By Sarah Brenner, JD
Director of Retirement Education
The tax-filing deadline is almost here. Are you thinking about making a 2025 IRA (traditional or Roth) contribution? Time is quickly running out. Here are some last-minute tips to keep in mind as you make your IRA contribution.
- Watch the Deadline. The deadline for making your 2025 IRA contribution is the tax-filing deadline, Wednesday, April 15, 2026. Do you have an extension? That won’t buy you more time. Even if you have an extension for filing your 2025 federal income taxes, your deadline for making a traditional or Roth IRA contribution is still April 15, 2026.
- Know Your Limits. The maximum contribution that you can make to an IRA for 2025 if you were under 50 is $7,000. If you reached age 50 (or older) in 2025, the maximum contribution limit is $8,000. The annual limit is aggregated for traditional and Roth IRAs. You cannot contribute $7,000 to your traditional IRA and $7,000 to your Roth IRA for 2025.
- Have Taxable Compensation. Your IRA contribution generally may not exceed your taxable compensation (or earned income) for 2025. However, if you are married, you may be able to use your spouse’s compensation or earned income to make your IRA contribution.
- Check Your Income. When your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) exceeds $150,000, if you are single, or $236,000, if you are married filing jointly, your ability to contribute to a Roth IRA begins to be phased out for 2025. There are no income limits for traditional IRA contributions.
- Maximize Your Benefits. Many people miss out on the benefits of IRA contributions simply because they do not understand the rules. This is particularly true when it comes to how participation in a company plan affects your IRA contribution.
Here is some good news: Your participation in your company plan does not affect your eligibility to make a Roth IRA contribution at all! More good news: If you and your spouse, if married, are not active participants in a company plan, you can fully deduct your traditional IRA contribution, regardless of how high your income is. However, if you are an active participant in your company’s retirement plan, and your MAGI exceeds $79,000 if you are single, or $126,000 if married, your ability to deduct your 2025 traditional IRA contribution begins to phase out. If you are not an active participant, but your spouse is, your ability to deduct phases out when MAGI reaches $236,000.
If you have technical questions you would like to have answered, be sure to submit them to [email protected], to be answered on an upcoming Slott Report Mailbag, published every Thursday.
https://irahelp.com/five-last-minute-tips-for-2025-ira-contributions/