What Are the Roth IRA Income Limits by Filing Status?

Roth IRA income limits for 2026 depend on your filing status. Single filers and heads of household can make the full $7,500 contribution ($8,600 if age 50 or older) with a modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) below $153,000, and married couples filing jointly can do the same with a combined MAGI below $242,000. Above those points, the allowed contribution shrinks through a phase-out range and reaches zero at $168,000 for single filers and $252,000 for joint filers. Married people who file separately and lived with their spouse during the year face the tightest rule: the phase-out starts at the first dollar of income and ends at $10,000.¹

Single Filers and Heads of Household

Full contribution: MAGI below $153,000
Reduced contribution: MAGI between $153,000 and $168,000
No contribution allowed: MAGI of $168,000 or more

If you are married but lived apart from your spouse for the entire year and file separately, you use the single-filer thresholds above rather than the married-filing-separately rule.²

Married Filing Jointly

Full contribution: combined MAGI below $242,000
Reduced contribution: combined MAGI between $242,000 and $252,000
No contribution allowed: combined MAGI of $252,000 or more

Each spouse can fund their own Roth IRA as long as the couple’s joint income stays within range. Both spouses look at the same household number, not their individual earnings, to decide eligibility.¹

Married Filing Separately (Living Together)

Full contribution: not available at any income level
Reduced contribution: MAGI between $0 and $10,000
No contribution allowed: MAGI of $10,000 or more

This is the most restrictive category. The phase-out begins at the first dollar of income, so even modest earnings cut sharply into what you can contribute. The $0 to $10,000 range is not adjusted for inflation and has stayed the same for years.¹

How the Phase-Out Reduces Your Contribution

Landing inside the phase-out range doesn’t cut you off. The IRS reduces the annual limit proportionally using a four-step calculation:³

Subtract the lower threshold from your MAGI. A single filer with a $156,000 MAGI in 2026 has $156,000 minus $153,000, or $3,000.
Divide by the width of the phase-out range. Single filers and heads of household use $15,000. Joint filers and married-filing-separately filers use $10,000. Here: $3,000 divided by $15,000 equals 0.20.
Multiply the annual contribution limit by that percentage. For 2026: $7,500 times 0.20 equals $1,500.
Subtract the reduction from the full limit. $7,500 minus $1,500 equals $6,000. That’s the maximum you can contribute.

If you are 50 or older, run the same formula against the higher limit of $8,600 (the base $7,500 plus the $1,100 catch-up amount for 2026).¹ Same MAGI, age 50 or older: $8,600 minus $1,720 equals $6,880.

Two rounding rules apply. Round the result up to the next multiple of $10. And if the formula produces a number above zero but below $200, you can still contribute $200. The allowed amount never drops below $200 until you are fully phased out.⁴

What Income Counts

MAGI for Roth IRA purposes starts with your adjusted gross income (AGI) from your tax return, then adds back a specific list of deductions and exclusions:⁵

Any traditional IRA deduction you claimed
The student loan interest deduction from Schedule 1
Foreign earned income or housing exclusion
The foreign housing deduction for self-employed individuals abroad
Series EE or I savings bond interest excluded for education expenses
Employer-provided adoption benefits excluded from income

Tax-exempt interest, such as municipal bond interest, is not added back for this purpose, even though it is added back for things like the Premium Tax Credit.⁵ Roth conversions are also excluded from the MAGI calculation used to test contribution eligibility.⁴

Getting MAGI wrong can push you into an excess contribution, which triggers a 6% excise tax for every year the excess stays in the account.⁶ If your income swings with bonuses, stock sales, or freelance work, estimate conservatively before contributing the full amount for the year.

Contribution Caps, Earned Income, and Deadlines

For 2026, the annual Roth IRA contribution is capped at $7,500 for people under 50 and $8,600 for people 50 or older by year-end.⁷ The $1,100 catch-up is up from $1,000 in 2025; SECURE 2.0 made the catch-up amount subject to annual inflation adjustments starting in 2024.¹

The cap is a combined cap. Contributions across all your traditional and Roth IRAs together cannot exceed it. Put $3,000 into a traditional IRA and no more than $4,500 can go into a Roth for the same year, assuming you are under 50.⁷

You can only contribute if you have taxable compensation, meaning wages, salaries, tips, or self-employment income. Investment income, rental income, and pension payments alone don’t count.⁸ Your contribution can never exceed your compensation for the year, so someone who earned $4,000 is capped at $4,000 regardless of the annual limit.⁷

A non-working spouse on a joint return can contribute based on the working spouse’s income, as long as the couple’s combined contributions don’t exceed their joint taxable compensation.⁷ With one spouse earning $80,000 and the other earning nothing, each can put up to $7,500 into their own Roth for 2026, so long as household MAGI stays below the joint phase-out floor.

The deadline to contribute for a given tax year is your tax return filing deadline, usually April 15 of the following year. Filing extensions do not extend the contribution deadline.⁹ Contributions for 2026 are due by April 15, 2027.

If Your Income Is Above the Limit

Earning above the ceiling doesn’t permanently lock you out of a Roth account. There is no income limit on converting a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA; the income restrictions apply only to direct Roth contributions.¹⁰ High earners often use a two-step approach called the backdoor Roth: make a nondeductible contribution to a traditional IRA (which has no income cap), then convert that traditional IRA to a Roth. Nondeductible contributions must be reported on Form 8606 each year to track your after-tax basis, and skipping the form risks a $50 penalty along with the chance of paying tax twice on the same money later.¹¹ The strategy is more complicated if you already hold pre-tax money in traditional IRAs, because the IRS treats all your traditional IRAs as one pool when calculating the taxable portion of a conversion.¹²

1
Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
2
Internal Revenue Service. Amount of Roth IRA Contributions That You Can Make for 2024
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 408A – Roth IRAs
4
eCFR. 26 CFR 1.408A-3 – Contributions to Roth IRAs
5
Internal Revenue Service. Modified Adjusted Gross Income
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 4973 – Tax on Excess Contributions
7
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – IRA Contribution Limits
8
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 309, Roth IRA Contributions
9
Internal Revenue Service. Traditional and Roth IRAs
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 408A – Roth IRAs
11
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8606
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 408 – Individual Retirement Accounts