Can I Open a Roth IRA Without a Job? Spousal and Custodial IRAs

You can open a Roth IRA without a job, but you can only put money into it if you (or your spouse) had earned income during the year. The dollars you deposit don’t have to come from a paycheck — savings, gifts, and inheritances are all fine — but your total contribution for the year can’t exceed the qualifying compensation you earned. For 2026, the contribution ceiling is $7,500 if you’re under 50 and $8,600 if you’re 50 or older.¹ If you report zero compensation on your federal return and no spouse’s income supports you, you can hold a Roth IRA, but you cannot contribute for that year.

What the IRS Counts as Earned Income

Federal tax law ties Roth IRA contributions to “taxable compensation,” and your contribution is capped at the lesser of the annual dollar limit or your compensation for the year.² Earn $3,000 from a side gig and $3,000 is the most you can put in, even if you have $50,000 in savings.

IRS Publication 590-A treats the following as qualifying compensation:³

Wages, salaries, tips, bonuses, and commissions received as an employee.
Self-employment income from freelancing, gig work, or your own business, reduced by half of your self-employment tax and by any deductions for contributions to your own retirement plans.
Nontaxable combat pay for members of the U.S. Armed Forces, which counts for IRA purposes even though it’s excluded from taxable income.
Taxable alimony received under a divorce or separation agreement executed on or before December 31, 2018. Alimony from agreements finalized after that date is not taxable and does not count.
Taxable graduate and postdoctoral fellowship and stipend payments for tax years beginning after 2019, even if they aren’t reported on a W-2.

Many people without a “job” in the conventional sense still have qualifying income here. A freelancer, a Lyft driver, a graduate student on a stipend, and a reservist with combat pay can all contribute to a Roth IRA.

Income That Doesn’t Count

Passive and unearned income does not qualify, no matter how large. The following are excluded:³

Investment income: interest, dividends, and capital gains.
Rental income, even from property you actively manage.
Pension and annuity distributions.
Social Security benefits, whether or not partially taxable.
Unemployment benefits. They’re taxable at the federal level, but the IRS does not treat them as earned income for IRA purposes.

If your only income for the year falls into these categories, you cannot make a Roth IRA contribution on your own compensation.

The Spousal Roth IRA

The main workaround for someone with no earned income of their own is the Kay Bailey Hutchison Spousal IRA. It lets a non-working spouse contribute to their own Roth IRA based on the working spouse’s compensation.³ Two conditions matter:

You must be legally married and file a joint federal tax return. Filing separately disqualifies you from this option.
The working spouse’s compensation must be at least as large as the couple’s combined IRA contributions.

If both spouses are under 50, the working spouse needs at least $15,000 in earned income to fund both Roth IRAs at the $7,500 maximum. If both are 50 or older, that minimum rises to $17,200 ($8,600 each).¹

The couple’s modified adjusted gross income also has to fit within the Roth phase-out range for joint filers, which begins at $242,000 and ends at $252,000 for 2026.¹

Custodial Roth IRA for a Child

A child without a “job” in the adult sense can still qualify. Parents can open a custodial Roth IRA for a minor who has their own earned income from work such as babysitting, lawn care, tutoring, or a summer job. The parent manages the account until the child reaches the age of majority, which is 18 or 21 depending on the state, and then the child takes direct control.

The child must actually perform services and receive reasonable pay. You can’t gift a child money and call it earned income. Contributions are capped at the child’s actual earnings for the year, so a teenager who earned $2,000 over the summer can contribute up to $2,000, not the full $7,500.

Deadlines and Timing

You have until April 15, 2027, to make your 2026 Roth IRA contribution, and you can start as early as January 1, 2026. Contributions made earlier in the year have more time to grow tax-free.

What Happens If You Contribute Without Enough Earned Income

Contributing more than your qualifying compensation allows creates an excess contribution, which the IRS taxes at 6% for every year the excess stays in the account.⁴ The same penalty applies if you contribute when your income is too high.

You have two ways to fix it before the 6% tax kicks in:

Withdraw the excess plus any earnings it generated by your tax filing deadline, including extensions. The excess is then treated as though it was never contributed.⁵
Recharacterize the contribution by having your custodian transfer it (plus related earnings or minus related losses) from the Roth IRA to a traditional IRA through a trustee-to-trustee transfer. This also must be done by your filing deadline, including extensions, and you attach a statement explaining the recharacterization to your return.⁶

If you already filed on time without fixing the excess, you still have a six-month window after the original due date to withdraw or recharacterize it and then file an amended return.³

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. Publication 590-A (2025), Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs)
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 4973 – Tax on Excess Contributions to Certain Tax-Favored Accounts and Annuities
5
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – IRA Contribution Limits
6
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8606 (2025)