Can You Contribute to an IRA After Age 72? Earned Income, RMDs, and Limits

Yes, you can contribute to an IRA after age 72. The SECURE Act repealed the old age cap on Traditional IRA contributions effective January 1, 2020, and Roth IRAs never had one.¹ The one requirement that still matters is earned income. For 2026, anyone with qualifying compensation can put up to $7,500 into a Traditional IRA, a Roth IRA, or a combination of the two, and the catch-up allowance raises that to $8,600 for anyone 50 or older.²

Earned Income Is the Real Gate

Age no longer limits contributions, but compensation does. Qualifying income means wages, salaries, bonuses, tips, and net earnings from self-employment. Pensions, annuities, deferred compensation, rental income, dividends, interest, and Social Security do not count.³

Your contribution across all IRAs cannot exceed what you actually earned. If you brought in $4,000 from consulting last year, $4,000 is your ceiling, regardless of the legal $8,600 limit.¹ The annual cap is a ceiling, not an entitlement.

The deadline for a given tax year runs from January 1 of that year through April 15 of the following year. Filing an extension on your return does not extend the IRA deadline.⁴

Traditional IRA Rules After 72

A Traditional IRA contribution may be fully deductible, partially deductible, or not deductible at all, depending on whether you or your spouse are covered by a workplace retirement plan and on your modified adjusted gross income. If neither of you is covered by a workplace plan, the deduction is full regardless of income.²

When a workplace plan applies, the 2026 phase-outs are:

Single filer covered by a workplace plan: full deduction at MAGI of $81,000 or below, partial from $81,000 to $91,000, none at $91,000 or above.
Married filing jointly, contributor covered: full deduction at $129,000 or below, partial from $129,000 to $149,000, none at $149,000 or above.
Married filing jointly, contributor not covered but spouse is: full deduction at $242,000 or below, partial from $242,000 to $252,000, none at $252,000 or above.⁵

If income disqualifies the deduction, you can still make a nondeductible Traditional IRA contribution. Those after-tax dollars become your basis, and they should not be taxed again when you later withdraw them. Report every nondeductible contribution on IRS Form 8606 in the year you make it, and keep copies of every Form 8606 you file until the Traditional IRA is fully distributed.⁶ Without that paper trail, you risk paying income tax twice on the same money.

Roth IRA Rules After 72

Roth IRAs have never had an age restriction. Someone 85 with earned income can contribute the same as someone 25.⁷ The gate here is income, and once your MAGI enters the phase-out range your allowed contribution shrinks toward zero.

For 2026:

Single or head of household: full contribution below $153,000, phased out from $153,000 to $168,000, none at $168,000 or above.
Married filing jointly: full contribution below $242,000, phased out from $242,000 to $252,000, none at $252,000 or above.
Married filing separately: phased out between $0 and $10,000, none at $10,000 or above.²

For a worker past 72, the Roth carries two real advantages. Qualified withdrawals are federally tax-free once the account has been open five years and the owner is over 59½, and Roth IRAs are not subject to required minimum distributions during the original owner’s lifetime.⁸ Money going into a Roth at 75 simply stays there and grows.

There is a Medicare angle too. Part B and Part D premiums include a surcharge, the Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount, tied to MAGI from two years earlier.⁹ Roth distributions are not part of that MAGI figure; Traditional IRA withdrawals are. For a retiree sitting near an IRMAA threshold, that difference can be worth hundreds of dollars a month.

Spousal IRAs When One of You Has Retired

A spouse without earned income can still receive an IRA contribution if the couple files jointly and the working spouse has enough compensation to cover both contributions. Each spouse can go up to the full annual limit, provided the combined contributions do not exceed the joint compensation reported.¹

This is exactly the situation many older couples find themselves in. If one spouse earns $50,000 and the other has retired, both can contribute up to $8,600, for a combined $17,200. The non-working spouse can choose Traditional or Roth, subject to the same deduction rules and MAGI phase-outs everyone else faces. Since the Traditional IRA age cap is gone, even a non-working spouse well past 72 remains eligible.

Contributing in the Same Year You Take an RMD

Contributing after 72 usually means dealing with required minimum distributions at the same time. Under SECURE 2.0, the RMD starting age is 73 for anyone who reached 72 after 2022, and it moves to 75 on January 1, 2033.¹⁰

Nothing in the tax code prevents you from making a Traditional IRA contribution in the same year you take an RMD. The two transactions are independent. But a new contribution does not satisfy the RMD. Your RMD is calculated from the prior December 31 balance divided by a life expectancy factor, and that amount must come out separately.¹⁰

The Charitable Contribution Trap

If you make charitable gifts directly from your IRA, pay attention here. Qualified Charitable Distributions let IRA owners 70½ or older send money straight from a Traditional IRA to a charity and exclude the distribution from taxable income. The 2026 QCD limit is $111,000, and a QCD can count toward your RMD.⁵

The trap: any deductible Traditional IRA contribution you make after age 70½ reduces the amount of future QCDs that qualify for the income exclusion, dollar for dollar. The reduction is cumulative and carries forward across years.¹¹ Contribute $7,500 deductibly at 73, and a $10,000 QCD at 76 will only exclude $2,500 from income. Nondeductible Traditional contributions and Roth contributions do not trigger this reduction. If charitable IRA giving is part of your plan, weigh the deduction carefully.

Excess Contributions and How to Undo Them

Contributing more than you are allowed triggers a 6% excise tax on the excess for every year it stays in the account.¹ It happens more easily than you might think, either because year-end earned income came in lower than expected or because Roth MAGI limits crept up on you.

The fix is to withdraw the excess amount, plus any earnings on it, before your tax filing deadline including extensions. If you already filed, you have up to six months after the original due date to withdraw the excess and file an amended return.¹² Move quickly, because the 6% tax hits again in the following year if the excess is still there.

If You’re Self-Employed

Self-employed workers past 72 have options beyond a standard IRA. A SEP IRA accepts employer contributions at any age, and its ceiling is substantially higher than the personal IRA limit. Employer contributions must be made for any eligible employee, including the business owner, regardless of age.¹³ You can also make regular IRA contributions to your own SEP-IRA under the same $8,600 limit and earned income rule as any IRA. SIMPLE IRAs work along similar lines for small businesses, with employee salary deferrals plus employer match or nonelective contributions. Both SEP and SIMPLE IRAs remain subject to RMD rules once you reach the applicable age.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – IRA Contribution Limits
2
Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
3
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-A (2025), Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs) – Section: What Is Compensation?
4
Internal Revenue Service. IRA Year-End Reminders
5
Internal Revenue Service. 2026 Amounts Relating to Retirement Plans and IRAs
6
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8606 (2025) – Section: General Instructions
7
Internal Revenue Service. Traditional and Roth IRAs
8
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)
9
Social Security Administration. POMS: HI 01101.010 – Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI)
10
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs
11
Internal Revenue Service. Seniors Can Reduce Their Tax Burden by Donating to Charity Through Their IRA
12
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 5329 (2025)
13
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plans FAQs Regarding SEPs