Can I Contribute to an IRA and a 401(k)? Limits and Deductibility

Yes, you can contribute to an IRA and a 401(k) in the same tax year. Federal law treats them as separate retirement vehicles with independent limits. For 2026, you can defer up to $24,500 through a workplace 401(k) and put up to $7,500 into an IRA, for a combined $32,000 if you’re under 50. Having a 401(k) doesn’t block your IRA contribution, but your income and workplace-plan coverage can affect whether that IRA money is tax-deductible or whether you can contribute directly to a Roth.

How Much You Can Put Into Each Account in 2026

Maxing out one account has no effect on how much you can put into the other. The 401(k) employee deferral limit for 2026 is $24,500, covering both pre-tax and designated Roth deferrals from your paycheck.¹ Employer matching and profit-sharing don’t count toward that cap.

For IRAs, $7,500 is the total across all of your Traditional and Roth IRAs combined. It’s a per-person cap, not a per-account cap, so splitting money between a Traditional and a Roth doesn’t get you more room. Your IRA contribution also can’t exceed your taxable compensation for the year: someone who earned only $4,000 could contribute at most $4,000.²

Catch-Up Contributions at 50 and Older

If you turn 50 or older by the end of the year, both accounts open up:

401(k) catch-up: an additional $8,000, raising the deferral limit to $32,500.
IRA catch-up: an additional $1,100, raising the IRA limit to $8,600.³
Super catch-up for ages 60 through 63: the 401(k) catch-up is $11,250 instead of $8,000, raising the deferral limit to $35,750.¹

Combined ceilings, then, look like this. Under 50: $32,000. Ages 50 to 59 or 64 and up: $41,100. Ages 60 to 63: $44,350.

When Your Traditional IRA Contribution Is Deductible

The 401(k) doesn’t stop you from contributing to a Traditional IRA. What it can do is limit the deduction. If you (or your spouse) are covered by a workplace retirement plan, your deduction phases out based on Modified Adjusted Gross Income.² The IRS treats you as an active participant if either you or your employer put money into a workplace plan during the year.

For 2026, the phase-out ranges are:

Single or head of household, covered by a workplace plan: full deduction at MAGI of $81,000 or less, partial between $81,000 and $91,000, none above $91,000.
Married filing jointly, contributing spouse covered: full deduction at $129,000 or less, partial between $129,000 and $149,000, none above $149,000.
Married filing jointly, contributing spouse not covered but other spouse is: full deduction at $242,000 or less, partial between $242,000 and $252,000, none above $252,000.¹

If neither spouse is covered by any workplace plan, the phase-outs don’t apply and the full contribution is deductible at any income level.

Above the phase-out range, you can still put the money in as a nondeductible Traditional IRA contribution. There’s no tax break going in, but the account grows tax-deferred. You’ll need to file Form 8606 with your return to track the after-tax basis, otherwise you risk being taxed twice on the same money at withdrawal.⁴

Whether You Can Still Contribute to a Roth IRA

Roth IRA eligibility turns on income alone. Having a 401(k) is irrelevant.⁵ For 2026:

Single or head of household: full contribution below MAGI of $153,000, reduced between $153,000 and $168,000, none above $168,000.
Married filing jointly: full contribution below $242,000, reduced between $242,000 and $252,000, none above $252,000.
Married filing separately: reduced contribution between $0 and $10,000, none above $10,000.¹

Inside the phase-out range, your limit is reduced proportionally. A single filer earning $160,000 sits roughly halfway through the $153,000 to $168,000 band and can put in about half the standard amount.

The Backdoor Roth for Higher Incomes

If your income is above the Roth limits, there’s a two-step path that gets money into a Roth anyway. There’s no income limit on making a nondeductible Traditional IRA contribution, and no income limit on converting a Traditional IRA to a Roth. Combine the two and you’ve funded a Roth indirectly.

The complication is the aggregation rule. When you convert any Traditional IRA money to a Roth, the IRS treats all of your Traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE IRAs as one pooled balance for figuring the taxable portion of the conversion.⁶ You can’t cherry-pick the after-tax dollars. The taxable share is calculated proportionally.

Say you’re holding $93,000 in pre-tax Traditional IRA money and you add a $7,500 nondeductible contribution. Total balance: $100,500. About 93 percent of any conversion counts as taxable income, even if you meant to convert only the $7,500 you just deposited. For anyone sitting on a large pre-tax IRA, the backdoor Roth becomes tax-inefficient. One workaround, if your employer plan accepts incoming rollovers, is moving pre-tax IRA balances into your 401(k) first, which removes them from the aggregation calculation.

Spousal IRA Contributions

On a joint return, a non-working or low-earning spouse can contribute to an IRA based on the other spouse’s earned income.³ Each spouse can go up to the full $7,500 (or $8,600 at 50 and older) as long as the couple’s combined taxable compensation on the joint return covers the total contributions.

A household with one working spouse earning $60,000 can put $7,500 into each spouse’s IRA, $15,000 total, even though only one paycheck came in. Deduction phase-outs and Roth income limits still apply as normal, but the earned-income requirement is satisfied by the working spouse.

If You Contribute Too Much

Contributing above the allowed limit, or contributing to a Roth when your income disqualifies you, triggers a 6 percent excise tax on the excess for every year it stays in the account.⁷ The penalty repeats annually until the excess is removed.

p>To avoid it, withdraw the excess plus any earnings on it by the due date of your tax return, including extensions.⁸ For a 2026 contribution, that’s generally April 15, 2027, or later with an extension. Your IRA custodian will calculate the earnings attributable to the excess using a formula tied to the account’s overall performance.⁹ Those earnings are taxable in the year of the original contribution. Miss the correction deadline and you’ll owe the 6 percent, reported on Form 5329, until the excess is absorbed in a later year or withdrawn.¹⁰

1
Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 219 – Retirement Savings
3
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – IRA Contribution Limits
4
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8606
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 408A – Roth IRAs
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 408 – Individual Retirement Accounts
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 4973 – Tax on Excess Contributions to Certain Tax-Favored Accounts and Annuities
8
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-A, Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements
9
eCFR. 26 CFR 1.408-11 – Net Income Calculation for Returned or Recharacterized IRA Contributions
10
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 5329