Can I Contribute to Both a 403(b) and Roth IRA?

Yes, you can contribute to both a 403(b) and a Roth IRA in the same year. The IRS treats them as separate accounts under different sections of the tax code, so money going into one does not reduce what you can put into the other.¹ For 2026, that means up to $24,500 in salary deferrals through your workplace 403(b) and up to $7,500 in a Roth IRA, provided your income falls within the Roth eligibility range.

Why the Two Accounts Don’t Compete

A 403(b) is an employer-sponsored plan offered to employees of public schools, hospitals, churches, and other tax-exempt organizations. A Roth IRA is a personal account you open and fund yourself with after-tax dollars. Because they fall under different parts of the Internal Revenue Code, their contribution limits are tracked independently.¹

Participating in a 403(b) also doesn’t affect whether you can fund a Roth IRA. Roth eligibility depends on your modified adjusted gross income and filing status, not on whether you have a workplace plan. A teacher maxing out a 403(b) can still make the full Roth IRA contribution as long as income stays under the phase-out range.

How Much You Can Put in Your 403(b) in 2026

The elective deferral limit for 403(b) plans in 2026 is $24,500.² That’s the ceiling on what you can contribute from your own salary, whether pre-tax or as designated Roth deferrals inside the plan. Several catch-up provisions may raise it:

If you turn 50 or older by the end of 2026, you can add $8,000, bringing your personal limit to $32,500.²
If you turn 60, 61, 62, or 63 during the year, a SECURE 2.0 provision allows an enhanced catch-up of $11,250 in place of the standard $8,000, for a total of $35,750.²
With at least 15 years of service at the same qualifying employer, you may be able to defer an extra $3,000 per year up to a $15,000 lifetime cap. This catch-up is applied before the age-based one and is separate from it.³

Those figures cover your own salary deferrals only. Once employer contributions (such as matching funds) are added, total inflows to the plan from all sources cannot exceed $72,000 for 2026 under the Section 415(c) overall cap.⁴ Not every plan offers every catch-up option, so check your summary plan description or ask HR what your plan allows.

How Much You Can Put in Your Roth IRA in 2026

The Roth IRA contribution limit for 2026 is $7,500, with a $1,100 catch-up if you’re 50 or older, for a total of $8,600.⁵ Unlike the 403(b), your ability to contribute depends on income. The IRS uses your modified adjusted gross income:

Single filers can contribute the full amount with MAGI under $153,000. Contributions phase out between $153,000 and $168,000, and direct Roth contributions stop at $168,000.²
Married couples filing jointly can contribute the full amount with combined MAGI under $242,000. The phase-out runs from $242,000 to $252,000.²

Land inside the phase-out range and you can still contribute, but at a reduced amount. The IRS provides the formula in the Form 8606 instructions and Publication 590-A.

If Your Income Is Too High for a Roth

Above the phase-out ceiling, direct Roth contributions are off the table, but an indirect path still works. The “backdoor Roth IRA” is a two-step move: make a nondeductible contribution to a traditional IRA (which has no income limit), then convert that balance to a Roth IRA. Roth conversions have no income limit, so the ceiling is effectively bypassed.

Both the nondeductible contribution and the conversion get reported on IRS Form 8606 with your return.⁶ If you hold no other traditional IRA balances, the conversion itself is generally not taxable, since you already paid tax on the money. Any investment gains between contribution and conversion are taxable.

There’s a catch worth knowing about. If you already have pre-tax money in any traditional IRA, SEP-IRA, or SIMPLE IRA, the IRS applies the pro-rata rule and treats all of your traditional IRA accounts as a single pool when calculating the taxable portion of a conversion.⁶ With $92,500 in pre-tax IRA money and a $7,500 nondeductible contribution, roughly 92.5% of any converted amount would be taxable. Rolling existing traditional IRA balances into your 403(b) first, if the plan accepts incoming rollovers, can clear that obstacle before you convert.

Why Funding Both Is Worth the Effort

The main payoff of running the two accounts side by side is tax diversification. Traditional 403(b) contributions come out of pre-tax pay and lower your current taxable income; you pay income tax on the withdrawals in retirement. Roth IRA contributions work in reverse: after-tax money in now, tax-free qualified withdrawals later, including all the investment growth.

Holding both gives you options in retirement. In a year when you want to keep taxable income down, perhaps to stay in a lower bracket or avoid Medicare premium surcharges, you can pull from the Roth. In other years, you can draw from the 403(b). That flexibility isn’t possible if everything sits in one account type.

The two accounts also behave differently as you age. Starting at age 73, you generally have to begin required minimum distributions from your 403(b), calculated on your account balance and life expectancy, with a steep penalty for missing them. Roth IRAs have no required minimum distributions during your lifetime.⁷ The money can stay invested and growing tax-free for as long as you live, which makes even modest Roth contributions valuable as a late-retirement reserve or estate-planning tool.

If You Contribute Too Much

The correction process depends on which account you overfunded.

For a 403(b), monitoring the elective deferral limit is primarily the employer’s job. If excess deferrals turn up, they and their earnings must be returned to you by April 15 of the following year.⁸ Miss that deadline and the excess is taxed in the year of contribution and taxed again when eventually distributed, so the same dollars are hit twice.⁹ This most often happens when someone contributes to 403(b) plans with more than one employer in the same year, because each employer only tracks its own plan.

For a Roth IRA, excess contributions carry a 6% excise tax for every year they remain in the account.¹⁰ You can avoid the penalty by withdrawing the excess plus its earnings before your tax filing deadline, including extensions.¹¹

1
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plans FAQs on Designated Roth Accounts
2
Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 402 – Taxability of Beneficiary of Employees Trust
4
Internal Revenue Service. 2026 Amounts Relating to Retirement Plans and IRAs, as Adjusted for Changes in Cost-of-Living
5
Internal Revenue Service. COLA Increases for Dollar Limitations on Benefits and Contributions
6
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8606
7
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs
8
Internal Revenue Service. 403(b) Plan Fix-It Guide
9
Internal Revenue Service. Consequences to a Participant Who Makes Excess Deferrals to a 401(k) Plan
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 4973 – Tax on Excess Contributions to Certain Tax-Favored Accounts and Annuities
11
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – IRA Contribution Limits