For the 2024 tax year, the IRA contribution limit was $7,000 if you were under 50 and $8,000 if you were 50 or older by December 31, 2024. That cap applies to your Traditional and Roth IRAs combined, not to each account separately, and you cannot contribute more than you earned from work during the year.1Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – IRA Contribution Limits The deadline to make a 2024 contribution was April 15, 2025, so these numbers now matter mainly for verifying prior-year contributions, filing or amending a 2024 return, and tracking basis.
The Standard Limit and the Catch-Up
The IRS set the 2024 ceiling at $7,000 for anyone under 50 and $8,000 for anyone 50 or older by the end of the calendar year. The extra $1,000 is the catch-up amount built into the tax code for older workers.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 219 – Retirement Savings
The limit is an aggregate. If you owned both a Traditional IRA and a Roth IRA, you could split the $7,000 or $8,000 between them however you liked, but the combined total could not exceed the cap. Putting $4,000 into a Traditional IRA left room for only $3,000 in a Roth that year.3Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-A, Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements
The Earned-Income Cap
Your contribution could not exceed your compensation for the year. Someone who earned $5,000 in 2024 could contribute at most $5,000, regardless of the federal cap.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 219 – Retirement Savings
Not all income counts. The IRS defines compensation for IRA purposes as money from work: wages, salaries, tips, bonuses, commissions, and net self-employment income. Taxable alimony from divorce agreements executed before 2019 qualifies, and so does nontaxable military combat pay. Graduate students receiving non-tuition fellowship or stipend payments included in gross income can count those as compensation, even without a W-2.3Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-A, Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements
Investment returns, rental income, pension payments, Social Security benefits, and interest or dividend income do not count. A retiree living entirely on investments and Social Security has zero eligible compensation and cannot contribute at all.
The Spousal IRA Exception
One exception to the earned-income rule. If you were married, filed jointly, and one spouse had little or no income, the working spouse’s compensation could support IRA contributions for both of you. The non-working spouse could contribute up to $7,000, or $8,000 at age 50 or older, as long as the working spouse’s compensation covered both contributions.3Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-A, Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements
The spousal IRA is owned entirely by the non-working spouse and follows the same phase-out rules as any other Traditional or Roth IRA. The only special requirement is the joint return.
Roth IRA Income Limits for 2024
Roth IRAs have income restrictions that Traditional IRAs do not. Once your modified adjusted gross income crosses a threshold, the amount you can put into a Roth starts shrinking. Past the upper limit, direct Roth contributions drop to zero.4Internal Revenue Service. Amount of Roth IRA Contributions That You Can Make for 2024
- Single or head of household: full contribution below $146,000 MAGI, partial from $146,000 to $161,000, none at $161,000 or above.
- Married filing jointly: full contribution below $230,000, partial from $230,000 to $240,000, none at $240,000 or above.
- Married filing separately, if you lived with your spouse at any point during the year: partial contribution below $10,000, none at $10,000 or above.
The married-filing-separately rule catches people off guard. If you and your spouse lived together at any time during the year, the phase-out runs from $0 to $10,000, which wipes out eligibility for most people in that status. Couples who lived apart the entire year are treated as single filers for this purpose.
Traditional IRA Deduction Limits for 2024
Anyone with earned income could contribute to a Traditional IRA regardless of how much they made. The income limits here affect whether the contribution is deductible, not whether you can make it. Deductibility depends on your income and whether you or your spouse participated in an employer-sponsored retirement plan such as a 401(k).
If You Were Covered by a Workplace Plan
Single filers and heads of household covered by an employer plan saw the deduction phase out between $77,000 and $87,000 of MAGI. Below $77,000, the full deduction was available. Above $87,000, none.5Internal Revenue Service. 2024 IRA Contribution and Deduction Limits Effect of Modified AGI on Deductible Contributions if You Are Covered by a Retirement Plan at Work
For married couples filing jointly where the contributing spouse was covered, the phase-out ran from $123,000 to $143,000.5Internal Revenue Service. 2024 IRA Contribution and Deduction Limits Effect of Modified AGI on Deductible Contributions if You Are Covered by a Retirement Plan at Work
If Only Your Spouse Was Covered
When one spouse had a workplace plan and the other did not, the non-covered spouse got a wider range. The deduction phased out between $230,000 and $240,000 of joint MAGI.6Internal Revenue Service. 2024 IRA Contribution and Deduction Limits Effect of Modified AGI on Deductible Contributions if You Are Not Covered by a Retirement Plan at Work
If Neither Spouse Had a Workplace Plan
With no employer plan on either side, there was no income limit on the deduction. The full Traditional IRA contribution was deductible at any MAGI.6Internal Revenue Service. 2024 IRA Contribution and Deduction Limits Effect of Modified AGI on Deductible Contributions if You Are Not Covered by a Retirement Plan at Work
Nondeductible Contributions and Form 8606
If your income phased out the deduction, you could still make a nondeductible contribution to a Traditional IRA up to the $7,000 or $8,000 limit. No tax break going in, but the money grows tax-deferred until withdrawal.
The catch is paperwork. You must file Form 8606 with your tax return to report nondeductible contributions and track your basis, the portion of the IRA you already paid taxes on.7Internal Revenue Service. About Form 8606, Nondeductible IRAs Without it, the IRS has no record of which dollars were already taxed, and you risk paying tax on the same money twice at distribution. The penalty for failing to file is $50, but the real cost is losing track of after-tax money over decades.8Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8606, Nondeductible IRAs
The Backdoor Roth for High Earners
High earners above the Roth phase-out could still get money into a Roth through a two-step move. Make a nondeductible contribution to a Traditional IRA (no income limit on this step), then convert that money to a Roth. The IRS allows conversions regardless of income, with no dollar cap.9Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plans FAQs Regarding IRAs Any untaxed amounts converted become taxable income in the conversion year. If the nondeductible contribution had no earnings when you converted, the tax bill was minimal.
The pro-rata rule complicates things. If you had other Traditional IRA balances containing pre-tax money, whether from deductible contributions, 401(k) rollovers, or SEP IRA funds, you could not selectively convert only the after-tax portion. The IRS treats all your Traditional IRAs as one pool and taxes any conversion based on the ratio of pre-tax to after-tax dollars across every Traditional IRA you own. Someone with $93,000 of pre-tax IRA money who converted a $7,000 nondeductible contribution owed tax on roughly 93 percent of the conversion. The calculation goes on Form 8606.8Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8606, Nondeductible IRAs
One workaround: if your employer’s 401(k) accepted incoming rollovers, you could move pre-tax IRA balances into the 401(k) before converting. With no pre-tax IRA money left, the conversion was almost entirely tax-free. Note that conversions cannot be reversed. Since 2018, recharacterizing a Roth conversion back to a Traditional IRA is no longer allowed.9Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plans FAQs Regarding IRAs
Fixing Excess Contributions
Contributing more than the limit triggers a 6 percent excise tax on the excess for every year it stays in the account.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 US Code 4973 – Tax on Excess Contributions to Certain Tax-Favored Accounts That is $420 a year on a $7,000 over-contribution, compounding until fixed.
To avoid the penalty, withdraw the excess plus any earnings on it by the due date of your tax return, including extensions. If you already filed on time and later noticed the mistake, you have up to six months after the original due date (without extensions) to pull the money out and file an amended return, marked “Filed pursuant to section 301.9100-2” at the top. The withdrawn earnings are taxable in the year the excess contribution was made, and if you were under 59½, those earnings also face the 10 percent early withdrawal penalty. Report the excess on Form 5329.11Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 5329
The 2024 Contribution Deadline
The deadline to make a 2024 IRA contribution was April 15, 2025, the federal tax filing deadline for the 2024 tax year.12Internal Revenue Service. IRA Year-End Reminders A filing extension did not extend the contribution deadline. Traditional and Roth IRA contributions had to be in the account by the original April due date.
If you made a contribution in early 2025 for the 2024 tax year, you needed to tell the custodian to designate it as a prior-year contribution. Without that instruction, the institution likely applied it to 2025 by default.13Internal Revenue Service. Traditional and Roth IRAs
How 2026 Limits Compare
If you landed here looking for current limits, the 2024 figures are no longer in force. For 2026, the standard IRA limit is $7,500 for those under 50, and the catch-up rose to $1,100, bringing the total for people 50 and older to $8,600.14Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
Income phase-outs also shifted upward:
- Roth IRA, single or head of household: $153,000 to $168,000.
- Roth IRA, married filing jointly: $242,000 to $252,000.
- Traditional IRA deduction, single filer covered by a workplace plan: $81,000 to $91,000.
- Traditional IRA deduction, married filing jointly with contributing spouse covered: $129,000 to $149,000.
- Traditional IRA deduction, non-covered spouse married to a covered worker: $242,000 to $252,000.
The married-filing-separately Roth phase-out remains $0 to $10,000 for 2026, unchanged from 2024. The deadline for 2026 contributions is April 15, 2027.14Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500