I have husband and wife clients age 65, both retired with the husband collecting his state pension. Wife deferring SS, and has no pension or other earned income. Husband sells real estate part-time, made $30K and neither of them contributed to any retirement plan last year. Their total income is over the Trad. IRA phase out however, I presume that neither is considered an active participant in a retirement plan and therefore they can contribute $8K each to a deductible IRA. Am I correct on that? Just confirming that being a retired pension recipient does not deem one to be an active participant in retirement plan.