For the 2026 tax year, the Traditional IRA contribution limit is $7,500, or $8,600 if you’re 50 or older at any point during the year. You have until April 15, 2027, to make the contribution, and it can’t exceed your earned income for the year. Whether the contribution is tax-deductible depends on your income and whether you or your spouse are covered by a workplace retirement plan.1Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
The 2026 Limit and the Catch-Up
The $7,500 base cap is up from $7,000 in 2025, an inflation adjustment the IRS applies each year. If you turn 50 in 2026 or are already older, you can add $1,100 on top, bringing your ceiling to $8,600. The catch-up used to be frozen at $1,000, where it had sat since 2001, but SECURE 2.0 started indexing it for inflation.2Internal Revenue Service. COLA Increases for Dollar Limitations on Benefits and Contributions
Two ceilings actually apply, and the lower one wins. The dollar cap ($7,500 or $8,600) is one. Your total earned income for the year is the other. If you earned $3,000 in 2026, that’s your maximum, no matter your age.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 219 – Retirement Savings Earned income means wages, salary, self-employment earnings, and commissions. Taxable alimony counts only if the divorce was finalized before 2019. Social Security, pensions, dividends, and interest don’t qualify.
There’s no upper age limit. The old rule barring contributions after 70½ was repealed by the SECURE Act, so as long as you have earned income you can keep contributing at any age.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 219 – Retirement Savings
The Limit Is Shared With Your Roth IRA
This is the detail that trips people up most often. The $7,500 (or $8,600) cap applies across all your Traditional and Roth IRAs combined, not to each one separately. Put $4,000 into a Roth IRA for 2026 and you have $3,500 left for a Traditional IRA that same year.4Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – IRA Contribution Limits
A workplace 401(k) is a separate bucket. Contributing to one doesn’t reduce your IRA limit, though it can affect whether the IRA contribution is deductible.
Deadline: April 15, 2027
Contributions for the 2026 tax year must reach your IRA custodian by April 15, 2027. The money has to actually settle by that date; a transfer initiated on April 14 that clears on April 16 doesn’t count. If April 15 falls on a weekend or federal holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day.5Internal Revenue Service. IRA Year-End Reminders
A tax extension does not extend the IRA contribution window. Filing Form 4868 pushes your return’s due date to October, but the contribution deadline stays at April 15. People who wait until October to finish their taxes and only then think about funding an IRA discover they’ve lost that year entirely, and the tax-deferred growth that would have compounded on it doesn’t come back.
Spousal Contributions on One Income
If your spouse has little or no earned income, you can fund a Traditional IRA in their name using yours. The Kay Bailey Hutchison Spousal IRA provision allows a working spouse to contribute up to the full annual limit on behalf of a non-working spouse, provided you file jointly.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 219 – Retirement Savings – Section: Kay Bailey Hutchison Spousal IRA
In practice, each spouse can hold up to $7,500 (or $8,600 at 50+), for a combined household total of up to $17,200 across two IRAs in 2026. The combined contributions can’t exceed the working spouse’s taxable compensation for the year. Each account still has to be in one person’s name; there’s no such thing as a joint IRA under federal tax law.
Deducting Your Contribution: The Income Phase-Outs
You can always contribute to a Traditional IRA if you have earned income. Whether you can deduct that contribution on your taxes is a separate question, and it turns on two things: your income and whether you or your spouse are covered by a workplace retirement plan.
If neither you nor your spouse is covered by a plan at work, the deduction is full at any income level. No phase-out applies.1Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
If you are covered by a workplace plan, the 2026 deduction phase-outs are based on modified adjusted gross income (MAGI):1Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
- Single filers get a full deduction below $81,000, a partial deduction between $81,000 and $91,000, and no deduction at $91,000 or above.
- Married filing jointly gets a full deduction below $129,000, a partial deduction between $129,000 and $149,000, and no deduction at $149,000 or above.
- Married filing separately gets a partial deduction between $0 and $10,000, and no deduction above $10,000.
If you’re not covered by a workplace plan but your spouse is, the range is wider: full deduction below $242,000, partial between $242,000 and $252,000, and none at $252,000 or above.
Inside the phase-out range, the deduction shrinks on a sliding scale. The closer your MAGI sits to the top of the range, the smaller the deduction, until it disappears entirely.
What to Do if You’re Above the Phase-Out
Losing the deduction doesn’t lock you out of contributing. It just means the contribution won’t reduce your taxable income that year. The money still grows tax-deferred inside the IRA, and you won’t owe tax on the earnings until you withdraw them.4Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – IRA Contribution Limits
If you make non-deductible contributions, file Form 8606 with your tax return for that year. Form 8606 tracks your “basis” in the IRA, meaning the after-tax dollars you’ve already contributed. Without that record, the IRS has no way to distinguish your after-tax contributions from pre-tax money, and you can end up paying tax twice on the same dollars when you withdraw them at retirement.7Internal Revenue Service. About Form 8606, Nondeductible IRAs Skipping this form is one of the more expensive IRA mistakes, because reconstructing years of contributions decades later is close to impossible.
What Happens if You Contribute Too Much
Exceed the limit and the IRS charges a 6% excise tax on the excess amount for every year it stays in the account.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 4973 – Tax on Excess Contributions to Certain Tax-Favored Accounts That 6% is annual, not one-time. A $2,000 excess left in the account for three years costs $360 in penalties.
You can avoid the penalty by withdrawing the excess plus any earnings on it before your tax return’s due date, including extensions. If you filed by April 15, you have until October 15 (with an extension) to pull the excess out.5Internal Revenue Service. IRA Year-End Reminders Earnings withdrawn alongside the excess are taxable in the year the excess contribution was made. Miss that window and you can still absorb the excess by counting it toward a future year’s contribution room, but the 6% tax applies for every year the overage sat in the account in the meantime.