Pension Tax by State Calculator
What your NYC pension keeps where you retire

How your NYC pension is taxed

Two governments can tax your pension: the IRS, and the state you live in. Where you worked doesn't matter after you leave.

• The IRS taxes it as regular income, wherever you live. The taxable part shows on the 1099-R your Pension Fund sends each January. A line-of-duty accident disability pension is generally left out of federal income (IRS).
• New York doesn't tax it. New York leaves pensions from New York State and its cities out of state income, and New York City's income tax starts from the state number. (NY Tax Law §612)
• Once you move, only your new state can tax it. A federal law bars a state from taxing the pension of someone who no longer lives there, so New York couldn't tax it even if it wanted to. Your new state's rules are the ones that count. (4 U.S.C. §114)

So the question isn't whether moving saves you state tax on your pension. In New York you already pay none. The question is whether your new state will start charging it.

Which states tax an NYPD or FDNY pension

From the 2026 rules for a New York City police or fire pension. Many states exempt their own government pensions but not one from New York, so check the column for an out-of-state public pension.

Rules as of 2026-11-03. Sources are linked for each state. State law changes every year, so check your new state's tax department before you move.

What else changes when you move

• Proving you left New York. New York can still tax your other income, such as a job or a 457 withdrawal, until you've truly moved your home. That means a new driver's license and voter registration, and your main home in the new state. New York looks hardest at people who keep a home here.
• Your 457 and IRA withdrawals. New York exempts only the first $20,000 a year of private retirement income for people 59½ and older, and your new state may treat these differently from your pension.
• Social Security, property tax and sales tax. A state with no tax on pensions can cost more in property tax or sales tax.
• Withholding. Tell your Pension Fund your new address and update your tax withholding, so you don't owe a bill in April.
• Retiree health coverage. Check that your plan's doctors and hospitals are where you're going.

What you get for our fee

One fee covers two jobs: planning your whole financial life, and managing your investments. There is no extra charge for either.

1. Your financial plan, built with you and checked every year

We follow the same seven steps that CFP Board sets for financial planning:

1. Understand your situation. Your pension, 457, savings, debts, insurance, family and benefits.
2. Set your goals with you. When you want to stop working, the income you need, and what you want to leave behind.
3. See where your current path leads, and what the other paths look like.
4. Build our recommendations.
5. Walk you through them in plain words, so you know why, not just what.
6. Help you put them in place: opening accounts, moving money, updating beneficiaries.
7. Meet once a year to check progress and update the plan when your life or the rules change.

Where the plan starts: your numbers. We build your budget and cash flow (what comes in and goes out each month) and your balance sheet (what you own and what you owe). Those two pages drive every other decision in the plan.

How we test it. We plan around your goals, such as retiring at a certain age or paying for a child's college. Then we run scenarios, like retiring a year later or taking a different pension option, and a Monte Carlo test. That test runs your plan through thousands of possible market paths to show how often the money lasts. It shows the odds, not a promise.

What the plan covers:

• Retirement income. When to draw from your pension, 457, IRAs and savings, in what order, and when to claim Social Security.
• Tax planning. Keeping more of what you earn: which state to live in and when to switch, which account to draw from first, staying in lower tax brackets, and Roth conversions in low-income years.
• Roth IRAs. You pay tax on the money going in, and qualified withdrawals come out tax-free. You are never forced to take money out during your lifetime. For 2026 you can put in up to $7,500, or $8,600 at age 50 and up, if your income is under the IRS limits.
• Opening the right accounts. Traditional and Roth IRAs, individual and joint accounts, set up and titled to match the plan.
• 401(k), 403(b) and 457 rollovers. If moving the money makes sense, we have it sent straight to the new account. That avoids the 20% tax withholding that comes with a check made out to you. Sometimes leaving the money in your plan is the better choice, and we will tell you when it is.
• Insurance planning. Making sure your life, disability, long-term care and home coverage fit the risks you actually have. We do not sell insurance and take no commissions.
• Estate planning. Your beneficiaries, account titles, will and powers of attorney, checked so they all say the same thing as your plan.

2. Your investments, managed all year by Will Harrison

Will Harrison, our Chief Investment Officer, runs the portfolios, and most of the work is research you never see. He studies and follows the companies we own and the ones we might own: their results, their managers, and the trends around them. He decides what to buy, when to add, and when to sell, and he writes up his thinking every quarter in Inside the Portfolio. His approach:

• He owns good businesses. Companies with steady cash flow, strong returns, an edge competitors struggle to copy, and managers who own a real stake.
• He thinks in years, not quarters. He judges each holding on what it can earn over three to ten years, not on the latest headline.
• He buys when others are scared. When a price falls but the business is still doing well, he adds to it.
• He keeps risk in check. New ideas start small, winners get trimmed when better ideas come along, and he will not chase the biggest names just because they dominate the index.

Day to day, the portfolio work also includes:

• Rebalancing. When markets push your mix off target, we bring it back. That means trimming what went up and buying what went down, which is hard to make yourself do.
• Tax-loss harvesting. When an investment in a regular taxable account is down, we can sell it to lock in the loss and buy something similar so you stay invested. The loss can cancel out taxable gains, and up to $3,000 a year of other income, with the rest carried to later years. It does not apply inside IRAs or 457s, where there is no tax on gains to save.
• Watching for wash sales. The IRS throws out the loss if the same or a nearly identical investment is bought within 30 days before or after the sale, and that includes buys in your IRA or Roth IRA. We plan the replacement purchase around that window so the loss counts.
• Putting each holding in the right account. Investments that pay a lot of taxable income go in IRAs, where they grow tax-deferred. Ones that are taxed lightly go in taxable accounts.

What research says advice is worth

Vanguard's research estimates that advisers who follow practices like these can add about 3 percentage points a year to net returns. The biggest piece, about 1.5 points, comes from coaching people to stay invested when markets drop. Vanguard is clear that this is not a steady yearly number. It shows up unevenly, mostly when markets panic or soar, and it varies a lot from person to person. These are Vanguard's estimates across many investors, not a promise of what we will add for you. Sources: Vanguard Advisor's Alpha and its research paper (February 2019).

How we are paid

We charge a percentage of what we manage, and we take no commissions. From our Form ADV brochure, Items 5 and 6:

• 1% a year for first responders, active military, reserve and veterans.
• 2% a year for other clients with accounts under $1.1 million.
• Over $1.1 million: 0.5% a year plus 25% of profits above a 4% return.

The fee is taken from your account each month for the month before. Trading costs and the funds' own expenses are separate. How your adviser gets paid, in full.

Who we are

Sirmium Capital LLC is a small, independent investment firm in New York, registered as an investment adviser with the State of New York. You can look us up on the SEC's public adviser database under CRD #167682, where our full brochure is posted.