How Old Do You Have to Be to Start a Roth IRA?

There is no minimum age to open a Roth IRA. Federal tax law sets no age floor on contributions, so a grade-schooler with a lawn-mowing route and a teenager with a paycheck are equally eligible.¹ What actually decides whether a child can have an account is two things: whether they have earned income for the year, and whether a parent or guardian will open a custodial account on their behalf, since minors can’t hold a brokerage account on their own.

No Federal Age Floor

The IRS is explicit that there is no age limit on making regular Roth IRA contributions.¹ A five-year-old qualifies on the same terms as a 45-year-old.

The wall a young child hits is not tax law but contract law. People under 18 generally can’t enter binding agreements, so brokerages will not open an IRA in a minor’s name alone. An adult has to open and manage the account for them. That account is called a custodial Roth IRA.

Earned Income Is the Actual Gate

A child of any age can contribute to a Roth IRA only if they earned money from work during the tax year. Earned income means taxable pay for services: W-2 wages, tips, or net self-employment earnings from things like babysitting, lawn care, tutoring, or selling handmade items.²

Several kinds of money a child might have don’t count:

Allowances paid by parents for household chores
Birthday or holiday gifts from relatives
Interest, dividends, and capital gains from investments

None of that qualifies under the IRS definition of earned income.² Only money the child actually worked for opens the door to a Roth IRA.

Keep Records of the Work

If your child’s income comes from odd jobs rather than a W-2 employer, keep a written log for each job: the date, what was done, who paid, and how much. The IRS can ask you to substantiate a minor’s earnings, and a clean record settles the question. A teenager with a formal employer already has proof in the W-2.

Who Puts the Money In Doesn’t Matter

The child doesn’t have to be the one physically depositing the contribution. A parent, grandparent, or anyone else can fund the account so long as the total doesn’t exceed the child’s earned income for the year. The IRS uses exactly this example: a college student earns $3,500, and the student’s grandmother makes the contribution on the student’s behalf.¹ That makes a Roth IRA contribution a strong alternative to giving cash outright.

How a Custodial Roth IRA Works

Since a minor can’t legally manage a brokerage account, the account is opened as a custodial Roth IRA. A parent or legal guardian is named as custodian and handles investment choices and account paperwork. The child is the legal owner of the money; the custodian just administers it. The structure follows either the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act or the Uniform Gifts to Minors Act, depending on the state.³

The custodian stays in charge until the child reaches the age of majority under state law, which is usually 18 or 21, though some states let the custodian set a later transfer age. At that point the account converts to a standard Roth IRA and the young adult takes over. Several major brokerages, including Fidelity, offer custodial Roth IRAs built specifically for minors.

Contribution Limits Follow a “Lesser Of” Rule

The contribution cap is the smaller of two numbers: the child’s total earned income for the year, or the annual IRS maximum. For 2026, the maximum for people under 50 is $7,500.¹ If your teenager earned $4,000 waiting tables over the summer, their contribution ceiling is $4,000, not $7,500.

Contributions for a given tax year can be made any time up to that year’s federal filing deadline. For tax year 2026, you have until April 15, 2027.

Putting in too much triggers a 6% excise tax on the excess for every year it sits in the account.¹ To undo an overcontribution, withdraw the excess plus any earnings on it before the filing deadline (including extensions). Wait until year-end to tally the child’s total earned income before making a final contribution.

One boundary to be aware of: the Roth IRA income phase-outs published each year (for 2026, $153,000–$168,000 for single filers and $242,000–$252,000 for joint filers⁴) apply to the account holder’s own modified adjusted gross income, not the parent’s. They almost never come into play for a minor.

Creating Earned Income by Hiring Your Child

If you own a business, employing your child is one of the cleanest ways to give them the earned income a Roth IRA requires. The work has to be real, age-appropriate, and paid at a rate you’d pay anyone else for the same job. A 14-year-old handling inventory or posting to social media is defensible. Paying a 7-year-old $30 an hour to dust the office is not.

The arrangement carries a real tax benefit. Wages paid to a child under 18 by a parent’s sole proprietorship, or by a partnership in which both partners are the child’s parents, are exempt from Social Security and Medicare taxes.⁵ The child keeps more of the pay, and the business deducts the wages. Run it like a normal hire: have the child complete a W-4, issue a W-2 at year-end, and keep a log of hours and duties.

Getting Money Back Out

A common worry with putting a child’s money into a retirement account is whether it’s locked away for decades. It isn’t, at least not entirely. The IRS orders Roth IRA withdrawals so that contributions come out first, before any earnings.⁶ Because contributions went in with money that was already taxed, they can come back out tax-free and penalty-free at any age, for any reason. Every dollar your child contributed is reachable.

Earnings work differently. To withdraw earnings completely tax-free, the account must have been open at least five years and the account holder must be at least 59½. For a child who opens an account young, the five-year clock is essentially a non-issue; the age requirement is the practical one.

There’s also a carve-out for education. If earnings are withdrawn before 59½ to pay qualified higher-education expenses, the usual 10% early distribution penalty is waived, though the earnings portion is still subject to income tax.⁷ Combined with the fact that contributions can always come out tax-free, a Roth IRA opened for a young child gives the family real flexibility long before retirement is on the horizon.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – IRA Contribution Limits
2
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 596 (2025), Earned Income Credit (EIC)
3
HelpWithMyBank.gov. What Is a Uniform Gifts to Minors Act (UGMA) or Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA) Account?
4
Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
5
Internal Revenue Service. Family Employees
6
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-B, Distributions From Individual Retirement Arrangements
7
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Exceptions to Tax on Early Distributions