6 of the 37 jurisdictions we publish tax Social Security benefits for at least some filers: Connecticut, Minnesota, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia. The other 31 do not tax benefits at all.
The headline number overstates the problem. 6 of these 6 exempt benefits entirely below an income threshold, so a retiree of ordinary means in most of them owes nothing on Social Security. What matters is your income, not the state's name on a list.
Retirement treatment shown for tax year 2025, the most recent year for which states have published these rules. Rate schedules elsewhere on this site are for a later tax year; the two are verified separately and are labelled separately.
| Jurisdiction | Exempt below (single) | Exempt below (joint) | Above the limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connecticut | $75,000 | $100,000 | Phases out gradually |
| Minnesota | $84,490 | $108,320 | Phases out gradually |
| New Mexico | $100,000 | $150,000 | Cliff — exemption lost |
| Rhode Island | $107,000 | $133,500 | Cliff — exemption lost |
| Vermont | $50,000 | $65,000 | Phases out gradually |
| West Virginia | $50,000 | $100,000 | Phases out gradually |
A dash means the state publishes no threshold for that filing status, not that the threshold is zero. Where a state taxes benefits on the same basis as the federal return, there is no state threshold at all.
Benefits are fully exempt where federal AGI is under $75,000 (single, married filing separately) or under $100,000 (married filing jointly, head of household, qualifying surviving spouse). Above those thresholds a partial deduction phases out.
Source: Connecticut Department of Revenue Services — Connecticut Tax Tips for Senior Citizens (retrieved 2026-09-04)
Benefits included in federal AGI may be subtracted in full below the threshold. Above it the subtraction phases out by 10% for each $4,000 of AGI over the limit ($2,000 for married filing separately, threshold $54,160). A taxpayer may instead use an alternative provisional-income method from the Schedule M1M instructions.
Source: Minnesota Department of Revenue — Social Security Benefit Subtraction (retrieved 2026-09-04)
Benefits are fully exempt below the income threshold: under $100,000 single, under $150,000 married filing jointly, surviving spouse and head of household, under $75,000 married filing separately. Above the threshold benefits are taxable; the exemption is a cliff, not a phase-out.
Source: New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department — Social Security Income Tax Exemption (retrieved 2026-09-04)
The Social Security modification requires the filer to have reached full retirement age as defined by the Social Security Administration and to have federal AGI at or below $107,000 (single, head of household, married filing separately) or $133,500 (married filing jointly, qualifying surviving spouse) for tax year 2025.
Source: Rhode Island Division of Taxation — Publication 2026-01, Rhode Island Retirement Income Tax Guide (tax year 2025) (retrieved 2026-09-04)
The exemption applies in full up to AGI of $50,000 for filers other than joint, phasing out between $50,000 and $60,000. For married filing jointly and civil union partners filing jointly it applies in full up to $65,000, phasing out between $65,000 and $75,000.
Source: Vermont Department of Taxes — Seniors and Retirees (retrieved 2026-09-04)
Taxpayers with federal AGI of $50,000 or less ($100,000 or less filing jointly) have had a 100% decreasing modification since tax year 2022. HB 4880 (2024) phases in a modification for those above the threshold: 35% from tax year 2024, reaching 100% in 2026. From tax year 2026 the modification is therefore full at every income.
Source: West Virginia Tax Division — Social Security Modification (retrieved 2026-09-04)
State taxation of Social Security has been shrinking for years, and two changes in this dataset show it. West Virginia's phase-in under HB 4880 reaches a 100% modification in tax year 2026, which removes the last West Virginia filers who owed anything on benefits. Kansas removed its $75,000 income cliff entirely for tax years from 2024, and Missouri exempted benefits in full for filers aged 62 and over from the same year.
That trend is why a list like this one needs a date on it. A page that says "these states tax Social Security" without naming a tax year is describing a world that has probably already changed.
See also states that tax no retirement income at all and the full retirement treatment table.
These are the rules a state applies to retirement income, not a calculation of your bill. Whether a particular pension or account qualifies for an exclusion usually turns on the plan, your age, your service history and your income — facts this dataset does not hold about you.
14 jurisdictions are withheld from every figure and count on this page because we could not establish the treatment from a primary source: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Utah. They are excluded rather than estimated. That is deliberate: a wrong "does not tax Social Security" is exactly the kind of claim someone moves house on.
How we verify this data · Sources · Disclaimer — this is published information, not tax advice.