IRS Publication 590: IRA Rules for 2026

The IRA contribution limit for 2026 is $7,500, up from $7,000. The catch-up contribution for those 50 and older rises to $1,100, making the total limit $8,600. This cap applies across all your Traditional and Roth IRAs combined.

You need earned income — wages, self-employment, or alimony under pre-2019 agreements — at least equal to your contribution. Investment income, rental income, and Social Security don't count.

The SECURE Act eliminated the age cap for Traditional IRA contributions. You can contribute at 75 if you're still earning. But the real planning question isn't can you contribute — it's where.

For 401(k) plans, the 2026 limit is $24,500 with an $8,000 catch-up (or $11,250 for ages 60–63 under SECURE 2.0's super catch-up). Between your 401(k) and IRA, a 62-year-old couple could shelter up to $88,800 in tax-advantaged accounts this year. Use our retirement calculator to model the compounding impact.

Four IRA types, four different rules. Here's what matters for 2026:

The SEP IRA dominates for self-employed earners — $72,000 dwarfs the $7,500 Traditional/Roth cap. But SEP contributions count in the pro-rata calculation, which complicates backdoor Roth conversions. A solo 401(k) avoids this problem if you have no employees.

SIMPLE IRAs got a SECURE 2.0 boost: businesses with 25 or fewer employees can now offer enhanced limits of $18,100 in deferrals. The $4,000 catch-up (up from $3,500) plus mandatory employer matching of up to 3% makes SIMPLE IRAs competitive with stripped-down 401(k)s for very small firms.

One rule trips up nearly everyone: Traditional and Roth IRA limits are combined. You can split $7,500 between them however you like, but you cannot contribute $7,500 to each. SEP and SIMPLE limits are separate — a self-employed person with a SEP could contribute $72,000 to the SEP and $7,500 to a Roth IRA.

Traditional IRA deduction phase-outs (if covered by an employer plan):

• Single/Head of Household: $81,000–$91,000 MAGI
• Married Filing Jointly: $129,000–$149,000 MAGI
• MFJ, contributor NOT covered but spouse IS: $242,000–$252,000 MAGI

If neither you nor your spouse has an employer plan, your Traditional IRA contribution is fully deductible at any income.

Roth IRA eligibility phase-outs:

• Single/Head of Household: $153,000–$168,000 MAGI
• Married Filing Jointly: $242,000–$252,000 MAGI
• Married Filing Separately: $0–$10,000 MAGI

These ranges shifted upward for inflation. A single filer earning $155,000 who was fully phased out of Roth eligibility in 2025 can now make a partial contribution.

The gap between the Roth MFJ phase-out ($242K) and the Traditional deduction phase-out ($149K) creates a dead zone: earn $150K–$241K as a couple, and you can contribute to a Roth but can't deduct a Traditional IRA. That makes the Roth the obvious choice in this income band. Above $252K, neither works directly — you need the backdoor strategy.

Two SECURE 2.0 provisions hit on January 1, 2026, and both change retirement planning for specific groups:

Mandatory Roth catch-up for high earners. If your W-2 wages exceeded $150,000 in 2025, all catch-up contributions to your employer plan (401(k), 403(b), 457(b)) must now go into a Roth account. No more pre-tax catch-up. This doesn't affect IRA catch-up contributions — those remain your choice — but it forces high earners to pay tax upfront on an additional $8,000 to $11,250 per year in employer plan contributions.

The silver lining: forced Roth contributions build a larger tax-free pool for retirement. If you're 55 and earning $200K, you'll pay roughly $2,640 more in current taxes (at the 24% bracket) on $11,000 of catch-up — but that money grows tax-free for decades.

Super catch-up for ages 60–63. The 401(k) catch-up jumps from $8,000 to $11,250 for participants turning 60, 61, 62, or 63 in 2026. At 64, you revert to the standard $8,000 catch-up. This is a four-year window — use it or lose it.

Combined with the standard $24,500 deferral, a 61-year-old can shelter $35,750 in their 401(k) alone. Add a $8,600 IRA and spousal IRA, and a couple in this age band can defer over $88,000.

What SECURE 2.0 did NOT change for IRAs: The IRA catch-up stays at $1,100 for all ages 50+. There is no IRA super catch-up. The Roth mandate applies only to employer plans, not IRAs. And the IRA contribution limit increase to $7,500 is a standard inflation adjustment, not a SECURE 2.0 provision.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, made the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act rates permanent. That single change reshapes every Roth conversion calculation.

Before OBBBA, the standard advice was "convert now while rates are low, before the 2025 sunset raises them." That sunset is gone. Tax rates are locked — the 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, and 37% brackets are now permanent law.

So why does this make conversions more urgent, not less? Three reasons:

1. The Roth RMD study. OBBBA directed the Treasury Department to study mandating RMDs for Roth IRAs. If Roth accounts eventually face required distributions, the entire premise of tax-free compounding until death changes. Converting now locks in today's rules.

2. The senior deduction window. OBBBA created a $6,000 deduction for taxpayers 65 and older — but only through 2028. That temporary deduction reduces the effective tax rate on conversions for anyone 65+ over the next three years.

3. The SALT expansion. The $10,000 SALT cap rose to $40,000 through 2029. In high-tax states (New York, California, New Jersey), the larger SALT deduction frees up taxable income headroom, letting you convert a larger amount while staying in the same bracket.

Combined with the federal tax brackets being permanent, the window for optimized conversions is narrower than most people realize.

A conversion ladder systematically moves Traditional IRA money into a Roth over several years, filling up low tax brackets each year without pushing into a higher one. Here's how it works for a real scenario.

Profile: Sarah, age 63, just retired. $800,000 Traditional IRA. $32,000/year in Social Security starting at 67. No other income until RMDs at 73.

The window: Ages 63–72 — ten years of low income before RMDs force distributions.

Annual conversion target: Convert $55,000 per year, staying within the 12% bracket ($47,150 for single filers) after the $15,700 standard deduction plus $6,000 senior deduction.

Total taxable income: $55,000 − $15,700 − $6,000 = $33,300. Federal tax: ~$3,740.

10-year result:

After 10 years, Sarah has moved $550,000 to Roth at an average federal rate of ~6.8%. Her remaining $250,000 Traditional balance generates RMDs of roughly $9,434 at age 73 — comfortably manageable alongside Social Security.

Without the ladder, that $800,000 generates age-73 RMDs of $30,189 — enough to push combined income (with Social Security) into the 22% bracket and trigger Social Security benefit taxation.

The key insight: Sarah paid ~$37,400 in total conversion taxes over a decade. Without converting, she'd pay substantially more in lifetime taxes on RMDs, plus her heirs face the 10-year inherited IRA rule at their peak earning rates. The math overwhelmingly favors converting.

With the Fed funds rate at 3.64% and the 10-year Treasury yielding 4.30%, the opportunity cost of paying conversion taxes today is modest compared to decades of tax-free compounding.

Under SECURE 2.0, Required Minimum Distributions from Traditional IRAs begin at age 73. Starting in 2033, this threshold increases to 75. Roth IRAs have no RMDs during the owner's lifetime.

Your RMD equals your December 31 prior-year IRA balance divided by the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table factor:

Missing an RMD triggers a 25% excise tax on the undistributed amount (reduced from 50% by SECURE 2.0). Correct it within two years and the penalty drops to 10%.

The strategic play: the decade between retirement and age 73 is the Roth conversion sweet spot. Your income drops (no salary), you haven't started Social Security or RMDs, and your tax bracket is at its lifetime low. A Roth conversion ladder during these years can dramatically reduce lifetime tax liability.

Notice how RMDs accelerate: a $1M Traditional IRA forces $37,736 out at 73 but $111,111 at 95. Combined with Social Security, that's enough to push a retiree into the 24% or even 32% bracket — exactly the outcome a conversion ladder prevents.

The pro-rata rule is the most expensive mistake in IRA planning. When you convert a Traditional IRA to a Roth, the IRS treats all your Traditional IRA balances as a single pool. You cannot cherry-pick which dollars to convert.

Example: You have $90,000 in deductible contributions and $10,000 in non-deductible contributions across all Traditional IRAs. You convert $10,000, thinking it's the non-deductible portion. The IRS says 90% of your conversion is taxable — $9,000 — regardless of which account you convert from.

This kills the backdoor Roth strategy for anyone with existing pre-tax IRA balances. The workaround: roll your deductible Traditional IRA balances into your employer's 401(k) plan (if it accepts incoming rollovers). That removes them from the pro-rata calculation, leaving only the non-deductible balance for a clean backdoor conversion.

SEP IRAs and SIMPLE IRAs count in the pro-rata calculation too. If you're self-employed with a SEP IRA, the backdoor Roth becomes much harder. A solo 401(k) may be the better vehicle — it accepts rollovers and keeps your IRA balance at zero.