What Are the Non-Deductible IRA Contribution Limits?

For the 2026 tax year, the non-deductible IRA contribution limit is $7,500, or $8,600 if you are age 50 or older. That ceiling is the same one that applies to any traditional or Roth IRA contribution, because the IRS caps the total you can put across all your traditional and Roth IRAs combined. The “non-deductible” label describes how the contribution is taxed, not a separate bucket with its own dollar limit.

The 2026 Dollar Limits

The base limit for 2026 is $7,500. If you turn 50 or older by the end of the year, you can add a $1,100 catch-up contribution, for a total of $8,600.¹ The catch-up rose from $1,000 to $1,100 for 2026 because SECURE 2.0 added a cost-of-living adjustment to that figure for the first time.²

These limits apply to the total of your deductible and non-deductible contributions combined. There is no separate allowance for each type. If you put $7,500 into a Roth, you cannot also put $7,500 into a non-deductible traditional IRA in the same year.

Earned Income Ceiling

One rule overrides the dollar cap: you cannot contribute more than your earned income for the year. If you earned $4,000 in taxable compensation during 2026, your contribution tops out at $4,000. Earned income means wages, salary, self-employment income, and certain alimony payments. Investment income, rental income, and Social Security benefits do not count.

Filing Deadline

You have until the tax filing deadline, typically April 15 of the following year, to make a contribution that counts toward the prior tax year.

When Your Contribution Is Non-Deductible

Whether a traditional IRA contribution is deductible depends on two things: whether you or your spouse are covered by a workplace retirement plan such as a 401(k), and how much you earn. If neither spouse is covered by a workplace plan, contributions are fully deductible at any income level, and the non-deductible rules do not enter the picture.

Once workplace coverage is in play, modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) phase-outs decide what portion of your contribution is deductible. Anything above the top of the range becomes non-deductible.

If You Are Covered by a Workplace Plan

For single filers and heads of household covered by a workplace plan, the 2026 deduction phases out between $81,000 and $91,000 in MAGI. Below $81,000, the full contribution is deductible. Above $91,000, the entire contribution is non-deductible.³

For married couples filing jointly where the contributing spouse has workplace coverage, the phase-out runs from $129,000 to $149,000. For married filing separately with workplace coverage, the phase-out is $0 to $10,000, which effectively removes the deduction for almost anyone in that filing status.³

If Only Your Spouse Is Covered

A more generous range applies when you have no workplace plan but your spouse does. The deduction phases out between $242,000 and $252,000 in combined MAGI for 2026. Below $242,000, the full contribution is deductible. Above $252,000, it is entirely non-deductible.³

Income inside a phase-out gives you a partial deduction. Whatever portion you cannot deduct becomes a non-deductible contribution that has to be tracked separately.

Tracking Non-Deductible Contributions on Form 8606

Every non-deductible dollar creates “basis” in your traditional IRA, meaning money you have already paid tax on that should not be taxed again on withdrawal. The IRS does not track this for you. Form 8606 does, and skipping it is the easiest way to end up paying tax twice on the same dollars.⁴

File Form 8606 for any year you make a non-deductible contribution, take a distribution from a traditional IRA that has basis, or convert traditional IRA money to a Roth.⁵ It attaches to your regular tax return. Even if you would not otherwise need to file a return, you still need to submit Form 8606 for any year you made non-deductible contributions.

Part I asks for three main inputs: your non-deductible contributions for the current year, your cumulative basis carried forward from prior years, and the total value of all your traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE IRA accounts as of December 31. That year-end balance drives the tax calculation on distributions.

Without the form, the IRS assumes your entire balance came from deductible contributions and earnings, so every dollar you withdraw is taxed.⁴ You can try to prove basis later with satisfactory evidence, but that is a fight worth avoiding. Keep copies of every Form 8606 you file for as long as you hold any traditional IRA, and ideally for three years past the point you have fully emptied all of them.

Penalties for Form 8606 Problems

Failing to file Form 8606 carries a $50 penalty per missed year. Overstating non-deductible contributions carries a $100 penalty per overstatement. Both can be waived for reasonable cause.⁶ There is no statute of limitations on submitting the form, so if you missed prior years you can still file late and get your basis on record.

The Pro-Rata Rule on Distributions

You might expect to be able to withdraw just your non-deductible contributions and leave the taxable money alone. You cannot. The IRS treats every distribution as a proportional mix of your taxable and non-taxable money.⁷

All your traditional IRAs, SEP IRAs, and SIMPLE IRAs get treated as a single account for this calculation.⁸ Divide your total non-deductible basis by the combined year-end value of those accounts, and that fraction is the tax-free percentage of any distribution.

An example: $15,000 in non-deductible basis against a combined $150,000 traditional IRA balance gives a basis ratio of 10%. Withdraw $10,000 and only $1,000 comes out tax-free. The other $9,000 is taxable income. Keeping non-deductible contributions in a separate account does not change the math, because the IRS blends everything together anyway.⁷

Backdoor Roth Conversions

Non-deductible contributions are most often used as the first step in a backdoor Roth: contribute to a traditional IRA, then convert to a Roth. The direct Roth contribution income cutoffs for 2026 are $168,000 MAGI for single filers and $252,000 for married couples filing jointly, and taxpayers above those figures cannot contribute to a Roth directly.

If the traditional IRA holds only the non-deductible contribution and has not earned much, the conversion is essentially tax-free because you are moving money you already paid tax on. The catch is the same pro-rata rule that governs distributions: if you have pre-tax money in any traditional, SEP, or SIMPLE IRA, only a small fraction of the converted amount comes out tax-free, and the rest is taxed at ordinary income rates. The cleanest backdoor conversion happens when the pre-tax IRA balance is zero on December 31 of the conversion year.⁸

Excess Contribution Penalty

Contribute more than the annual limit, or contribute without earned income to support it, and the IRS charges a 6% excise tax on the excess amount for every year it stays in the account.⁹ The 6% keeps applying each year until you fix the problem by withdrawing the excess plus any earnings on it, or by applying it toward a future year’s contribution if you have room. You generally have until your tax filing deadline, including extensions, to pull excess contributions and avoid the penalty for that year.

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. Notice 2025-67 – 2026 Amounts Relating to Retirement Plans and IRAs
4
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-A – Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements
5
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8606
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6693 – Failure to Provide Reports on Certain Tax-Favored Accounts or Annuities
7
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-B – Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 408 – Individual Retirement Accounts
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 4973 – Tax on Excess Contributions to Certain Tax-Favored Accounts and Annuities