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Leavenworth, KS
Retirement Planning in Leavenworth
Leavenworth's economy has a shape no other city in the metro shares. Fort Leavenworth accounts for 9,552 of the city's jobs — 69.9% of total city employment on the city's own 2025 audited schedule — and the next three employers are the Dwight D. Eisenhower VA Medical Center, the school district, and a private university. Kansas exempts military retirement, federal civil service annuities, and KPERS benefits outright under K.S.A. 79-32,117. For a large share of Leavenworth households, the Kansas income tax question is not what is exempt but what is left.
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, with a further 380 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) subtracts retirement benefits earned for federal employment or armed forces service in whatever form, and (c)(ii) carries the KPERS exemption in K.S.A. 74-4923(b) through to Kansas AGI. For tax year 2024 and after, Social Security is subtracted in full with no income limit. A Leavenworth household built on the Fort, the VA, and the district can see most of its income leave Kansas AGI before the first bracket applies.
What remains is the Thrift Savings Plan, the IRA, and any 401(k) from private work — none of which appears on the subtraction list. Those are taxed at 5.2% to $46,000 of Kansas taxable income for joint filers and 5.58% above it, for tax year 2024 and after. 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
I 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. The military pension is exempt from Kansas income tax under K.S.A. 79-32,117(c)(vii), which subtracts retirement benefits earned for armed forces service in whatever form. The civilian wages are ordinary Kansas income — and with the joint top bracket starting at $46,000 for tax year 2024 and after, essentially all of a full-time salary lands at 5.58%. From age 62, Social Security joins the exempt column with no income test.
My neighbor works at the Eisenhower VA and I work at the University of Saint Mary. Same Kansas treatment at retirement?
No, and the two employers sit a few miles apart. A federal civil service annuity from the VA is exempt under K.S.A. 79-32,117(c)(vii). A retirement plan from a private university is not on the subtraction list at all — whatever leaves it flows through federal AGI into Kansas AGI and is taxed in full at an effective 5.58% for joint filers. The city's 2025 schedule puts the VA Medical Center at 900 employees and the university at 516.
Between my Fort Leavenworth pension and my wife's USD 453 KPERS, what does Kansas actually tax?
Possibly very little. Both pensions are exempt — the military one under K.S.A. 79-32,117(c)(vii) and KPERS under K.S.A. 74-4923(b) as carried through by (c)(ii) — and Social Security has been fully exempt since tax year 2024 with no income limit. What Kansas still reaches is the Thrift Savings Plan, any IRA, and any private 401(k). For many Leavenworth households those accounts are the entire Kansas tax base, which makes their withdrawal order the only Kansas decision that matters.
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