Who Can Contribute to a Traditional IRA: Income, Age, and Spousal Rules

Anyone with taxable earned income can contribute to a Traditional IRA, regardless of age. For 2026, the limit is $7,500, or $8,600 if you’re 50 or older by the end of the year.¹ You don’t need a workplace retirement plan to open one, and you don’t need to be under any particular age. Whether you can deduct what you contribute is a separate question that depends on your income and workplace coverage.

You Need Earned Income

The core eligibility rule is taxable compensation during the year you contribute. The IRS defines compensation broadly: wages, salaries, tips, commissions, bonuses, and net self-employment income all count.²

A few less obvious income types qualify too. Nontaxable combat pay counts, so military members serving in a combat zone can fund an IRA even when their pay is excluded from gross income.³ Since 2020, taxable stipends and fellowship payments received by graduate and postdoctoral students count as compensation for IRA purposes, even without a W-2.⁴ Taxable alimony from divorce or separation agreements finalized before 2019 also qualifies; agreements executed after that date no longer produce taxable alimony income.

Income that doesn’t come from personal effort won’t get you in. Interest, dividends, rental income, Social Security benefits, pension payments, unemployment compensation, and deferred compensation don’t count.² If those are your only income sources, you can’t contribute. Contributing anyway creates an excess contribution subject to a 6% excise tax every year it stays in the account.⁵

Spousal IRAs for a Non-Working Spouse

The earned income rule has one significant exception. If you’re married and filing jointly, a spouse with little or no income can contribute to their own Traditional IRA based on the other spouse’s earnings. It’s commonly called the Kay Bailey Hutchison Spousal IRA. You must file a joint federal return, and the total contributions for both spouses can’t exceed the taxable compensation reported on that return.⁴

The account belongs to the non-working spouse. The money stays in their name regardless of who earned it, which prevents a stay-at-home parent or caretaker from losing years of tax-advantaged savings simply because they aren’t drawing a paycheck.

Age Is No Longer a Factor

Before 2020, contributions had to stop at age 70½. The SECURE Act of 2019 repealed that restriction.⁴ A 75-year-old with part-time consulting income and a 16-year-old with a summer job are both eligible, as long as they have qualifying earned income.

Required minimum distributions still begin at 73, but they don’t block contributions. You can put money in and take an RMD out in the same tax year, provided you have earned income.⁶

How Much You Can Contribute in 2026

For 2026, the maximum contribution is $7,500 across all of your Traditional and Roth IRAs combined. If you’re 50 or older by the end of the calendar year, an additional $1,100 catch-up brings the total to $8,600.¹ Both figures are up from 2025, when they were $7,000 and $8,000.⁷

One rule catches people off guard. Your contribution can’t exceed your taxable compensation for the year. If you earned $4,000, your maximum contribution is $4,000, even though the general limit is higher.¹ The same cap governs spousal IRAs: if a couple’s combined earned income on their joint return is $12,000, they can’t contribute more than $12,000 total between both accounts.

Contributing Is Not the Same as Deducting

Eligibility to contribute and eligibility to deduct are two different questions. Anyone with earned income can contribute up to the limits above. Whether the contribution is tax-deductible depends on your income and whether you or your spouse participate in a workplace retirement plan.

If neither of you has a workplace plan, you can deduct the full contribution at any income level. If one of you does, the deduction phases out over an income range based on Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI). For 2026:⁷

Single or head of household covered by a workplace plan: full deduction if MAGI is $81,000 or less, partial between $81,000 and $91,000, none above $91,000.
Married filing jointly, contributing spouse covered by a workplace plan: full deduction if MAGI is $129,000 or less, partial between $129,000 and $149,000, none above $149,000.
Married filing jointly, contributor not covered but spouse is: full deduction if MAGI is $242,000 or less, partial between $242,000 and $252,000, none above $252,000.
Married filing separately, covered by a workplace plan: partial deduction if MAGI is under $10,000, none at $10,000 or above. This range is not indexed for inflation.⁸

If you’re married filing separately and lived apart from your spouse the entire year, the IRS treats you as single, giving you the wider $81,000–$91,000 range instead of the $0–$10,000 range.

Losing the deduction doesn’t lock you out. Non-deductible contributions to a Traditional IRA are still allowed, and the investment gains grow tax-deferred until withdrawal. If you go this route, report the contributions on Form 8606 each year to establish your basis, so those after-tax dollars aren’t taxed again when you take money out.⁹

When You Can Contribute for the 2026 Tax Year

You can make a 2026 contribution anytime between January 1, 2026, and the tax filing deadline of April 15, 2027. If you contribute between January 1 and April 15, your brokerage will ask which tax year the money is for, so designate the correct year. Money invested earlier has more time to grow, but the extended window is useful if you need to confirm your income before committing the full amount.

Fixing a Contribution You Shouldn’t Have Made

Contribute more than the annual limit or without qualifying compensation, and the excess is hit with a 6% excise tax for every year it stays in the account.¹ The penalty compounds, so speed matters.

To avoid the penalty, withdraw the excess plus any earnings it generated before the tax filing deadline, including extensions. The excess itself isn’t taxed again if you never deducted it, but the earnings on it are taxable in the year the contribution was made.²

Already filed? You get a second chance. Withdraw the excess within six months of the original filing deadline (without extensions) and file an amended return with “Filed pursuant to section 301.9100-2” written at the top.²

1
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – IRA Contribution Limits
2
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-A (2025), Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs)
3
Internal Revenue Service. Miscellaneous Provisions – Combat Zone Service
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 219 – Retirement Savings
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 4973 – Tax on Excess Contributions to Certain Tax-Favored Accounts
6
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)
7
Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
8
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Notice 2025-67 – 2026 Amounts Relating to Retirement Plans and IRAs
9
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8606 (2025)