What’s new in Kansas for 2026: the rate cut that did not fire, and a federal law that mostly passed the K-40 by

For almost every Kansas household the 2026 return will look like the 2025 return. The two brackets are still 5.2% and 5.58%. The standard deduction is still $3,605 single and $8,240 joint, the personal exemption is still $9,160 a person and $18,320 on a joint return, and each dependent is still worth $2,320, because Kansas writes those figures into statute and indexes none of them. The revenue trigger that was supposed to start cutting the rates toward a flat 4% missed its target for the second year in a row. The federal tax law of July 2025 made large changes to the federal return, but nearly all of them sit below the adjusted gross income line, and Kansas starts above it. The genuinely new items are small: a credit of up to $250 for a gun safe, the repeal of a credit almost nobody claimed, and a list of 2027 changes that are not on this return.

The Kansas Department of Revenue announced each of these in a numbered tax notice during 2025 and 2026. Those notices, the 2025 K-40 instruction booklet and the statutes are the sources for what follows; the 2026 booklet had not been published when this was written.

The rates: still 5.2% and 5.58%

Senate Bill 269, passed in 2025, set up a formula rather than a rate cut. Each August 15 the state budget director checks two things about the fiscal year just ended: whether general fund receipts beat the fiscal 2024 base of $5.969 billion adjusted for inflation, and whether the rainy-day fund holds at least 15% of the prior year’s tax receipts. If both tests pass, the Secretary of Revenue publishes lower income tax rates for the following year, with the excess revenue driving the size of the cut, until the bottom rate reaches 4%. If either test fails, nothing happens.

Nothing has happened. The Department’s Notice 25-06, dated October 2, 2025, reported that fiscal 2025 receipts of $6.038 billion fell $88.5 million short of the inflation-adjusted base, so there was no cut for tax year 2026. Notice 26-11, dated October 15, 2026, reported the August 2026 certification: fiscal 2026 receipts were $6.104 billion against an adjusted base of $6.318 billion, a shortfall of $214.3 million. The rainy-day fund passed both years, at 19.1% and then 20.4%; the revenue test is the one that fails, and the gap widened. The 2026 return uses the same schedule as 2025, and so will the 2027 return.

Taxable income here is Kansas taxable income: federal AGI, plus and minus the Schedule S modifications, less the Kansas deduction and exemptions. The walk down the form is in How Kansas income tax works.

The federal law of July 2025, item by item

Kansas conforms to the Internal Revenue Code on a rolling basis: whatever the code says for the year is what Kansas uses, with no vote required. That sounds as if every federal change should land on the K-40. Most did not, and the reason is where they land on the federal return. Form K-40 line 1 is federal adjusted gross income. A federal change that alters AGI, such as a new above-the-line deduction or a depreciation rule, flows through to Kansas automatically. A federal change below the AGI line, such as a larger standard deduction or a new itemized or “below-the-line” deduction, never reaches Kansas at all, because the K-40 replaces everything below AGI with its own deduction and exemptions. No add-back is needed; the income simply never left.

The Department’s 2026 legislative summary does not mention tips, overtime or bonus depreciation, which is consistent with the Legislature having passed nothing on them. Whether the 2026 K-40 booklet will say anything about the federal law is an open question until it is published.

What the Legislature did for 2026

Gun and ammunition storage credit. Senate Bill 82 created a credit for Kansas residents of 25% of what they spend on lockable storage designed primarily for guns and ammunition, up to $250 a year, for tax years 2026 through 2028. It is nonrefundable; anything unused carries forward until it is used up. A $600 safe earns a $150 credit; a $1,000 safe or anything more expensive earns the $250 maximum. The Department’s Notice 26-06 announces it; the form and the K-40 line it goes on will appear with the 2026 forms. Keep the receipt.

PEAK individual credit repealed. The same bill repealed the K-88 credit for individuals receiving income from companies in the Promoting Employment Across Kansas program, along with several business credits, effective July 1, 2026. Notice 26-09 says no individual had ever claimed the K-88, so there are no carryforwards to lose. It will simply be missing from the 2026 forms.

The exemption changes are already in place. Two 2025 bills added a $2,320 exemption for head-of-household filers and a $2,320 exemption for a child born during the year or a certified stillbirth, and raised the exemption for a veteran with a 100% service-connected disability from $2,250 to $2,320. The Department announced all three in Notice 25-07 and they appear on the 2025 K-40, so they carry into 2026 unchanged. A head of household with one child born in 2026 claims $9,160 for herself, $2,320 for head of household, $2,320 for the dependent and $2,320 more for the birth year: $16,120 in exemptions. The details are in Credits and breaks for Kansas families.

Food sales tax credit: second year gone. The credit for low-income households ended with the 2024 return (Notice 25-08) because the state sales tax on groceries fell to 0% on January 1, 2025. It was not on the 2025 K-40 and is not on the 2026 K-40. Local sales tax still applies to groceries.

Senior freeze income test. From the 2025 claim year on, household income for the K-40SVR property tax refund means Kansas adjusted gross income, which leaves out Social Security (Notice 25-05). The 2026 claim, filed in early 2027, uses the same test. The K-40H and K-40PT claims still count income the old way, including Social Security. See Kansas for retirees.

Sales tax for disabled veterans. From July 1, 2026, a Kansas veteran rated 100% disabled or unemployable may buy up to $24,000 of goods a year free of sales tax with an exemption card from the Department. Not an income tax change, but the largest new dollar item of the year for the people it reaches.

Coming in 2027, not on this return

Several 2026 bills take effect for tax years beginning after December 31, 2026. They belong on the return you file in early 2028, and software will not offer them for 2026.

• Health care sharing ministry subtraction (Senate Bill 368, passed over the Governor’s veto): members may subtract qualified sharing expenses up to $5,000 single or $10,000 joint, and shares received for medical bills are not Kansas income (Notice 26-07).
• Portable benefit plan subtraction (House Bill 2602): independent contractors and the businesses that hire them may subtract contributions to a portable benefit plan not already deducted federally.
• Scholarship donation credit (Senate Bill 361): Kansas opted into the new federal section 25F credit for gifts to scholarship-granting organizations, reduced by any Kansas K-70 credit claimed on the same gift.
• Child care credits for employers and donors (Senate Bill 82): a 75% credit for employer-paid child care and a 75% or 50% credit for community contributions replace the old K-56 credit, capped at $100,000 per taxpayer.

The ballot

The only statewide question on the November 3, 2026 ballot was a constitutional amendment on citizenship and voting. Three proposed amendments to cap property tax valuations were introduced in the 2025–26 session and did not reach the ballot. Nothing on the ballot touched the income tax, and the SB 269 trigger remains the only mechanism in law for changing the rates.

What this means for the 2026 return

• Wage earners: nothing changed. Tips and overtime are taxed in full at 5.2% or 5.58%.
• Retirees: nothing changed. Social Security and public pensions are still subtracted on Schedule S; IRAs and private pensions are still taxed. The federal $6,000 senior deduction does not reach Kansas.
• Homeowners: nothing changed on the K-40. Property taxes and mortgage interest are still deductible in full on Kansas Schedule A whether or not you itemized federally. The homestead, SAFESR and senior-freeze refund income limits for the 2026 claim year are to come.
• Families: nothing changed. The Kansas EITC is 17% of the federal credit and the child care credit is 50% of the federal one; each child is a $2,320 exemption.
• Gun owners: a new credit of up to $250 for lockable storage bought in 2026.
• Business owners, landlords and farmers: federal 100% bonus depreciation flows through to Kansas unless the 2026 forms say otherwise (verify).
• Everyone: the rates did not fall, and Notice 26-11 says they will not fall for 2027 either.