Can I Transfer My IRA to My Spouse: Divorce, Death, and Contributions

You generally cannot transfer your IRA to your spouse while you are both alive and married. Federal law treats an IRA as belonging to one individual tied to one Social Security number, so moving the balance into your spouse’s name is treated as if you had cashed the account out: the full amount becomes taxable income to you, plus a 10% early withdrawal penalty if you are under 59½. Two situations do allow IRA assets to move to a spouse tax-free — a transfer required by a divorce or separation decree, and inheritance after the account owner dies. Separately, a working spouse can fund an IRA in a non-working spouse’s name through annual contributions.

Why a Living-Spouse Transfer Isn’t Allowed

An IRA is, by statute, a trust set up for the exclusive benefit of one individual.¹ Unlike a joint bank account, an IRA has one owner. There is no legal mechanism to add your spouse’s name to the account or retitle it while you remain married.

If you try to move funds from your IRA to your spouse by changing the account name, writing a check, or wiring money, the IRS treats the amount as a distribution to you. You report the entire amount as income on your tax return for that year.² If you are younger than 59½, you also owe a 10% additional tax on the distribution.³ These consequences apply whether or not your spouse turns around and deposits the money in their own retirement account.

Transferring an IRA Under a Divorce or Separation Decree

Federal law carves out one exception that allows a tax-free transfer of IRA assets to a spouse or former spouse: a transfer made under a qualifying divorce or separation decree.⁴ When the transfer meets the requirement, the receiving spouse becomes the new owner and the account keeps growing tax-deferred in their name.

What Documents Qualify

The statute limits qualifying transfers to those made under a decree of divorce or separate maintenance, or a written instrument that is part of such a decree.⁴ A property settlement agreement incorporated into a divorce decree qualifies. A standalone written separation agreement not connected to a court-issued decree generally does not. The document should specify the amount or percentage of the IRA balance being transferred and identify the receiving spouse’s account.

You Do Not Need a QDRO for an IRA

A Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) is the legal document used to divide employer-sponsored retirement plans like 401(k)s and pensions under federal benefits law. IRAs are not covered by that framework, so a QDRO is not required and not applicable to an IRA.⁵ For an IRA, the divorce decree itself, or a written instrument incident to it, is the controlling document. That matters because preparing a QDRO adds time and legal fees you don’t need to spend when dividing an IRA.

How to Execute the Transfer

According to the IRS, a qualifying divorce-related IRA transfer can be completed two ways: changing the name on the existing IRA from one spouse to the other, or directing a trustee-to-trustee transfer from the original IRA to a new or existing IRA in the receiving spouse’s name.⁵ An indirect rollover, where one spouse withdraws funds and hands them to the other spouse to deposit, does not qualify as a tax-free transfer, even if the money reaches the other spouse’s IRA within 60 days.

This is where couples get burned. If a divorce court orders you to withdraw money from your IRA and pay it to your former spouse, that withdrawal is a taxable distribution to you. The 10% early withdrawal penalty applies if you are under 59½, and there is no divorce-related exception to that penalty for IRA distributions.⁵ Tax-free treatment applies only when the IRA interest itself is transferred directly.

When a Spouse Inherits the IRA

Death is the other event that opens a tax-free path. A surviving spouse who inherits an IRA has more flexibility than any other beneficiary, and federal law specifically excludes surviving spouses from the rules that restrict rollovers of inherited accounts.⁶ A surviving spouse generally has three choices:

Roll the IRA into their own IRA and become the outright owner. The account is then governed entirely by the surviving spouse’s own age for required minimum distributions and future contributions. This is often called a spousal rollover.
Keep the account as an inherited IRA, remaining a beneficiary rather than becoming the owner. Distributions are based on the surviving spouse’s life expectancy, and the account retains its inherited designation.
Take a lump-sum or partial distribution. The withdrawn amount is taxable income from a traditional IRA, but the 10% early withdrawal penalty does not apply to distributions from an inherited IRA.

The penalty point can be worth thousands of dollars for a younger surviving spouse. Distributions from an inherited IRA kept as a beneficiary account are exempt from the 10% early withdrawal penalty regardless of the surviving spouse’s age. Roll the same money into your own IRA and that exemption disappears — any withdrawal before 59½ from your own IRA is subject to the standard 10% penalty unless another exception applies.⁷ A common approach for a surviving spouse under 59½ who may need the funds is to keep the account as an inherited IRA until reaching 59½, then roll it into their own IRA for the more favorable RMD schedule.

On the RMD side, rolling the account into your own IRA puts you on the standard schedule. In 2026, RMDs generally must begin by April 1 of the year after you turn 73.⁸ Keeping the account as an inherited IRA puts you on a beneficiary schedule that depends on whether the original owner had already reached their RMD age at death.⁹

The three options also apply when a surviving spouse inherits a Roth IRA. Earnings withdrawn from an inherited Roth IRA may be taxable if the account is less than five years old at the time of withdrawal.⁹ Rolling the Roth into your own Roth IRA lets the five-year clock from the original owner’s first contribution keep running.

Funding a Spousal IRA Through Annual Contributions

If your goal is to build retirement savings in your spouse’s name rather than move existing assets, the ordinary path is a spousal IRA. The Kay Bailey Hutchison Spousal IRA provision lets a working spouse fund an IRA for a spouse who has little or no earned income, as long as the couple files a joint federal tax return.¹⁰

For 2026, each spouse can contribute up to $7,500 to their IRA, or $8,600 if they are 50 or older, reflecting a $1,100 catch-up contribution.¹¹ Combined contributions to both spouses’ IRAs cannot exceed the total taxable compensation reported on the joint return. If a couple’s only earned income is $12,000, their combined IRA contributions for the year are capped at $12,000, even though the per-person limit is higher.

Contributions above these limits face a 6% excise tax for every year the excess remains in the account. To avoid it, withdraw any excess contributions and their earnings before your tax return filing deadline, including extensions.¹⁰

For Roth contributions, check income eligibility too. In 2026, married couples filing jointly can make full Roth IRA contributions only if their modified adjusted gross income is below $242,000. Contributions phase out between $242,000 and $252,000 and are not allowed above $252,000.¹¹

If You Live in a Community Property State

Living in a community property state does not open a back door. Under state law, your spouse may have a legal ownership interest in IRA assets accumulated during the marriage, but for federal tax purposes the IRS treats IRA distributions as the separate property of whichever spouse’s name is on the account.¹² The account-holder spouse is solely responsible for income tax and any penalties on withdrawals, regardless of state community property rules.

The federal override cuts both ways. You cannot split IRA income between spouses on a tax return based on community property law, and you cannot divide an IRA between spouses on community property rights alone. A formal divorce or separation decree is still required to trigger the tax-free transfer exception.¹³

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 408 Individual Retirement Accounts
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 408 Individual Retirement Accounts – Section: Tax Treatment of Distributions
3
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Exceptions to Tax on Early Distributions
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 408 Individual Retirement Accounts – Section: Transfer of Account Incident to Divorce
5
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plans FAQs Regarding IRAs Distributions Withdrawals
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 408 Individual Retirement Accounts – Section: Denial of Rollover Treatment for Inherited Accounts
7
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-B Distributions From Individual Retirement Arrangements IRAs
8
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Required Minimum Distributions RMDs
9
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Beneficiary
10
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – IRA Contribution Limits
11
Internal Revenue Service. 401k Limit Increases to 24500 for 2026 IRA Limit Increases to 7500
12
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 555 Community Property
13
Internal Revenue Service. Basic Principles of Community Property Law