Can You Contribute to an IRA and a 401(k)? Limits and Deductions

Yes. You can contribute to an IRA and a 401(k) in the same year. For 2026, you can defer up to $24,500 from your paycheck into a 401(k) and put up to $7,500 into a Traditional or Roth IRA, for a combined personal contribution of $32,000.¹ Having a 401(k) never blocks you from opening or funding an IRA. It can, however, change whether your Traditional IRA contribution is tax-deductible, and your income can decide whether you’re allowed to use a Roth IRA at all.

The $7,500 IRA limit applies to your total across every IRA you own, not to each account separately. And the 401(k) limit covers only what you personally defer. Employer matching and profit-sharing dollars sit outside the $24,500 cap.

Catch-Up Contributions if You’re 50 or Older

If you turn 50 by the end of 2026, both accounts let you go higher:

401(k) catch-up (age 50 and older): an extra $8,000, for a personal total of $32,500.¹
Enhanced 401(k) catch-up (ages 60–63): $11,250 instead of $8,000, for a personal total of $35,750. This higher amount came from the SECURE 2.0 Act and drops back to $8,000 at age 64.²
IRA catch-up (age 50 and older): an extra $1,100, for an IRA total of $8,600.¹

The 60–63 enhanced catch-up applies only to workplace plans like 401(k)s, not to IRAs.

How a 401(k) Affects Your Traditional IRA Deduction

You can always contribute to a Traditional IRA regardless of income. What your 401(k) affects is whether that contribution is deductible on your tax return. When you or your spouse is covered by a workplace retirement plan, the deduction phases out based on Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI).

For 2026, the deduction phase-out ranges are:¹

Single filer covered by a workplace plan: full deduction below $81,000; partial from $81,000 to $91,000; none at $91,000 or above.
Married filing jointly, contributing spouse covered: full deduction below $129,000; partial from $129,000 to $149,000; none at $149,000 or above.
Married filing jointly, not covered but spouse is: full deduction below $242,000; partial from $242,000 to $252,000; none at $252,000 or above.
Married filing separately, covered: partial from $0 to $10,000; none at $10,000 or above.

If neither you nor your spouse has a workplace plan, none of the phase-outs apply and you can deduct the full IRA contribution at any income level.

Nondeductible Contributions and Form 8606

Above the deduction phase-out, you can still put the full $7,500 into a Traditional IRA. It just won’t reduce your taxable income for the year. The money grows tax-deferred, so investment earnings aren’t taxed until you withdraw them.

Any year you make nondeductible contributions, file Form 8606 with your return to report them. The form tracks your basis, meaning the money you’ve already paid tax on, so you aren’t taxed on it again at withdrawal. Missing Form 8606 when it’s required carries a $50 penalty.³ Keep copies for as long as you hold the IRA; you’ll need them to calculate taxes on future distributions correctly.

Roth IRA Income Limits

Roth IRA eligibility works differently. Whether you have a 401(k) is irrelevant. What matters is your income.⁴ For 2026:¹

Single or head of household: full contribution below $153,000 MAGI; reduced from $153,000 to $168,000; none at $168,000 or above.
Married filing jointly: full contribution below $242,000; reduced from $242,000 to $252,000; none at $252,000 or above.
Married filing separately: reduced from $0 to $10,000; none at $10,000 or above.

The important contrast with the Traditional IRA rules: above the Roth income ceiling, you cannot contribute directly at all. A Traditional contribution above the deduction threshold simply loses its deduction; a Roth contribution above the income threshold is an excess contribution and triggers a 6% excise tax every year it sits in the account.⁴

Backdoor Roth IRA for High Earners

If your income exceeds the Roth limits, there’s a legal workaround. Traditional IRA contributions have no income limit (only deductibility does), and Roth conversions have no income limit either. So high earners can contribute to a Traditional IRA on a nondeductible basis and then convert it to a Roth. This is commonly called a backdoor Roth.⁵

The steps:

Contribute to a Traditional IRA (nondeductible if your income is above the deduction phase-out).
Convert the funds to a Roth IRA, either within the same institution or by rolling into a Roth at another one.
File Form 8606 to report both the nondeductible contribution and the conversion.³

Watch for the pro-rata rule. The IRS treats all of your Traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE IRAs as a single pool when figuring out the taxable portion of a conversion.⁶ You can’t cherry-pick only the after-tax dollars. If 90% of your combined IRA balances are pre-tax, 90% of anything you convert is taxable income, even if your latest contribution was entirely nondeductible. One common fix: roll existing pre-tax IRA balances into your 401(k) first, leaving only after-tax money behind. Convert with no pre-tax IRA balance and the conversion is nearly tax-free, with any small tax due only on earnings between contribution and conversion.

Spousal IRA When One Spouse Has Little Income

On a joint return, the working spouse’s compensation can support IRA contributions for both spouses. Each spouse can contribute up to the full $7,500 (plus catch-up if eligible), as long as combined IRA contributions don’t exceed the taxable compensation on the joint return.⁴

For a non-working spouse whose partner is covered by a workplace plan, the 2026 deduction phase-out is a much wider $242,000 to $252,000 MAGI.¹ Many single-earner and part-time-earner households still qualify for the full deduction.

Deadlines and Fixing Excess Contributions

The two accounts run on different calendars. 401(k) contributions must come from payroll between January 1 and December 31, 2026. IRA contributions for 2026 can be made anytime from January 1, 2026 through the tax filing deadline, generally April 15, 2027.

Put too much into an IRA and you can dodge the 6% excise tax by withdrawing the excess (plus any earnings on it) by your tax return due date, including extensions.⁷ Miss that window and the 6% penalty applies for every year the excess stays put.⁴ For 401(k) excess deferrals, your plan administrator typically returns the overage, and you report it as income for the year the excess occurred.

1
Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
2
Internal Revenue Service. COLA Increases for Dollar Limitations on Benefits and Contributions
3
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8606
4
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – IRA Contribution Limits
5
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plans FAQs Regarding IRAs
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 408 – Individual Retirement Accounts
7
Internal Revenue Service. IRA Year-End Reminders