What Are the Roth IRA Limits? Contribution Maximums, Catch-Ups, and Income Cutoffs

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A Roth IRA has more fine print than almost any other account a saver owns — a maximum you may put in, an extra amount if you are old enough, and an income line above which the door quietly closes. If you have ever tried to pin those numbers down for the year you are actually living in, this page is the homework done for you. Every figure here is for 2026, the numbers the IRS published in Notice 2025-67, stated plainly and in full — and at the end, one limit nobody prints on the brochure: the thing a Roth IRA cannot do at all, which matters more than any maximum on this page.

The 2026 Maximums, at a Glance

• Under age 50: $7,500 for the year, across all of your IRAs combined — Roth and traditional together, not $7,500 in each.
• Age 50 and older: $8,600 — the same $7,500, plus a $1,100 catch-up contribution.
• Your earnings are a ceiling too: you can never contribute more than you earned that year (the rule in the next sections).
• The deadline: contributions for 2026 can be made up until the tax-filing deadline in the spring of 2027.

Those are the whole numbers. Everything below is the fine print that decides whether they apply to you.

The Catch-Up at 50: $1,100 Extra

Starting in the year you turn 50 — not the year after — you may add a catch-up contribution on top of the regular limit. For 2026 the catch-up is $1,100, bringing your total to $8,600. It rose from $1,000 in 2025 because the law (the SECURE 2.0 Act) now adjusts the IRA catch-up for inflation, the way the main limit has long been adjusted.

One warning about look-alike numbers: workplace plans — 401(k)s and their cousins — have much larger catch-ups, including a special higher one for workers aged 60 to 63. Those belong to workplace plans only. They do not apply to IRAs. For any IRA, Roth or traditional, the catch-up is the $1,100 above and nothing more.

The Income Cutoffs: Where the Door Narrows

A Roth IRA is the rare account that asks how much you earn before it lets you in. The IRS measures your modified adjusted gross income — for most people, close to the income figure on their tax return with a few items added back — and runs it against a phase-out range. Below the range, you may contribute the full amount. Inside the range, your allowed amount shrinks as your income climbs. Above the range, you may not contribute directly to a Roth IRA at all that year. The 2026 ranges:

• Single, or head of household: the door narrows between $153,000 and $168,000. Below $153,000, the full amount; at $168,000 or above, no direct contribution.
• Married filing jointly: the range is $242,000 to $252,000. Below $242,000, the full amount; at $252,000 or above, no direct contribution.
• Married filing separately (and you lived with your spouse at any point in the year): the range is $0 to $10,000 — a window so narrow that most people in this filing status are effectively shut out of direct contributions.

Two things worth knowing about these lines: they move. The IRS adjusts them for inflation most years (in 2025 the single range was $150,000 to $165,000 and the joint range was $236,000 to $246,000), so last year's numbers are not this year's. And the cutoff applies to contributing — it does not reach into an existing Roth IRA or force anything out of one.

The Earned-Income Requirement

Every dollar contributed to an IRA must be backed by a dollar of taxable compensation — pay for work. Wages and salaries count. So do net earnings from self-employment, and commissions. What does not count: investment income, interest and dividends, pension payments, annuity income, rental income, and Social Security. If your compensation for the year is lower than the dollar limit — say you worked part of the year and earned $4,000 — then your earnings are your limit, and $4,000 is the most that may go in.

A Word About a Spouse Who Earns Less — or Nothing

There is one generous exception to the earned-income rule, built for married couples. If you file a joint return, a spouse with little or no pay of their own can still have an IRA funded on the strength of the working spouse's income — this is often called a spousal IRA. Each spouse's contributions go into that spouse's own IRA (IRAs are always individual; there is no joint IRA), the same dollar limits and the same joint income phase-out above apply, and the couple's total contributions cannot exceed the couple's taxable compensation. Two spouses, both 50 or older, with enough compensation, can put away $17,200 between them in 2026.

The Limit Nobody Prints: What a Roth Cannot Do

Everything above is about money going in. The last limit on this page is about money coming out — and about giving. Two facts belong side by side:

A Roth IRA never forces money out. There are no required minimum distributions during the owner's lifetime — none at 73, none at any age. (Why savers treasure that is its own page: what are the advantages of a Roth IRA?) And when money does come out — the order it is deemed to come out in is its own piece of fine print: how do Roth IRA withdrawals work?

A Roth IRA cannot be used for a qualified charitable distribution. The QCD — the move that sends IRA money straight to a charity, untaxed, counting toward a required distribution — is available only from a traditional IRA. There is no Roth version of it, for a simple reason: the QCD's whole value is that the money escapes tax on the way out, and Roth money was never going to be taxed on the way out anyway.

So if you hold both kinds of IRA — and many careful savers do — the two accounts have different jobs. The Roth is the keeper: never forced, never taxed again, left whole as long as you live. The traditional IRA is where the forced withdrawals live, starting at age 73 (75 if you were born in 1960 or later) — the full walk-through of those rules is here: what is a required minimum distribution (RMD)? And it is the traditional side, for the same reason, that is the giving account: the money there is the money a QCD can move to charity without a tax bill attached. Give from the traditional IRA. Keep the Roth whole. That division of labor is the last limit on this page, and for a household with both accounts it may be the most valuable one.

Stated Plainly

Stated plainly, because a money page owes you the same honesty as any other kind: the figures on this page are the IRS's published 2026 amounts (Notice 2025-67), and the rules are stated in general. They are not advice about your return — your own filing status, compensation, and other accounts can change the details, and a qualified tax advisor who knows your situation is the right referee for your own numbers. And what can be checked, check: our legal name is Cardio Renal Foundation Inc, our EIN is 33-4359765, and we are a qualified 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization — verifiable in the IRS records by anyone, in about three minutes, and we would rather you checked than took our word.

The Cardio Renal Foundation exists for the people living with kidney and heart disease, and its conviction is plain: dialysis should not be a life sentence. Questions about anything on this page reach a person here, at donations@cardiorenalfoundation.org or (646) 770-3946.

This article is informational only and is not tax, legal, or financial advice. Contribution limits, income ranges, and charitable giving rules change and depend on your individual circumstances; consult a qualified tax advisor or attorney about your own situation.