Income Limits

Submitted by Undocumented Newcomer on Sun, 2018-03-25 11:48

I was surprised and pleased to learn in Beverly DeVeny’s March 21 article that there are no income limits when contributing to my retired wife’s Spousal Roth IRA.
I work as a temp without access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan. Is there an AGI-limit above which I may not contribute to a Roth IRA for myself?
Thank you.



Submitted by David Mertz on Sun, 2018-03-25 15:44

  • I think you might have misunderstood something with what you read in that article.  A spousal IRA contribution is simply an IRA contribution made by the lower-earning spouse that is supported by compensation of the higher-earning spouse when the lower-earning spouse’s compensation by itself would be insufficient to support the contribution.  The modified AGI limit that determines the maximum Roth IRA contribution permitted by either spouse applies identically to both spouses:  https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/amount-of-roth-ira-contributions-that-you-can-make-for-2017
  • Any IRA contribution that you make for yourself reduces the amount of compensation available to support a spousal IRA contribution.

Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Sun, 2018-03-25 15:44

Both of your Roth contributions would have to come from your earned income, so you must have enough earned income to cover both contributions. The usual joint modified AGI upper limit is 186k (2017) after which the contribution is phased out for both spouses.

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