Can Anyone Open a Traditional IRA? Income, Age, and Limits

Anyone with taxable earned income can open a traditional IRA. There’s no upper age limit and no income ceiling that shuts you out of contributing, which is the main way a traditional IRA differs from a Roth. For 2026, the contribution cap is $7,500 if you’re under 50 and $8,600 if you’re 50 or older, and it can’t exceed what you actually earned that year. Whether that contribution is tax-deductible is a separate question, and it’s where most of the fine print lives.

You Need Earned Income

The one non-negotiable rule is taxable compensation during the year you contribute. That means wages, salaries, tips, self-employment income, commissions, and bonuses from active work.¹ Your contribution for the year can never exceed what you earned. If you made $4,000, that’s your ceiling, even though the statutory limit is higher.

Passive income doesn’t count. Interest, stock dividends, rental income, pension payments, and Social Security benefits are all excluded from the definition of compensation.¹ Someone living entirely on investments or retirement benefits can’t contribute unless they also have earned income on the side.

Two smaller categories to know. Taxable alimony or separate maintenance counts as compensation for IRA purposes, but only if the divorce or separation agreement was finalized before 2019; agreements signed in 2019 or later don’t put alimony in the recipient’s income, so those payments no longer qualify.² Graduate and postdoctoral stipends included in your gross income also count.¹

There’s No Upper Age Limit

Before 2020, contributions to a traditional IRA had to stop at age 70½. The SECURE Act of 2019 removed that restriction entirely.³ A 75-year-old who still works part-time can contribute the same amount as a 30-year-old. What matters is having earned income for the tax year, not how old you are when you contribute.

Older workers who keep earning can use deductible IRA contributions to offset taxable income during years when they’re also drawing Social Security. Note that the age cap on contributions is gone, but required minimum distributions still start on their own schedule — currently age 73, moving to 75 in 2033 under SECURE 2.0.⁴ You can contribute and take RMDs in the same year if you’re still working.

Spousal IRAs for a Non-Working Spouse

A married couple filing jointly can fund a traditional IRA for a spouse who has no earned income of their own, as long as the working spouse earns enough to cover both contributions. This is the Kay Bailey Hutchison Spousal IRA.⁵ Each spouse can contribute up to the full annual limit into their own separate account, but the couple’s combined contributions can’t exceed the total taxable compensation on their joint return.

You must file jointly to use this provision. Married filing separately doesn’t qualify. The spousal IRA is the non-working spouse’s own account with their own beneficiaries, giving a stay-at-home parent or caregiver a way to build independent retirement savings.⁵

Minors With Earned Income

There’s no minimum age either. A teenager who earns money from a summer job, babysitting, or freelance work can contribute the same as any adult, capped at whatever they actually earned that year. A parent or grandparent can put up the cash, but the deposit still can’t exceed the child’s own taxable compensation.⁵

Because minors generally can’t sign contracts, the account is set up as a custodial IRA. A parent or guardian manages it until the child reaches the age of majority, at which point control transfers.

2026 Contribution Limits and Deadline

For 2026, the cap is $7,500 if you’re under 50. If you’re 50 or older, a $1,100 catch-up brings the total to $8,600.⁶ These are combined limits across your traditional and Roth IRAs. You can split contributions between the two, but the total can’t exceed the cap.

You have until the tax filing deadline to contribute for a given year. For 2026, that’s April 15, 2027. Contributions made between January 1 and April 15, 2027 can be designated for either 2026 or 2027, so tell your custodian which year the deposit is for.

Deductibility Is a Separate Question

Everyone with earned income can contribute. Not everyone gets to deduct the contribution. Deductibility depends on two things: whether you or your spouse are covered by a workplace retirement plan such as a 401(k), and how much you earn.

If You’re Covered by a Workplace Plan

When you participate in an employer-sponsored plan, your deduction phases out at certain income levels. For 2026:⁶

Single filers: phase-out on modified adjusted gross income between $81,000 and $91,000.
Married filing jointly, with the contributing spouse covered: phase-out between $129,000 and $149,000.

Below the lower number you get a full deduction. Between the two numbers you get a partial deduction. Above the upper number, none.

If Only Your Spouse Is Covered

If you’re not in a workplace plan but your spouse is, the range is more generous. Your deduction phases out on MAGI between $242,000 and $252,000 for 2026.⁶ If neither spouse is covered by any employer plan, there’s no income-based limit and the full contribution is deductible.

You Can Still Contribute Above the Income Threshold

Exceeding these thresholds doesn’t bar you from contributing. It just means the contribution won’t cut your tax bill that year. You can still put money in on a non-deductible basis, and it grows tax-deferred like any other IRA balance. The portion you already paid tax on won’t be taxed again when you withdraw it.⁷

If you go this route, file Form 8606 with your return for that year to track the non-deductible amount. Skip that step and you create a records problem later, because without it the IRS may treat your whole withdrawal as taxable when you eventually take distributions.⁷

A Few Limits on What the Account Can Do

Two boundaries are worth knowing before you open an account, because the answer to “can I do X with my IRA” isn’t always yes. Life insurance contracts cannot be held in an IRA; the statute is explicit.⁸ Collectibles — artwork, rugs, antiques, gems, stamps, alcoholic beverages, and most coins or metals — are also barred, with narrow exceptions for certain U.S. Treasury coins, state-issued coins, and bullion meeting specific fineness standards held by an approved trustee.⁹ Standard stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, and CDs are all fine.

And while you can contribute at any age, you can’t leave the balance untouched forever. Required minimum distributions currently start at age 73, moving to 75 for people reaching that age on or after January 1, 2033.⁴

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 219 – Retirement Savings
2
Internal Revenue Service. Filing Taxes After Divorce or Separation
3
Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation. SECURE Act Changes the Rules for Retirement Planning
4
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)
5
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – IRA Contribution Limits
6
Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
7
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8606
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 408 – Individual Retirement Accounts
9
Internal Revenue Service. Investments in Collectibles in Individually Directed Qualified Plan Accounts