he proposed the Retire Tax Free plan, which plans to eliminate the Kansas income tax on Social Security benefits, pensions, and distributions from retirement accounts such as 401K’s
Eliminate Kansas income tax on Social Security benefits, pensions, and retirement-account distributions.
Occurrences
his new proposal that would eliminate state retirement taxes for retirees
Evidence
Kansas law currently excludes from Kansas income tax amounts received as Social Security benefits included in federal AGI for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2023. The same statute also lists several retirement-related subtractions, including certain retirement and pension benefits paid to retired federal employees, armed forces retirees, railroad retirees, and some city and board of public utilities retirees.
Kansas statute 79-32,110a still imposes a tax on ordinary income portions of lump-sum distributions from pension and other plans. That is direct evidence that retirement-account distributions are not fully eliminated from Kansas income tax law.
Assessments
Kansas law has eliminated state income tax on Social Security benefits for tax years after December 31, 2023, and it exempts some pension and retirement benefits. However, the promise covered Social Security benefits, pensions, and retirement-account distributions broadly. The evidence shows Kansas still taxes at least some ordinary income portions of lump-sum pension and plan distributions, so the full promised elimination has not been delivered. Because a substantial part of the promised outcome exists in Kansas law but the universal pension and retirement-account exemption is incomplete, this is partial rather than delivered.