🇺🇸 Home country and destination
Retire in the United States, priced from your own plan
The US is the destination whose tax system every FIRE calculator was built for, and Runway models it properly: long-term gains stack through the 0, 15 and 20 percent brackets, and a representative state rate keeps the estimate honest instead of assuming a no-tax state.
What Runway models in the United States
- Federal long-term capital gains modelled with real bracket stacking, so low-drawdown years can genuinely pay 0 percent
- A representative 5 percent state tax included (states range from 0 to about 13 percent), so the US is not ranked at an unrealistic floor
- Net rental income at a representative combined rate
- No wealth tax
| Tax area | What Runway applies (2026) |
|---|---|
| Investment gains | Progressive (LTCG 0/15/20 stacking) |
| Rental income | 27% modelled on net rent |
| Wealth tax | None modelled |
| Leaving home | Any exit tax your home country charges, priced into the move |
The move itself is part of the price
A move to the United States is never just the United States' tax rules. Leaving a country that charges an exit tax, Norway among them, can trigger a bill on unrealised gains as if you sold on the way out, and Runway prices that into the plan before a single USD of spending is modelled. The mechanics are in what an exit tax costs when you leave, and the wider tooling question in which FIRE calculators handle a move abroad.
Once you are there, your spending runs in USD through an exchange-rate scenario you control, so a weak krone decade is a plan you can stress, not a surprise.
Price the whole move, not the postcard
Runway prices a retirement in the United States end to end from your own plan: any exit tax on the way out, the United States' taxes on the drawdown, and your spending in local currency. Your freedom age is free.
Download free on the App StoreFrequently asked
What tax does Runway assume on investment gains in the United States?
Runway applies the real federal long-term capital-gains stacking, where gains fill the 0, 15 and 20 percent brackets on top of ordinary income, plus a representative 5 percent state rate. The figures are 2026, income-year-stamped, and refreshed as rules change.
Do I still pay an exit tax if I retire to the United States?
It depends where you leave from. Norway charges utflyttingsskatt on unrealised gains and several other home countries charge an exit tax of their own. Runway prices whichever one applies to you into every plan that retires to the United States, as a cost of the move, before the destination's own rules take over on the drawdown.
Why does Runway add 5 percent state tax to the US?
Because most people do not retire to a no-income-tax state, and ranking the US at the zero-state floor would flatter it dishonestly. The pack uses a representative 5 percent and shows the real spread in its detail.
Figures are 2026, income-year-stamped estimates from the Runway country pack for the United States, produced by the same engine the app runs. They are educational estimates, not financial or tax advice: rules change, and personal cases differ. See the full country list.