Your Roth IRA contribution limit resets every January 1, giving you a fresh annual allowance for the new tax year. You don’t lose the ability to fund the prior year right away, though: contributions for the previous tax year remain open until the federal tax filing deadline, usually April 15. For 2026, the new limit is $7,500, or $8,600 if you’re 50 or older, and the deadline to make contributions that count toward 2025 is April 15, 2026.1Internal Revenue Service. IRS Announces First Day of 2026 Filing Season
The 15-Month Contribution Window
Each year’s contribution window runs about 15 and a half months. It opens on January 1 of the tax year and closes on the tax filing deadline of the following year. You can make 2025 contributions any time from January 1, 2025, through April 15, 2026. On January 1, 2026, the 2026 window opens on top of it, so January through mid-April is an overlap period where a single deposit could count toward either year.2Internal Revenue Service. Traditional and Roth IRAs
During that overlap, you have to tell your brokerage or IRA custodian which tax year each deposit applies to. If you don’t specify, most institutions will assume it’s for the current calendar year, meaning the year they actually received the money. A misattribution can push you over the limit for one year while leaving the other year’s room unused.3Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-A, Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs) – Section: Designating Year for Which Contribution Is Made
Once the filing deadline passes, the prior year’s window closes for good. Unused contribution room does not roll forward, and you cannot make it up later. Filing an extension for your tax return does not help either. Even if you push your return to October, the Roth IRA contribution deadline stays at the original April date.2Internal Revenue Service. Traditional and Roth IRAs
When the April Deadline Moves
The standard deadline is April 15, but the IRS pushes it to the next business day if April 15 lands on a weekend or a legal holiday recognized in the District of Columbia. Emancipation Day, observed on April 16, is the D.C. holiday that most often causes a shift, sometimes bumping the deadline to April 17 or 18.4Internal Revenue Service. Publication 509 (2026), Tax Calendars
For 2025 contributions, no shift applies: April 15, 2026, is a Wednesday, and Emancipation Day falls on Thursday, April 16. For 2026 contributions, the deadline is April 15, 2027, a Thursday, also unshifted. When the tax filing date does move in future years, the Roth contribution deadline moves with it.
Federally declared disaster areas are the other exception. The IRS sometimes grants automatic extensions for taxpayers in affected regions, and those extensions can include IRA contributions. Relief is announced through IRS disaster bulletins and applies only to the specific tax year and taxpayers covered.5Internal Revenue Service. Tax Relief in Disaster Situations
How Much You Can Contribute in 2026
The IRS periodically adjusts Roth IRA limits for inflation. For 2026, they went up for the first time in two years:6Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
- Under age 50: $7,500, up from $7,000 in 2024 and 2025.
- Age 50 or older: $8,600 total, which is the $7,500 base plus an $1,100 catch-up contribution. The catch-up rose from $1,000 in prior years.
These limits apply across all of your traditional and Roth IRAs combined, not per account. If you have two Roth IRAs and a traditional IRA, your total contributions to all three cannot exceed $7,500, or $8,600 with the catch-up. Your contribution also cannot exceed your taxable compensation for the year. If you earned only $4,000 in wages or self-employment income, that’s your cap, no matter what the published limit says.7Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – IRA Contribution Limits
Roth contributions require earned income such as wages, salary, or self-employment income. Investment income, rental income, pensions, and Social Security do not count. Married couples filing jointly can use one spouse’s earned income to support the other spouse’s contribution, as long as combined earnings equal or exceed combined IRA contributions.8Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 309, Roth IRA Contributions
Income Limits Can Shrink or Eliminate Your Reset
A fresh calendar year does not guarantee a fresh $7,500 of room. Your ability to contribute depends on your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI). The IRS sets phase-out ranges that reduce your allowable contribution as income rises, and above the top of the range, direct Roth contributions are off the table. The 2026 ranges:6Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
- Single or head of household: $153,000 to $168,000.
- Married filing jointly: $242,000 to $252,000.
- Married filing separately: $0 to $10,000. This range is not indexed to inflation and has stayed the same for years.
Below the lower number, you can contribute the full amount. Between the numbers, your limit is reduced proportionally. Above the upper number, you cannot make direct contributions at all. Because thresholds reset annually alongside the dollar limits, a raise, bonus, or stock sale can push you past the line even if you qualified the year before.
The married-filing-separately range is unusually restrictive. Couples who file separately are effectively locked out of direct Roth contributions unless individual MAGI stays under $10,000, which is one reason many married couples file jointly when both want to keep contributing.
Missing the Deadline or Contributing Too Much
If you contribute more than the limit, or contribute in a year your income made you ineligible, the excess is subject to a 6% excise tax for every year it stays in the account.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 4973 – Tax on Excess Contributions to Certain Tax-Favored Accounts and Annuities You have a few ways to fix it:
- Withdraw the excess and any earnings it generated by the due date of your return, including extensions. The IRS then treats the contribution as if it never happened. You’ll owe income tax on the earnings, plus a possible 10% early distribution penalty on those earnings if you’re under 59½.
- If you already filed without correcting it, you can still withdraw the excess within six months after the filing deadline, not including extensions. File an amended return with “Filed pursuant to section 301.9100-2” noted at the top.
- Recharacterize the excess Roth contribution as a traditional IRA contribution by the filing deadline. The IRS generally allows this until October 15 if you file an amended return.
- Let the excess be absorbed by next year’s contribution limit. You’ll owe the 6% penalty for each year it sits uncorrected.
Uncorrected excess contributions are reported on IRS Form 5329, and the 6% tax applies annually until resolved.10Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 5329 The simpler discipline is to track deposits during the January-through-April overlap and confirm with your custodian which year each contribution is credited to before the window closes.