can cover it and the flat rate has no pension income left to reach. Both cases are illustrations, not returns. They leave out credits and anything else a real return carries, so yours will differ.1

The 2026 figures are a separate set. Alongside the 4.99 percent rate, the Department of Revenue lists among its 2026 income tax changes an increase in the Georgia standard deduction to $15,000 for single taxpayers, heads of households, and married taxpayers filing separately, or $30,000 for married taxpayers filing jointly.1 Keep each year's numbers together: don't pair the 4.99 percent rate with the 2025 booklet's $12,000 or $24,000. The $35,000 and $65,000 exclusion amounts in this guide are the ones the 2025 booklet prints.

What Georgia Retirement Income Tax Leaves for a Care Budget

Social Security is untaxed. Up to $65,000 of other retirement income per person 65 or older is excluded under the 2025 IT-511 booklet. The flat rate on the rest is 5.19 percent effective January 1, 2025, and the Department of Revenue lists a flat 4.99 percent among its 2026 income tax changes.1

That strengthens the income side of a care budget. You price home care, an assisted living fee, or a long-term care premium from net income. In the illustration above, the 67-year-old with $80,000 of pension and IRA income owes $155.70 of Georgia income tax on it.1 That is the Georgia bill only. Federal income tax is separate and is not counted here, so the $155.70 is not what stands between that income and the care budget. A couple that fits its retirement income under two exclusions has more room still.

There is a timing angle too. The exclusion rises from $35,000 to $65,000 at age 65. A retiree in their early sixties who is about to draw heavily on a pension or IRA may pay less tax by waiting for the larger exclusion.1

That only works if the care timeline allows it. Care needs do not wait for a birthday. If you have room to plan, ask a tax preparer whether shifting a withdrawal a year or two changes your bill enough to matter.

Care still has to be paid for, and the tax break is only one piece of that. If you are building out the full plan, see how to pay for senior care for the range of funding sources, building a senior care funding plan for how to order them, and using retirement accounts for care for how drawing down a retirement account interacts with the exclusion.

Learn More

Find personalized help planning around Georgia retirement income tax and the cost of care at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.