Leavenworth, KS
Retirement Planning in Leavenworth
Fort Leavenworth alone accounts for 9,552 of the city's jobs, 69.9% of total city employment. Add the VA Medical Center, the school district, and a private university, and most Leavenworth careers end in a military pension, a federal annuity, or KPERS, all of which Kansas exempts outright. The real question here isn't what's exempt. It's what's left, and how it's taxed.
Why Leavenworth
Planning built for Leavenworth retirees
Leavenworth County · about 45 minutes northwest · K-7 at 4th Street
The city's 2025 audited employer schedule, sourced to the Kansas Statistical Abstract and the Leavenworth County Development Corporation, ranks Fort Leavenworth first at 9,552, the Eisenhower VA Medical Center second at 900, Leavenworth USD 453 third at 642, the University of Saint Mary fourth at 516, Leavenworth County fifth at 426, and the United States Penitentiary ninth at 300.
The Army describes Fort Leavenworth as the oldest continuously operating military installation west of the Mississippi River, home to the Combined Arms Center. A career that ends there in a military pension, continues at the VA as a federal civilian, and pairs with a spouse's USD 453 KPERS pension produces three income streams Kansas does not tax, and an IRA it taxes in full.
Leavenworth's largest employers are federal or public almost without exception, which is why the Kansas exemption list matters more here than anywhere else on this site. The cards below use the city's 2025 audited schedule.
Fort Leavenworth
9,552 employees and 69.9% of city employment on the 2025 schedule, up from 4,185 nine years earlier. Military retirement and federal civilian annuities earned here are both exempt from Kansas income tax under K.S.A. 79-32,117(c)(vii).
Dwight D. Eisenhower VA Medical Center
900 employees, second on the 2025 schedule, plus 380 more at the VA Consolidated Patient Center. Federal civil service retirement from either is exempt in Kansas; a private 403(b) or IRA saved alongside it is not.
Leavenworth USD 453
642 employees, third on the 2025 schedule. District staff are KPERS members, and Kansas exempts KPERS benefits under K.S.A. 74-4923(b) while taxing the 403(b) beside that pension in full.
Kansas Taxes
What Kansas leaves taxable in a Leavenworth retirement
Kansas income tax law as of tax year 2026 · verified August 2026
K.S.A. 79-32,117(c)(vii) exempts retirement benefits earned for federal employment or armed forces service, in any form, and (c)(ii) carries the KPERS exemption through too. Since tax year 2024, Social Security is subtracted in full, no income limit. Built your career around the Fort, the VA, and the district? Most of your income can leave Kansas AGI before the first bracket even applies.
What's left: your Thrift Savings Plan, your IRA, any private 401(k), none on the subtraction list. Those get taxed at 5.2% to $46,000 of Kansas taxable income for joint filers, then 5.58%. Sequencing withdrawals from the taxable accounts against the exempt income is the whole plan here.
- Kansas top rate, TY2024+
- 5.58%
- Social Security, TY2024+
- Fully exempt
- 401(k) & IRA income, TY2024+
- Fully taxable
Sources: KDOR Notice 24-08 · K.S.A. 79-32,117 · KDOR homestead programs
Tax figures on this page are current as of the dates shown and are provided for general education only. Kansas and Missouri retirement tax rules changed in 2024 and 2025, and several of these figures are adjusted annually for inflation or depend on future revenue triggers. Nothing here is tax, legal, or investment advice. Confirm your own situation with your tax professional before acting.
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Nearby
Retirement planning nearby
Kansas City, Kansas, Shawnee, and Lenexa are the closest cities on this site to Leavenworth, all under identical Kansas rules and the same KDOR senior programs.
Common Questions
Retiring in Leavenworth: common questions
You retired from the Army at Fort Leavenworth and now work a civilian job in town. How does Kansas treat the two?
Separately, and favorably on one side. Your military pension is exempt under K.S.A. 79-32,117(c)(vii), which subtracts retirement benefits earned for armed forces service, in any form. Your civilian wages are ordinary income, and since the joint top bracket starts at $46,000, nearly all of a full salary lands at 5.58%. From 62, Social Security joins the exempt column.
One Leavenworth career runs through the Eisenhower VA, another through the University of Saint Mary. Same Kansas treatment at retirement?
No, and the two employers sit miles apart on the exemption list. A federal civil service annuity from the VA is exempt under K.S.A. 79-32,117(c)(vii). A private university's retirement plan isn't on that list at all: it flows through federal AGI into Kansas AGI and gets taxed in full, at an effective 5.58%.
Between your Fort Leavenworth pension and your wife's USD 453 KPERS, what does Kansas actually tax?
Possibly very little. Both pensions are exempt (military under K.S.A. 79-32,117(c)(vii), KPERS under K.S.A. 74-4923(b) via (c)(ii)), and Social Security's been fully exempt since tax year 2024, no income limit. What Kansas still reaches: your Thrift Savings Plan, any IRA, any private 401(k). For many Leavenworth households, that's the entire Kansas tax base.
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