What Is the Roth IRA Phase-Out and How Does It Work?

The Roth IRA phase-out is the income band where your allowed contribution shrinks as your earnings rise, then disappears once you cross the top. For the 2026 tax year, single filers phase out between $153,000 and $168,000 of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI), and married couples filing jointly phase out between $242,000 and $252,000.¹ Inside the range, you can still contribute, just less than the full amount. Above it, direct contributions aren’t allowed, though a legal workaround exists.

How the Sliding Scale Works

Rather than a hard cutoff where one extra dollar of income wipes out eligibility, the IRS uses a proportional reduction. At the bottom of the phase-out range, you can contribute the full amount. As MAGI climbs through the range, your allowed contribution drops smoothly. Cross the top, and your direct contribution limit is zero.

The window is $15,000 wide for single filers and $10,000 wide for joint filers. That spread is what softens the edge: a person at $152,999 and a person at $153,001 end up allowed almost the same contribution, not wildly different ones.

The base contribution limit for 2026 is $7,500 if you’re under 50, and $8,600 if you’re 50 or older (a $1,100 catch-up on top of the base).² That limit is combined across all your traditional and Roth IRAs, not per account.

2026 Income Limits by Filing Status

The IRS adjusts these thresholds annually for inflation. For 2026:¹

Single or head of household: phase-out from $153,000 to $168,000. Full contribution below $153,000, none above $168,000.
Married filing jointly: phase-out from $242,000 to $252,000.
Married filing separately, if you lived with your spouse at any point during the year: phase-out from $0 to $10,000. Almost any income triggers a reduction, and modest earnings knock you out entirely.

The married-filing-separately range is not indexed for inflation and has stayed at $0 to $10,000 for years.³ If you’re married filing separately but didn’t live with your spouse at any time during the year, you’re treated as single and get the wider range.

What Counts Toward Your MAGI

Your MAGI for Roth eligibility starts with the adjusted gross income on your return and adds back a short list of deductions and exclusions. For most people, MAGI is identical or very close to AGI. The add-backs, per the IRS:⁴

Traditional IRA deduction
Student loan interest deduction
Foreign earned income exclusion and foreign housing exclusion or deduction
Excluded interest on Series EE or I savings bonds used for education
Excluded employer-provided adoption assistance

You also subtract any income from converting a traditional IRA to a Roth, and any rollovers from a qualified retirement plan to a Roth. Conversion income doesn’t count against your eligibility.⁴ The self-employed health insurance deduction is not on the add-back list, so if you take it, it stays out of MAGI.

Calculating Your Reduced Contribution

If your MAGI lands inside the phase-out range, work out your allowed amount in four steps.

Subtract the bottom of your phase-out range from your MAGI. Divide that by the width of the range ($15,000 for single, $10,000 for joint). Multiply the base contribution limit by that decimal. Subtract the result from the base limit. What’s left is your maximum direct Roth contribution.

A single filer under 50 earning $160,000 in 2026: $160,000 − $153,000 = $7,000. Divide by $15,000 to get about 0.467. Multiply $7,500 by 0.467 for roughly $3,500. Subtract from $7,500, and the allowed contribution is $4,000.¹

Two rounding rules apply. If the result isn’t a multiple of $10, round up to the next $10. And if the formula gives a number between $0 and $200, you’re allowed a minimum contribution of $200. Both come from IRS Publication 590-A, which has the full worksheet.⁵

If you’re 50 or older, use $8,600 in the same math. At $160,000 MAGI: $8,600 × 0.467 = $4,016, then $8,600 − $4,016 = $4,584, rounded up to $4,590.²

You have until the tax filing deadline to make the contribution for the prior year. A 2026 contribution can be made any time before April 15, 2027, which helps because your exact MAGI isn’t always clear until the return is done.⁶

If Your Income Is Above the Range

Direct Roth contributions are off the table above the top of the phase-out. A widely used workaround is the backdoor Roth. The strategy works because while direct Roth contributions are income-limited, conversions from a traditional IRA to a Roth are not. The statute explicitly excludes rollover contributions, which include conversions, from the income-based limits on regular contributions.³

In outline: contribute to a traditional IRA on a nondeductible basis (high earners covered by a workplace plan generally can’t deduct traditional IRA contributions anyway), then convert those funds to a Roth IRA. Because you already paid tax on the money going in, the conversion itself creates little or no additional tax. Report the nondeductible contribution on Form 8606. Failing to file that form when required carries a $50 penalty.⁷

The trap is the pro-rata rule. If you have any pre-tax money in traditional IRAs from prior years, the IRS won’t let you pick which dollars you’re converting. It treats the conversion as coming proportionally from pre-tax and after-tax balances across all your traditional IRAs combined. With $92,500 in pre-tax traditional IRA money and a $7,500 nondeductible contribution, roughly 92.5% of any conversion is taxable, even if you only meant to convert the $7,500 you just put in.

The practical fix is to roll existing pre-tax traditional IRA balances into a 401(k) or other employer plan before converting, leaving only the after-tax contribution in the traditional IRA. If that isn’t available and pre-tax balances are large, a backdoor Roth can produce more tax than it’s worth.

Fixing an Excess Contribution

Contributing more than your phase-out-adjusted limit triggers a 6% excise tax on the excess for every year it stays in the account.⁸ The penalty compounds annually, so a quick fix pays off.

Three options:

Withdraw the excess before your tax filing deadline. Pull out the excess contribution plus any earnings it generated before your return is due (including extensions), and the 6% penalty doesn’t apply. Your custodian usually calculates the earnings; Publication 590-A has a worksheet if you need to. The earnings are taxable in the year the contribution was made, and a 10% early withdrawal penalty applies to those earnings if you’re under 59½.⁵
Recharacterize the contribution. Instruct your custodian to move the excess (plus earnings) from the Roth to a traditional IRA, and the money is treated as if it had gone to the traditional IRA all along. Same deadline: the tax filing due date including extensions.⁹
Apply the excess to a future year. If you miss the deadline, leave the excess in the account and reduce next year’s contribution by that amount. You’ll owe the 6% penalty for every year the excess remains, but you avoid a withdrawal.⁶

Recharacterization is often the cleanest path when you catch the mistake in time, because the money stays inside a tax-advantaged account. From there, you could convert it to a Roth through the backdoor route, as long as you account for the pro-rata rule.

1
Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
2
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – IRA Contribution Limits
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 408A – Roth IRAs
4
Internal Revenue Service. Modified Adjusted Gross Income
5
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-A (2025), Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs)
6
Internal Revenue Service. IRA Year-End Reminders
7
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8606
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 4973 – Tax on Excess Contributions to Certain Tax-Favored Accounts and Annuities
9
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plans FAQs Regarding IRAs