Kansas Retirement Income Tax: A Guide for Seniors (2026)

A 2024 law erased one of the harshest features of Kansas tax: the cliff that taxed every dollar of Social Security once your federal adjusted gross income crossed $75,000.1 Starting with the 2024 tax year, Social Security benefits are fully exempt from Kansas income tax, regardless of income. The Kansas retirement income tax still treats pensions unevenly, though. Kansas exempts retirement income by naming specific plans rather than by category: federal civil service and other federal-employment and Armed Forces retirement including Thrift Savings Plans, Railroad Retirement, KPERS annuities, and the other Kansas public systems are on the list.1 Private pensions, out-of-state government pensions, and ordinary IRA or 401(k) withdrawals are not, so for a Kansas resident they stay taxable.1

This guide explains the new Social Security rule, which pensions Kansas exempts, why most IRA and 401(k) withdrawals are taxable, and the one rollover that stays exempt.

In This Guide

• Kansas Retirement Income Tax at a Glance
• How Kansas Decides What Gets Taxed
• Is Your Social Security Taxed in Kansas?
• Which Pensions Are Exempt?
• What About Private Pensions, IRAs, and 401(k)s?
• What the Kansas Retirement Income Tax Change Means for Retirees
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Next Steps

Kansas Retirement Income Tax at a Glance

Kansas now draws a clean line. Social Security is out for everyone. The plans on the state's exempt list are out. Anything not on that list, including private pensions, out-of-state government pensions, and ordinary retirement account withdrawals, stays in a Kansas resident's taxable income. The table below shows where each income type lands.1

Kansas runs a two-bracket income tax of 5.2 percent and 5.58 percent.1 State law sets that schedule for tax year 2024 and every tax year after, unless it is modified under a 2025 law: when the revenue conditions in that law are certified, the secretary of revenue calculates and publishes a rate reduction that takes effect the next tax year.1 The 2025 Kansas income tax booklet applies the 5.2 and 5.58 percent rates to tax year 2025.1 The sources behind this guide do not say whether a reduction has been published for tax year 2026, so confirm the rates for the year you are filing with the Kansas Department of Revenue. Whatever retirement income is taxable falls under that schedule.

How Kansas Decides What Gets Taxed

For years, Kansas had a notorious Social Security "cliff." If your federal adjusted gross income exceeded $75,000, you did not lose part of the exemption. You lost all of it, and every dollar of Social Security became taxable at once. A single dollar of extra income could trigger thousands in added tax. That cliff is gone. A 2024 law passed in a special session, SB 1, fully exempted Social Security for tax years beginning after December 31, 2023.1

With Social Security settled, the rest of the Kansas retirement income tax turns on which plan paid you. Kansas works from an enumerated list rather than a category: Schedule S line A14, "Retirement benefits specifically exempt from Kansas Income Tax," tells the filer to enter benefits received from the plans it then names.1 Anything not on that list, including private pensions, out-of-state government pensions, and ordinary retirement-account withdrawals, stays in Kansas taxable income.1 Kansas relief runs through that plan list rather than through an age threshold, so what matters is which plan paid you, not how old you are.1 The Kansas Department of Revenue publishes both the list and the exceptions to it.

Is Your Social Security Taxed in Kansas?

No. Effective for tax years beginning after December 31, 2023, Kansas fully exempts Social Security benefits from state income tax.1 The prior rule, which taxed Social Security once federal AGI exceeded $75,000, was removed by SB 1. There is now no income limit at all.

The old cliff was not an abstraction. A retiree who nudged just over $75,000, sometimes because of a single required IRA withdrawal, could suddenly owe Kansas tax on their entire Social Security check, a swing of thousands of dollars on their benefits alone. That is the trap the new rule removes. A couple sitting just above $75,000 used to face full taxation of their benefits. Now they keep every dollar. The rule is simple and applies to all filers regardless of income.1

Which Pensions Are Exempt?

The exempt list runs wider than most retirees expect. It covers federal Civil Service Retirement or Disability Fund payments and any other retirement benefits from federal employment or from service in the United States Armed Forces, including Thrift Savings Plans; Railroad Retirement; KPERS annuities; and the other Kansas public systems, among them the Kansas Police and Fireman's Retirement System, Kansas Teacher's Retirement annuities, Kansas Highway Patrol pensions, the Justices and Judges Retirement System, the Board of Public Utilities, State Board of Regents annuity contracts, the Overland Park police and fire plans, Washburn University's retirement plan, and certain first-class-city pensions not covered by KPERS.1

If your pension comes from a Kansas government employer, the federal government, the Armed Forces, or the Railroad Retirement Board, it is not taxed by Kansas. This is one of the more generous pieces of the system and a real advantage for career public servants, veterans, and railroad retirees who retire in state.

One caution sits inside that list. State Board of Regents retirement benefits are exempt as such, but if they are rolled into an unrelated retirement plan, distributions taken from that unrelated plan are subject to Kansas income tax.1 If you moved a Regents annuity into an IRA, confirm the treatment before you file.

What About Private Pensions, IRAs, and 401(k)s?

Here is where Kansas is less forgiving. Kansas exempts only the plans named on Schedule S line A14, and none of the following is on that list, so for a Kansas resident they stay in Kansas taxable income:1

• Private pensions from non-government employers
• Out-of-state public pensions, meaning government pensions earned in another state
• IRA distributions (traditional)
• 401(k) distributions and similar employer-plan withdrawals

If you have moved out of Kansas, this section is not about you: Kansas does not tax amounts received by a nonresident as retirement benefits or pensions, even where they were earned while a Kansas resident, and the same holds for a nonresident's 401(k), 403(b), 457, or IRA money.1

There is no separate exemption for retirement-account income as such, so an ordinary traditional IRA or 401(k) withdrawal is taxable.1

There is one important exception, and it is easy to miss. A KPERS lump sum rolled over into a qualified retirement account stays exempt, and so do its earnings, when you later withdraw them, whether the KPERS money is kept separate from or mixed in with other retirement funds.1 So an IRA or 401(k) withdrawal that traces back to a rolled-over KPERS lump sum is not taxed by Kansas, even though the account it came out of looks like any other. If that describes your account, keep the records that show where the money came from.

The out-of-state distinction catches people off guard: a retired government worker who earned a pension in another state and then moved to Kansas does not get the KPERS-style exemption, because the exemption is for Kansas and federal pensions specifically.

If retirement accounts are a major part of your income, plan for that tax. Retirement accounts for care covers how withdrawals interact with funding care.

What the Kansas Retirement Income Tax Change Means for Retirees

The Social Security change is the headline. It genuinely simplifies planning for many Kansas retirees. With the cliff gone, you no longer have to manage income to the dollar to avoid losing the entire exemption. But the pension and account rules still reward some retirees more than others. A KPERS retiree living on Social Security may owe Kansas almost nothing. A retiree living on a private pension and 401(k) withdrawals is taxed on most of it.1

Consider two single Kansas retirees with identical total income. Both draw part of it from Social Security and part from a second source. The first takes that second slice from a KPERS pension. Both the Social Security and the KPERS pension are exempt, so Kansas taxes essentially nothing. The second takes the same slice from a traditional IRA. The Social Security is still exempt. But the full IRA withdrawal is taxable, so the second retiree pays Kansas tax on that slice under the regular schedule, 5.2 percent and 5.58 percent for tax year 2025.1 Same total income, very different result, driven entirely by the source. This example is illustrative only and not a prediction of your own outcome.

Before the 2024 change, the picture was even starker, because that second retiree could have been pushed over the $75,000 cliff and lost the entire Social Security exemption on top of the IRA tax.1 Removing the cliff took that compounding penalty off the table.

This is general information, not personalized tax advice. Whether a particular pension counts as a Kansas public pension, an out-of-state pension, or a private pension is the kind of classification worth confirming with the Kansas Department of Revenue or a tax professional. If you are mapping how to fund care from these sources, building a senior care funding plan is a good next step.

Next Steps

If you are retired in Kansas, the first thing to confirm is that the new Social Security rule is reflected on your return; after that, sort your pensions and accounts by type.

• Confirm Social Security is fully exempt for your year; the income cliff is gone.
• Check your plan against the exempt list: KPERS and the other Kansas public systems, federal civil service and Armed Forces retirement, and Railroad Retirement are exempt; out-of-state public pensions and private pensions are not on the list, so for a Kansas resident they stay taxable.1
• Plan for tax on IRA and 401(k) withdrawals, unless the money traces to a rolled-over KPERS lump sum, which stays exempt.1
• Estimate your bill on the taxable portion using the 5.2 percent and 5.58 percent rates that applied for tax year 2025.1 A 2025 law can reduce those rates for a later tax year, so check the rates and bracket thresholds for your filing year and status on the Kansas Department of Revenue site before you run the numbers.1

For the official rules, start with the Kansas Department of Revenue individual income FAQ, which spells out the Social Security, KPERS, and rollover rules. If you need to confirm how a specific pension is classified, ask the Kansas Department of Revenue through the contact details on its own site, or ask a tax professional.

If you are weighing how to pay for care, how to pay for senior care lays out the options.

Learn More

Find personalized help making sense of the Kansas retirement income tax 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.