Roth IRA Contribution Limits 2026: Phase-Out Calculator

The 2026 numbers, from the notice

Every 2026 dollar amount on this page comes from IRS Notice 2025-67 (“2026 Amounts Relating to Retirement Plans and IRAs, as Adjusted for Changes in Cost-of-Living”), except the $8,600 total for people aged 50 or older, which Publication 590-A adds up from the notice’s $7,500 and $1,100.

Source: IRS Notice 2025-67, read and saved October 22, 2026; Publication 590-A (2025), “What’s New for 2026”.

The notice states the Roth ranges in one sentence: “the adjusted gross income phase-out range for taxpayers making contributions to a Roth IRA is between $242,000 and $252,000 for married couples filing jointly”, and it gives $153,000 to $168,000 for singles and heads of household. It leaves the separate-return range alone: “remains between $0 and $10,000”. Every figure in the table moved up except the separate-return range, which the statute fixes at zero and $10,000.

How the reduced limit is figured

Section 408A(c)(3)(A) says the limit “shall not exceed” the general amount, “reduced (but not below zero) by the amount which bears the same ratio to such amount as” your income over the applicable dollar amount bears to “$15,000 ($10,000 in the case of a joint return or a married individual filing a separate return)”. Publication 590-A turns this into Worksheet 2-2, and the lines matter because the rounding decides the last $10.

Source: Publication 590-A (2025), Worksheet 2-2, with the 2026 amounts from Notice 2025-67 substituted for the 2025 amounts printed on the worksheet. The right-hand column is our arithmetic.

The worksheet says to enter the ratio “rounded to at least three places”, and the statute does not round it. We ran both for every whole dollar of income across the range: the two methods differ on 2,919 of the 15,000 dollars of the single range (under 50) and never by more than $10 (our arithmetic). Section 219(g)(2)(B), which section 408A(c)(3)(A) applies, adds that “No dollar limitation shall be reduced below $200 under paragraph (1) unless” it is reduced to zero, so the figure you see just under the top of the range is $200, not $10. A small point: the 2025 edition of the publication prints its own example twice with different results, $6,530 in the text for $150,000 of income and $6,540 in the illustrated worksheet for $151,000, so we recompute rather than copy.

Single and head of household: the reduced limit at each step

Our arithmetic from Notice 2025-67 and the Worksheet 2-2 method, assuming taxable compensation at least equal to the limit and no traditional IRA contribution. A table of every row is in the data download.

Inside the range, each extra $1,000 of modified AGI removes $500 of Roth IRA room for a single filer under 50 (our arithmetic), or about $573 at 50 or older. From roughly $167,600 up to $167,999 the worksheet leaves the $200 minimum, and at $168,000 the limit is $0.

Married filing jointly: the reduced limit at each step

Our arithmetic from Notice 2025-67 and the Worksheet 2-2 method. The income is the couple’s joint modified AGI; each spouse has a separate limit.

A joint return uses a $10,000 range, so the room disappears 50% faster per dollar than for a single filer: $750 per $1,000 of income for a spouse under 50 (our arithmetic). Each spouse figures a limit, and a couple at $247,500 can put $3,380 into each spouse’s Roth IRA, $6,760 together (our arithmetic: ratio 0.550, $7,500 minus $4,125 is $3,375, rounded up to $3,380).

Married filing separately and living with your spouse

The range is $0 to $10,000 and the notice says it “is not subject to an annual cost-of-living adjustment”. Publication 590-A’s Table 2-1 treats an income of exactly zero as unreduced and any amount from just above zero to just under $10,000 as reduced.

Our arithmetic. A married person filing separately who did not live with the spouse at any time during the year uses the single range.

What counts as modified AGI

Your modified AGI for Roth IRA purposes is, in the words of Publication 590-A, “your AGI as shown on your return with some adjustments”, and Worksheet 2-1 lists them. Line 2 takes out “any income resulting from the conversion of an IRA (other than a Roth IRA) to a Roth IRA”, and section 408A(c)(3)(B)(i) says the AGI is figured “except that any amount included in gross income under subsection (d)(3) shall not be taken into account”, so a conversion does not push you through the range. Lines 4 to 9 add back the traditional IRA deduction, the student loan interest deduction, the foreign earned income and housing exclusions, the foreign housing deduction, excludable savings bond interest and excluded employer-provided adoption benefits.

What the worksheet does not take out is everything else that is in AGI. For the investors this site writes for, that includes net rental income, Schedule K-1 income from partnerships and REITs, dividends from non-traded REITs and BDCs, interest from real estate notes and the gain on a sold property, once they reach the return (our reading). The deduction for qualified business income is taken below AGI on Form 1040 and therefore does not lower modified AGI (our reading).

Our worked example of a property sale (our arithmetic): a single filer aged 45 with $125,000 of base modified AGI.

Our arithmetic. The base income and the gains are assumptions, not figures from any filing. Taxable gain also affects other thresholds; see our guides to IRMAA brackets and to the 2026 senior deduction phase-out.

The timing matters because the test is the whole calendar year of the return: the same gain in 2027 would count against the 2027 range, and Notice 2025-67 is not the notice for that year.

One limit for every IRA, plus the spousal rule

Publication 590-A says that if you contribute to both kinds of IRA, “your contribution limit for Roth IRAs is generally the same as your limit would be if contributions were made only to Roth IRAs, but then reduced by all contributions for the year to all IRAs other than Roth IRAs”. Employer SEP and SIMPLE contributions are left out. Worksheet 2-2 handles it on line 9 and line 11. In our example C, a single filer aged 40 at $158,000 has a phase-out limit of $5,010 (ratio 0.333, $7,500 minus $2,497.50 rounded up) but made a $3,000 traditional IRA contribution, so line 10 is $4,500 and the limit is $4,500 (our arithmetic). The phase-out is not the binding limit there.

Two more limits sit under the phase-out. The Roth contribution cannot exceed taxable compensation, and a non-working spouse can still have an IRA: under the Kay Bailey Hutchison Spousal IRA limit, a couple filing jointly where one spouse earned $3,800 and the other $48,000 can each contribute $8,000 at age 53 for 2025, as the publication’s own example shows. For a Roth, the couple’s joint modified AGI still has to be inside the range above. Contributions to a Roth IRA are open “regardless of your age”.

Cash only, and by what date

Section 408(a)(1) says that outside rollovers “no contribution will be accepted unless it is in cash”. For an investor who holds non-traded REIT or BDC shares, that means the Roth IRA is funded with cash, and you cannot move shares of a fund into it as a contribution. Whatever you then buy inside the account is a separate decision.

Publication 590-A says that “You can make contributions to a Roth IRA for a year at any time during the year or by the due date of your return for that year (not including extensions)”, and section 219(f)(3) treats a contribution made by that date as made on the last day of the prior year. For 2025 the publication gives April 15, 2026; for 2026 the same rule points to April 15, 2027 for most people (our reading). Too much is expensive: “A 6% excise tax applies to any excess contribution to a Roth IRA”, and the publication says a contribution withdrawn by the due date with its earnings is treated as not made.

Above the range: three routes, and where this site covers them

A direct contribution is closed at $168,000 (single) or $252,000 (joint). The ones people use instead are different tools that depend on different facts, and none of them is a recommendation here.

Once money is in a Roth IRA, the clocks matter for when earnings come out tax-free; see Roth IRA 5-year rules. If the account will hold real estate platforms, best real estate crowdfunding for a Roth IRA covers which ones work inside one.

What a reader can do with this

• Find your modified AGI first. Take your AGI from the 2025 return as a start, add the 2026 income you expect (rent, K-1 income, REIT and BDC distributions, a planned sale) and use Worksheet 2-1 to adjust it. The tables above work from that number.
• Look up your row, then your age. The limit for someone under 50 and someone at 50 or older differ by $1,100 at the top and by about $573 per $1,000 of income inside the single range. Use the nearest row, or run Worksheet 2-2 for the exact figure.
• Check the other IRA contributions. If you or a plan put money into a traditional IRA for 2026, subtract it on line 9 of the worksheet before you contribute to the Roth.
• Test a sale or a conversion before the year ends. A gain moves you through the range at $500 per $1,000 (single, under 50). The effect of a Roth conversion is different: the conversion income is excluded from modified AGI for this purpose, though it counts for other thresholds.
• Keep the paper. Form 5498 shows the Roth contributions your custodian reports for the year, and Form 8606 is the form for nondeductible traditional IRA contributions and conversions. The 6% excise tax is the cost of guessing wrong.
• Wait for 2027 amounts before planning past December 31. The next notice will reset every range on this page.

FAQ

Sources, read and saved on October 22, 2026: IRS Notice 2025-67 (2026 Amounts Relating to Retirement Plans and IRAs, as Adjusted for Changes in Cost-of-Living); IRS Publication 590-A (2025), Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs), including Table 2-1 and Worksheets 2-1 and 2-2; 26 U.S.C. 219, 408 and 408A (Cornell Legal Information Institute). The base incomes, ages and gains in the examples are assumptions; all reduced limits and the dollars of room lost are our arithmetic. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.