Yes, you can open an IRA for your spouse even if they have no income of their own, as long as you file a joint federal tax return and your earnings cover the contribution. This arrangement is called a spousal IRA, and it comes from a provision in 26 U.S.C. § 219 sometimes referred to as the Kay Bailey Hutchison Spousal IRA. The account is opened in your spouse’s name alone, funded from household earnings, and belongs entirely to them.
Who Qualifies
Three conditions all have to be met:
- You and your spouse are legally married during the tax year for which you’re contributing.
- You file a joint federal return for that year. Married filing separately disqualifies you from using one spouse’s earnings to fund the other’s IRA.
- The working spouse’s taxable compensation is at least equal to the total contributions going into both spouses’ IRAs combined.
There is no age limit. Traditional IRA contributions used to stop at age 70½, but that ceiling was removed in 2020. Both Traditional and Roth IRAs now accept contributions at any age, so long as the household has qualifying earned income.
Whose Account Is It
Despite the shared funding source, the non-working spouse is the sole legal owner. The account is opened in their name using their Social Security number. They pick the investments, name the beneficiaries, and control withdrawals independently. The working spouse’s role ends at writing the check.
How Much You Can Contribute for 2026
For the 2026 tax year, each spouse can contribute up to $7,500 to their own IRA. Spouses who are 50 or older by the end of 2026 get an additional $1,100 catch-up contribution, raising their individual cap to $8,600. Those figures were adjusted upward from 2025 to reflect inflation.
The hard ceiling on the household is your taxable compensation. If you contribute $15,000 across the two accounts but only earned $12,000, the extra $3,000 is an excess contribution, no matter how the money is split. Combined contributions cannot exceed what the joint return reports as earned income.
Whether the Contribution Is Deductible or Roth-Eligible
Your income affects two things: whether a Traditional IRA contribution is tax-deductible, and whether you can put money into a Roth IRA at all.
Traditional IRA Deduction
If neither spouse is covered by a workplace retirement plan, Traditional IRA contributions are fully deductible regardless of income.
When the working spouse has a workplace plan but the non-working spouse does not, which is the typical spousal IRA setup, the non-working spouse’s deduction begins phasing out at $242,000 in modified adjusted gross income for 2026 and disappears above $252,000. If the working spouse also wants to deduct their own Traditional IRA contribution, a separate and lower range applies: $129,000 to $149,000 for 2026.
Losing the deduction does not lock you out of a Traditional IRA. You can still contribute; the contribution just doesn’t reduce that year’s taxable income. Nondeductible contributions have to be tracked on IRS Form 8606 so you aren’t taxed twice on the money when it eventually comes out.
Roth IRA Income Limits
Roth contributions have their own ceiling. For 2026, joint filers can contribute the full amount below $242,000 in modified adjusted gross income. Between $242,000 and $252,000 the allowable contribution shrinks. Above $252,000, direct Roth contributions are not permitted.
Couples who exceed the Roth limit sometimes use a “backdoor” approach: contribute to a nondeductible Traditional IRA and then convert it to a Roth. That works cleanly when neither spouse holds existing Traditional IRA balances, but pro-rata taxation rules on conversions complicate it when they do.
What Counts as Earned Income
The compensation that supports spousal IRA contributions includes wages, salaries, tips, bonuses, commissions, and net self-employment income. Investment income does not count. Neither do rental income, dividends, interest, capital gains, pensions, or annuity payments. If the only money coming in is from investments or retirement benefits, there is no earned income to support a contribution for either spouse.
How to Open and Fund the Account
Opening a spousal IRA works like opening any other IRA. Pick a brokerage, bank, or other custodian, and have the non-working spouse complete the application in their own name. The custodian will need their Social Security number, date of birth, and address, along with at least one designated beneficiary.
Fund the account through an electronic bank transfer, check, or wire. When you send the money, specify which tax year the contribution applies to. Contributions made between January 1 and the federal tax filing deadline, typically April 15 of the following year, can be counted toward either the current or the prior tax year. A 2026 contribution can be made anytime through the April 2027 filing deadline.
Traditional or Roth for the Non-Working Spouse
The choice comes down to when you want to pay tax. A deductible Traditional IRA cuts your tax bill now, and every dollar withdrawn in retirement is taxed as ordinary income. A Roth gives no upfront deduction, but qualified withdrawals in retirement come out tax-free.
For a non-working spouse, the Roth is often the stronger option. If your household’s current marginal rate is on the lower side, or if the non-working spouse expects to return to work and earn more later, paying tax now at today’s rate and letting the account grow tax-free tends to come out ahead. Roth IRAs also carry no required minimum distributions during the owner’s lifetime, which gives the non-working spouse more flexibility later on.
Traditional IRAs require minimum withdrawals starting at age 73. Those forced distributions can push retirees into higher brackets when stacked on top of Social Security income. For a spouse who may not need the money right away in retirement, avoiding RMDs with a Roth is a meaningful advantage.
When household income phases out the Traditional deduction but is still under the Roth limit, the Roth becomes the obvious pick. A nondeductible Traditional gives no upfront break and taxes withdrawals; a Roth gives no upfront break either, but withdrawals are tax-free.
Fixing an Over-Contribution
If you put in more than the limit, or more than the household’s earned income, the excess triggers a 6% excise tax for every year it sits in the account. The penalty compounds annually, so catching it early matters.
To avoid the 6% tax, withdraw the excess plus any earnings it generated before the tax filing deadline, including extensions, which is typically October 15 of the following year. The earnings portion of the withdrawal is taxed as ordinary income in the year the excess was made and may face a 10% early withdrawal penalty if the account owner is under 59½. Miss that deadline and the 6% tax applies for each year the excess stays; the only ways to stop it are to withdraw the excess or absorb it by under-contributing in a later year.
What Happens to a Spousal IRA in Divorce
The account belongs to the spouse whose name is on it, but a divorce court can award part or all of it to the other spouse as property. Unlike a 401(k), an IRA does not require a Qualified Domestic Relations Order to divide. The transfer happens under the divorce or separation agreement itself.
Under federal tax law, transferring an IRA interest to a spouse or former spouse under a divorce or separation instrument is not a taxable event. After the transfer, the receiving spouse’s portion is treated as their own IRA going forward, and they take over investment decisions, future tax consequences on withdrawals, and beneficiary designations. This tax-free treatment applies only to transfers made pursuant to a divorce or separation agreement. Simply gifting IRA funds to an ex outside that framework would trigger taxes and penalties.