By Sarah Brenner, JD
Director of Retirement Education
IRA and Roth IRA contributions are only permitted when you have taxable “compensation” or earned income. Typically, whether or not a person has compensation is a relatively straightforward determination. For most individuals, compensation comes from employment, either as an employee or from self-employment income. Confirmation of compensation can be found in box 1 of the person’s W-2 form. Any amount listed there qualifies as compensation.
As is often the case with IRAs, special rules exist for spouses when it comes to compensation. A spouse with little or no compensation can make an IRA contribution based on his spouse’s compensation. If the higher-compensated spouse has enough eligible income, both spouses can make the maximum IRA contribution.
For the lower-compensated spouse, the most that can be contributed for 2026 to an IRA is the smaller of the following two amounts:
1. $7,500 ($8,600 if age 50 or older), or
2. The combined compensation of both spouses for the year, reduced by the higher-compensated spouse’s IRA contribution for the year.
This means that the total combined contributions that can be made to 2026 IRAs can be as much as $15,000 ($16,100 if only one of you is age 50 or older, or $17,200 if both of you are age 50 or older).
Example: Randy, age 57, is unemployed in 2026. He has no compensation. He marries his girlfriend, Rita. Rita, age 52, has $75,000 in compensation from her job in 2026. Both Rita and Randy can contribute $8,600 to their IRAs for 2026.
Rules to Keep in Mind
If you and your spouse are thinking about making spousal contributions, here are some rules to keep in mind:
- You may make spousal IRA contributions in some years and regular IRA contributions in others.
- There is no need to keep regular and spousal contributions in separate IRAs.
- There is no need to inform the IRA custodian that you are making a spousal contribution instead of a regular contribution because there is no special reporting required by the IRS.
- Spouses are not required to contribute to the same type of IRA. One may choose to contribute to a traditional IRA, and the other may contribute to a Roth IRA.
- Spouses are also not required to make their contributions at the same time or with the same IRA custodian.
- To make a spousal contribution for the year, the couple must be legally married on December 31 of that year.
- The couple must file a joint federal income tax return for the year.
If you have technical questions you would like to have answered, be sure to submit them to mailbag@irahelp.com, to be answered on an upcoming Slott Report Mailbag, published every Thursday.