Contribution and Income Caps for Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs)

Find out how much you are able to put away in each of these individual retirement savings accounts.

If you follow the guidelines for Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), you may be able to increase the amount of money you have saved for your retirement. For people under the age of 50 in 2021 and 2022, the maximum amount you can contribute to a regular or Roth IRA is $6,000. On the other hand, factors like your age, salary, and other retirement accounts could enable you to save more money or reduce the amount of money you are required to contribute. Both SEP IRAs and SIMPLE IRAs are exempt from the contribution caps that have been addressed.

Limits on Contributions to IRAs

Both standard IRAs and Roth IRAs have the same contribution limit for the years 2021 and 2022. Traditional IRA contributions are tax-deductible, whereas Roth IRA contributions are not tax-deductible. The following are the maximum amounts that one can contribute to regular and Roth IRAs combined:

$6,000 ($7,000 plus "catch-up" contributions for taxpayers who are age 50 or older)
Your annual taxable compensation

The maximum sums that one can contribute to an IRA in 2020 will not alter from these amounts. Because of the combined contribution limit, you can contribute to either a regular or a Roth IRA, depending on your preferences. You may also contribute a portion of the same amount to both, provided that your total contribution does not exceed the dollar limits outlined above. For instance, you can contribute $6,000 to a conventional IRA or $2,000 to a traditional IRA, and $4,000 to a Roth IRA, as long as the total combined amount does not exceed $6,000. You can also contribute $2,000 to a traditional IRA and $4,000 to a Roth IRA (unless you are age 50 or older).

Income Requirements for IRAs

To be eligible to make contributions to an IRA, your annual remuneration must be at least the minimum required amount, and your annual income cannot be more than the maximum allowed amount.

IRA Minimum Income

To be eligible to make contributions to either a regular or a Roth individual retirement account (IRA), you need to be receiving a salary first. For the purposes of an IRA, the following forms of payment are considered compensation:

Wages
Salaries
Commissions
Earnings from one's own self-employment
Taxable alimony
Non-taxable combat pay

It does not include the following:

Earnings derived from real estate investments, which may include rental revenue, interest income, or dividend income
Earnings derived from retirement plans or annuities
Compensation that was received but not received until a year earlier
Earnings from partnerships that do not provide any income
Earnings from Programs Regarding Conservation Reserves (CRPs)
Other sums, such as those earned overseas, are excluded from the calculation of your income.

If you are retired and no longer receiving a salary, you are no longer eligible to make contributions to your IRA. However, you are still eligible to roll over or transfer money from your 401(k) to your IRA. In addition, the amount of income you get must be at least equivalent to the amount you contribute to your IRA each year. You can contribute to an individual retirement account (IRA) on behalf of a non-working spouse who receives no compensation if you are married and files your taxes as a married couple. Your compensation is equal to or more than the amount of the contribution you make. A "spousal IRA contribution" is the term used to describe this type of investment.

Income Limitation for Roth IRAs

You are eligible to make contributions to a standard individual retirement account (IRA) as long as you have earned your income. Your contribution maximum to a Roth IRA, on the other hand, is determined by both your filing status and your modified adjusted gross income (AGI):

You will be able to contribute up to the maximum allowed to an IRA in 2021 if your modified adjusted gross income is less than the following thresholds: $125,000 if your filing status is single; $198,000 if you are married and filing jointly.
If you are a single filer in 2022 and have a modified AGI that is less than $129,000, or if you are married and file jointly in 2022 and have a modified AGI that is less than $204,000, you can contribute up to the limit.
If you were a single filer in 2021 and your modified adjusted gross income was between $125,000 and $140,000, or if you were a married couple filing jointly, your modified AGI was between $198,000 and $208,000, you were eligible for a lower contribution amount. Calculating the lower contribution limit can be done with the help of Worksheet 2-2 included in the IRS Publication 590-A.
In 2022, the ranges are as follows: for a single filer, the range is from $129,000 to $144,000; for married couples filing jointly, the range is from $204,000 to $214,000.
If you filed your taxes as a single individual and had a modified AGI of $140,000 or more in 2021, you were not eligible to make any contributions to a Roth IRA. If you were married and filed your taxes jointly, the threshold was $208,000.
If you are a single filer in 2022 and your modified AGI is more than $144,000, or if you are married and file jointly and your modified AGI is more than $214,000, you will not be able to make a contribution.

Because rollovers and transfers out of an IRA do not constitute "contributions," they will not have any impact on your capacity to put money into an IRA.

IRA Age Limits

Traditional Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) will no longer impose an age restriction on contributors beginning with the tax year 2020. You were required to stop making contributions to a regular IRA no later than the year in which you turned 70 if you filed your taxes prior to the year 2020. Because there is no age limit on contributions to Roth IRAs, you can continue making payments into those accounts even after you turn 70 and a half, provided that you are still employed and receiving remuneration.

IRA Deduction Caps and Limits

Your contributions to Roth IRAs will not qualify for a tax deduction under any circumstances. Because you make contributions to those accounts with money that has already been taxed, you will be able to make tax-free withdrawals from those accounts when you reach retirement age. Contributions to a traditional individual retirement account (IRA) are eligible for a tax deduction in the year they were made, either in their entirety or in part, depending on the circumstances. It is essential to be aware that the taxes are not canceled out but are only postponed, which means that you will be required to pay the standard income tax rate on the money when it is withdrawn, ideally after you retire. Whether you and/or an employer-sponsored retirement plan covers your spouse is another issue that impacts how much of the contribution you can deduct from your taxes as a business expense.

Limits on Deductions in Case You Do Not Participate in an Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plan

When you are not registered in a retirement plan at work, and when the following conditions are met, you are eligible to deduct the contribution in its entirety:

You have any amount of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI), and your filing status is either single, head of household, or married and filing jointly with a spouse who is not covered by a company-sponsored retirement plan.
Your MAGI is either larger than or equal to the limit that is permissible for contributions. In that case, the maximum amount of your MAGI that you can deduct is just that.
Your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) is less than $198,000 for 2021 or $204,000 for 2022, but your spouse is enrolled in a retirement plan that their employer offers.

You are eligible to make a deduction in part when:

If you were married and filed your taxes jointly in 2021 with a spouse who was covered by a company-sponsored retirement plan, your MAGI was between $198,000 and $208,000. In 2022, it was between $204,000 and $214,000, respectively.
You had a modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) that was less than $10,000 in 2021 or 2021 if you were married and filing separately with a spouse who was enrolled in a corporate retirement plan.

When the following apply, you cannot deduct the contribution:

You had a modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) of more than $208,000 in 2021, or more than $214,000 if you were married and filing jointly with a spouse who was covered by a company-sponsored retirement plan.
If you are married but filing separately in 2021 or 2022, and one of your spouses participates in a company-sponsored retirement plan, you will have a MAGI that is greater than $10,000.

Calculating your partial IRA deductions can be done with the help of Worksheet 1-2 in the IRS Publication 590-A.

When Participating in a Retirement Plan Offered by an Employer, There Are Certain Deduction Caps In Place

When you contribute to a corporate retirement plan, the amount of money you can deduct from your traditional IRA contribution is likewise reduced. When certain conditions are met, including but not limited to the following:

You filed your taxes as a single individual or as the head of a household, and you had a MAGI of $66,000 or less in 2021 (or $68,000 or less in 2022).
In 2021, your MAGI was less than $105,000; in 2022, it was less than $109,000 if you were married and filed jointly.

You are eligible to make a deduction in part if:

If you filed your taxes as a single person or as a head of household in 2021, your MAGI was between $66,000 and $76,000, and it was between $68,000 and $78,000 the following year (2022).
If you were married and filed your taxes jointly, your MAGI ranged between $109,000 and $129,000 in 2022, while it was between $105,000 and $125,000 in 2021.
If you are married but filing your taxes separately, your MAGI for the years 2021 and 2022 is less than $10,000.

When the following apply, you cannot deduct the contribution:

If you filed your taxes as single or head of household in 2021, you had a MAGI of $76,000 or more; in 2022, that number increased to $78,000 or more.
You had a modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) of more than $125,000 in 2021 (or more than $129,000 in 2022 if married and filing jointly).
If you are married but paying your taxes separately, your MAGI for the years 2021 and 2022 is at least $10,000.

Even though contributions to regular IRAs are not tax-deductible, you can still make contributions to those accounts. Even if your contributions to a company-sponsored retirement plan like a 401(k) are not tax-deductible, there are still situations in which you may be eligible to make contributions to an individual retirement account (IRA). Because the growth of the funds in the account will not be subject to taxation until you make a withdrawal, continuing to make deposits into the account will continue to be beneficial.

The cutoff dates for contributions to IRAs

It is important to keep in mind that the date on which you must submit your individual tax return is also the deadline for making contributions to your IRA. It is always to your benefit to start saving as soon as possible because the earlier you contribute money in accordance with the IRA contribution limits listed above, the more time the money has to grow tax-deferred.