Spousal IRA Income Limits: Phase-Outs, MAGI, and Filing Rules

For a spousal IRA in 2026, the income limits depend on which account you’re funding and whether the working spouse has a retirement plan at work. A Traditional IRA deduction phases out between $129,000 and $149,000 in modified adjusted gross income if the working spouse is covered by an employer plan, or between $242,000 and $252,000 if not. Roth IRA contributions phase out between $242,000 and $252,000 regardless of workplace coverage. The contribution ceiling itself is $7,500 per spouse, or $8,600 if age 50 or older.¹²

Who Qualifies Before Income Limits Even Apply

A spousal IRA is not a separate account type. It’s an ordinary Traditional or Roth IRA funded on behalf of a spouse who doesn’t have enough of their own earned income to contribute.³ Two gates come before any income-limit analysis.

You must file a joint federal tax return for the year. And the working spouse’s taxable compensation must be at least equal to the combined contributions to both IRAs.⁴ If both spouses contribute the full $7,500, the working spouse needs at least $15,000 in wages, self-employment income, or similar compensation. Investment income, pensions, and annuities don’t count.⁵ There is no age cap on either account.

Traditional Spousal IRA: Deduction Phase-Outs

Anyone with qualifying earned income (or a spouse who has it) can contribute to a Traditional IRA at any income level. What income controls is whether the contribution is deductible. Above the ceiling, you can still make a nondeductible contribution, which matters for the backdoor Roth option below.

The rules split based on whether the working spouse is an active participant in a workplace retirement plan such as a 401(k) or pension.

When the Working Spouse Has a Workplace Plan

For 2026, the phase-out range for married couples filing jointly is $129,000 to $149,000 in MAGI.¹

MAGI of $129,000 or less: full deduction, up to the contribution limit.
MAGI between $129,000 and $149,000: partial deduction, reduced proportionally as income climbs through the range.
MAGI of $149,000 or more: no deduction.

The partial deduction math is direct. Take the distance between your MAGI and $129,000, divide by $20,000, and that’s the fraction of the full deduction you lose. A couple at $139,000 sits halfway through, so half the deduction is gone.

When the Working Spouse Has No Workplace Plan

The non-working spouse gets far more room. For 2026, the phase-out range is $242,000 to $252,000 in MAGI.¹

MAGI of $242,000 or less: full deduction.
MAGI between $242,000 and $252,000: partial deduction.
MAGI of $252,000 or more: no deduction.

The $113,000 gap between the two ranges is often more decisive than the couple’s actual income. A household at $140,000 with a working spouse in a 401(k) gets nothing. The same household without the 401(k) gets the full deduction.

Roth Spousal IRA: Contribution Phase-Out

Roth income limits control whether you can contribute at all, not whether the contribution is deductible (Roth contributions never are). Workplace plan coverage doesn’t factor in.

For 2026, married couples filing jointly face these thresholds:¹

MAGI under $242,000: full Roth contribution allowed.
MAGI between $242,000 and $252,000: reduced contribution.
MAGI of $252,000 or more: no direct Roth contribution.

The reduction works the same way as the Traditional IRA phase-out, but the $10,000 range is half as wide. Each additional dollar of income cuts deeper into what you can put in.

Backdoor Roth When You’re Over the Ceiling

Couples with MAGI above $252,000 can’t contribute directly to a Roth, but a Traditional IRA has no income ceiling for contributions themselves. The workaround: make a nondeductible Traditional IRA contribution, then convert it to a Roth. Both spouses can do this in their own accounts.

The pro-rata rule is the trap. If either spouse holds pre-tax money in any Traditional, SEP, or SIMPLE IRA, the IRS won’t let you convert just the nondeductible dollars. The taxable share of the conversion is based on the ratio of pre-tax money to total non-Roth IRA balances for that spouse.⁶ If you have $93,000 in pre-tax IRA money and add a $7,500 nondeductible contribution, roughly 92.5% of any conversion is taxable.

The cleanest backdoor conversion happens when the converting spouse has no pre-tax IRA balances at all. One common workaround for existing pre-tax IRA money is rolling it into a current employer’s 401(k), which removes it from the pro-rata calculation. Report the conversion on Form 8606.

Filing Separately Kills the Spousal IRA

Everything above assumes a joint return, which is itself a requirement for a spousal IRA. If you file separately and lived with your spouse at any point during the year, both the Traditional deduction phase-out and the Roth contribution phase-out compress to $0 to $10,000 of MAGI.⁴ Any income above $10,000 wipes out both. And because you aren’t filing jointly, the spousal IRA rule doesn’t apply at all: a non-earning spouse has no way to contribute.

How MAGI Is Calculated

Modified adjusted gross income starts with AGI (the last line of the first page of your 1040) and adds back certain items, most commonly the foreign earned income exclusion, the student loan interest deduction, and the IRA deduction itself.⁴ For most wage-earning couples, MAGI and AGI are the same or very close.

The MAGI definition differs slightly between the Traditional IRA deduction test and the Roth contribution test. If you’re near a threshold, run both. Publication 590-A carries worksheets for each.

What Happens If You Contribute Too Much

Contributing more than the limits allow triggers a 6% excise tax on the excess for every year it remains in the account.⁷ The penalty repeats annually until fixed.

To avoid it, withdraw the excess plus any earnings it produced before your tax-filing deadline, generally April 15. If you’ve already filed, you have until October 15 to pull the excess and file an amended return. Withdrawn earnings are taxed as ordinary income for the year the original contribution was made. Miss both deadlines and you can still remove the excess, but you’ll need to reduce the following year’s contribution by that amount to stop the 6% from recurring.

Roth eligibility creates the most risk here because your MAGI isn’t final until the year closes. A late bonus, an investment gain, or your spouse’s higher-than-expected pay can push you over $252,000 after you’ve already contributed. Recharacterizing the Roth contribution as a nondeductible Traditional IRA contribution, or simply removing it with earnings before the deadline, keeps the penalty off.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Notice 2025-67 – 2026 Amounts Relating to Retirement Plans and IRAs
2
Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026; IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 219 – Retirement Savings
4
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-A – Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs)
5
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 451 – Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs)
6
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8606 – Nondeductible IRAs
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 4973 – Tax on Excess Contributions to Certain Tax-Favored Accounts