New Hampshire for retirees: nothing on the pension, nothing now on the dividends, and the April 15 trip to town hall

A retired New Hampshire resident owes the state nothing on income of any kind for 2026. There is no return, so there is no pension exclusion to compute, no Social Security subtraction, no age-based credit and no question of whether a Roth conversion or a lump-sum rollover is taxable here. Until the 2024 tax year the one exception was the Interest and Dividends Tax, which reached dividends and interest in a taxable account above $2,400 ($4,800 joint), with a further $1,200 exemption at 65; a retiree with $20,000 of dividends paid $528 on the final, 3% return for 2024. That tax was repealed for taxable periods beginning after December 31, 2024, so the 2025 and 2026 years have nothing. The IRS taxes the same income exactly as it does anywhere: up to 85% of Social Security by the provisional-income formula, pensions and IRA withdrawals as ordinary income, Roth conversions in the year converted. Where age matters in New Hampshire is the property tax, and the two age-based programs there both run on household income, both key off April 1, and both have deadlines in the spring.

Because the state return is missing, the mistakes retirees make here are federal ones made more likely by the gap. Nothing is withheld for a state, so a retiree used to a state refund covering a federal shortfall has no cushion. The SALT deduction has no state income tax in it, so itemizing rarely pays. And the property tax programs, which are the only age-based breaks the state offers, are applied for at the assessor’s office with a stack of income documents, not claimed on a return where software would catch them.

What is not taxed

The $6,000-per-person federal senior deduction for 2025 through 2028 has no New Hampshire counterpart because there is no New Hampshire return for it to appear on.

The repeal changes one retiree habit. For a century the sensible New Hampshire investor held dividend-paying stock inside the IRA, where the Interest and Dividends Tax could not reach it, and growth stock outside. That is no longer a state consideration. The federal reasons for locating assets remain, but the state no longer cares what the brokerage account throws off.

The federal lines that still bite

Social Security. The provisional-income test, half of the benefit plus all other income including tax-exempt interest, decides how much of the benefit is taxed federally: nothing below $25,000 single or $32,000 joint, up to 50% above those figures, up to 85% above $34,000 and $44,000. The thresholds have never been indexed. A New Hampshire retiree whose Roth conversion or IRA withdrawal lifts provisional income across one of them pays federal tax on more of the benefit, and the state’s silence on the subject does not change that.

IRMAA. Medicare Part B and Part D premiums rise for a household whose modified adjusted gross income two years earlier was above the first IRMAA threshold, $109,000 single and $218,000 joint for 2026 premiums. A large conversion in 2026 sets the 2028 premium. This is the real cost of a Roth conversion in New Hampshire, since there is no state cost at all.

Withholding. With no state tax, a New Hampshire retiree’s only withholding is what the custodian takes for the IRS. A household living on Social Security, a pension and an IRA with nothing withheld meets the federal underpayment penalty in April unless it pays estimates or has tax withheld. The federal safe harbors, 100% of last year’s tax or 110% for higher incomes, apply here as everywhere. The simplest fix is a Form W-4P with the pension payer and withholding on a December IRA withdrawal, which the IRS treats as paid evenly through the year. Any state withholding box on a 1099-R for a New Hampshire address should be empty.

The SALT line. A New Hampshire itemizer’s state and local tax deduction is the property tax plus the deductible town registration fee on the car. There is no state income tax to add and no general sales tax to elect. For a couple both over 65 the 2026 standard deduction is $32,200 plus the additional amounts for age, plus the $12,000 senior deduction, so it takes a very large property tax bill or a mortgage to make itemizing pay. Most retired New Hampshire couples take the standard deduction.

Roth conversions, and the income tests at town hall

A Roth conversion done while a New Hampshire resident costs the federal tax and nothing more. For a retiree who moved here from a state that taxed conversions, the years between retirement and the first required minimum distribution at 73 are the window to convert at the federal rate alone. The federal cautions, Social Security taxation, IRMAA, and the loss of the 0% capital-gain rate for the year, are the only cautions.

There is one New Hampshire-specific trap, and it is on the property tax side. Both of the age-based programs count income. The town’s elderly exemption uses the applicant’s net income from the prior calendar year against a limit the town sets at or above the statutory minimum, and the town’s definition counts income from nearly all sources, Social Security included. The state’s DP-8 relief uses total household federal adjusted gross income, which a conversion increases dollar for dollar. A $40,000 conversion in a year when the town’s income limit is $45,000 can cost the household the elderly exemption for the following year and the DP-8 check for the current one. The remedy is to look at the town’s limit before converting, and to convert in a year when the exemption is not at stake, or in an amount that stays under the line.

What New Hampshire gives seniors instead

The age-based breaks are on the property tax bill and they go through the town assessor, not the Department of Revenue Administration.

The elderly exemption. Every town must offer one, in three tiers: 65 to 74, 75 to 79, and 80 and over, with the exemption amount for each tier set by the town, at a statutory minimum of $5,000 and in practice often $50,000 to $200,000 or more of assessed value in the larger towns. To qualify the applicant must have been a New Hampshire resident for at least three consecutive years before April 1 of the tax year, must own the home (or hold it through a revocable trust or life estate, with Form PA-33 attached), and must meet the town’s income and asset limits, which the town sets at or above the statutory minimums of $13,400 of net income single and $20,400 married, and $35,000 of net assets excluding the home and up to two acres. Many towns set limits several times the minimum. The application is Form PA-29, filed with the town assessor by April 15 of the tax year, and the town may ask for it again periodically.

The deferral. A homeowner 65 or older who has owned the home for at least five consecutive years, or a disabled homeowner who has owned it for one year, may ask the town to defer all or part of the tax at 5% annual interest, up to 85% of the equity in the home, on Form PA-30 by March 1 after the final bill. The deferred tax and interest become a lien and are paid when the house is sold or the estate settles. It is a loan from the town at 5%, which for a house-rich, cash-poor retiree is often a better rate than a reverse mortgage.

The state’s relief check. Low and Moderate Income Homeowners Property Tax Relief refunds part of the statewide education portion of the bill to a homeowner who owned and lived in the home on April 1 and whose household adjusted gross income was $37,000 or less single or $47,000 or less married or head of a New Hampshire household on the 2025 claim; the 2026 claim figures are to come. The claim, Form DP-8 with a copy of the federal return and the final property tax bill, is filed with the Department only between May 1 and June 30 of the following year. The whole program, with the veterans’ credits that sit beside it, is in Property tax relief in New Hampshire.