State Tax on Social Security 2026: Eight States, Thresholds

The eight states in one table

Read this as tax year 2025, the year whose returns are filed in 2026. The federal rule underneath is IRC section 86, covered on our page on how much Social Security is taxable with rental and K-1 income: up to 50% of benefits is taxable above $25,000 (single) or $32,000 (joint) of provisional income and up to 85% above $34,000 or $44,000. The states start from that federal taxable amount, then subtract some or all of it.

Colorado’s age test and Montana’s absence of any Social Security rule are the two results that surprised us against the press lists we started from, which put both in the same bucket as Vermont. For a retiree with large income they are opposites: at 65 Colorado subtracts everything, while Montana taxes the federal taxable amount with only its general age-65 subtraction.

What a $250,000 household actually gets

The table is easiest to read with a case. Take a couple filing jointly, both 66, with $48,000 of benefits. Their other income is large enough that 85% of the benefits is taxable at the federal level, which is $40,800 (our arithmetic: 85% x $48,000). Total AGI is $200,000.

In Utah the credit is zero once modified AGI reaches the threshold plus 1.8 times the taxable benefits, because 0.045 divided by 0.025 is 1.8 (our arithmetic). A single filer with $30,000 of taxable benefits loses the whole credit at $108,000 ($54,000 plus 1.8 x $30,000). The Utah Tax Commission’s TC-40A worksheet uses Utah taxable income plus some add-backs rather than plain AGI, so treat AGI here as a proxy.

Minnesota: the cliff is ten steps wide

Minnesota is the only one of these states with two methods. The simplified subtraction is the taxable benefits on Form 1040 line 6b, reduced by 10% for each $4,000 of AGI over the line, or fraction of $4,000 (Minn. Stat. 290.0132 subd. 26(c)). The Schedule M1M worksheet divides the excess by $4,000, rounds up and stops at ten. Any excess over $36,000 therefore reaches ten steps, which is why the zero point is $120,490 single and $144,320 joint for 2025. The alternative method is a fixed maximum, $4,560 single and $5,840 joint, reduced by 20% of provisional income over $69,250 or $88,630. The return takes the greater of the two. The Department of Revenue’s 2026 inflation table raises the simplified lines to $86,410 and $110,780 and leaves the alternative amounts not indexed.

Rhode Island and West Virginia: the two that are changing

Rhode Island’s modification needs three things: taxable benefits in federal AGI, full retirement age under Social Security rules, and AGI under the limit. The Division of Taxation’s advisory ADV 2025-22 puts the 2025 limit at $107,000 for single and head-of-household filers and $133,750 for joint filers; the Retirement Income Guide for tax year 2025 prints $133,500 for joint. The Division’s 2026 summary of legislative changes says the FY2027 budget, House Bill 7127 Substitute A, eliminates the age requirement for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2027 and keeps the income threshold. That adds people under full retirement age who are below the income line; it does nothing for a household above it. The same guide raised the pension and annuity modification from $20,000 to $50,000 per person for 2025.

West Virginia’s Tax Division says taxable benefits became 100% exempt from tax year 2022 for federal AGI of $50,000 or less ($100,000 joint), then phased in a decreasing modification above that: 35% for tax year 2024, 65% for 2025 and 100% for 2026. The page adds that a taxpayer takes the higher of the $8,000 senior modification or the sum of the itemized modifications, which include taxable benefits. West Virginia is therefore a state where a high-income retiree stops owing tax on benefits with the 2026 return, filed in 2027.

Pensions, IRAs, rental and K-1 income

Social Security is one line in these states; the other retirement income is where the money usually is. What we read:

The practical rule is the one our federal page already shows: rental net income, K-1 income, REIT and BDC dividends and a Roth conversion enter AGI and the provisional-income test. In these states they also move AGI across a state cutoff, so a year with a large conversion or a property sale can cost the whole exclusion in Vermont, New Mexico, Rhode Island or Minnesota even if the next year does not. For the federal side see our Roth conversion calculator.

Bills that lost, and what we could not confirm

Colorado SB25-136, which would have removed the pension and annuity caps from 2026, shows status Lost on the General Assembly page. HB26-1062, the 2026 version for tax years from January 1, 2027, was postponed indefinitely by the House Committee on Finance. Colorado’s rules therefore stand as written above. New Mexico’s SB 156 (2026) proposed removing the income cap; its Legislative Finance Committee fiscal impact report was last updated February 3, 2026. We could not retrieve the Legislature’s action history for it, so we do not state its outcome; the 2025 PIT-ADJ still prints the caps, and the 2026 form is not out.

We read primary documents for nine states. The Utah Legislature’s research brief counts nine states that tax Social Security in some capacity, and the nine it lists are the nine here. We did not read the statutes of the other 41 states and the District of Columbia, so this page makes no claim about them beyond that count.

Estate and property tax on the same retirees

Several of these states also levy an estate tax. If you are weighing a move, read the state page next to this one: Connecticut, Minnesota, Rhode Island and Vermont, or the full state list. Property tax relief for seniors is on our senior property tax exemption page, and state treatment of Treasury interest in our state tax on Treasury interest table. Next year’s benefit amounts are on our 2027 cost-of-living page.

What a reader can do with this

• Find your state’s line and your own AGI. Last year’s Form 1040 line 11 is the starting point. Compare it with the single or joint line in the table, and with the zero point in Minnesota and Utah, which sit above the printed line.
• Look at the year, not only the income. A one-time sale, conversion or large K-1 can put AGI over the cutoff for one year. In an all-or-nothing state such as New Mexico or Rhode Island that costs the whole exclusion; in Vermont and Minnesota it is proportional.
• Check the age and filing status tests. Colorado turns on age 65 and Rhode Island, until 2027, on full retirement age. Vermont puts separate filers, heads of household and surviving spouses on the single line.
• Do not trust a one-line list. Colorado at 65 and Montana are not the same kind of state, and the Vermont and Rhode Island official pages carry figures that disagree with their own statute or guide.
• Watch the dates. Tax year 2026 forms for Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Vermont, Montana and New Mexico are published from late 2026 into early 2027, and the figures can change. A planner or CPA in the state can run the actual return.

This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.

FAQ

Sources, read and saved on October 22, 2026: Colorado Department of Revenue, Income Tax Topics: Social Security, Pensions and Annuities (revised January 2025), and General Assembly pages for SB25-136 and HB26-1062; Connecticut DRS, 2025 Form CT-1040 Instructions (Rev. 12/25); Minnesota Department of Revenue, 2025 Schedule M1M, Social Security Benefit Subtraction page and inflation-adjusted amounts for 2026, and Minn. Stat. 290.0132; Montana Department of Revenue, 2025 Form 2 Instructions and Overview of Changes to Form 2; New Mexico Taxation and Revenue, 2025 PIT-ADJ Instructions, and the Legislative Finance Committee fiscal impact report for SB 156 (2026); Rhode Island Division of Taxation, ADV 2025-22, Retirement Income Guide 2026-01 and the 2026 summary of legislative changes; Utah S.B. 71 (2025) as enrolled, the Tax Commission’s 2025 TC-40A instructions and the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel brief of June 17, 2025; Vermont Department of Taxes Social Security Exemption page and 32 V.S.A. section 5830e; West Virginia Tax Division, Social Security Modification page. The example figures, zero points and group counts are our arithmetic from those documents.