How Your Spouse Can Impact Your Traditional IRA Deduction August 3, 2026

August 3, 2026

**How Your Spouse Can Impact Your Traditional IRA Deduction 

Monday, August 03, 2026 

By Sarah Brenner, JD Director of Retirement Education 

If you have compensation (or “earned income”), you can always contribute to a traditional IRA, but your traditional IRA contribution may not always be deductible. (Roth IRA contributions are never deductible.)

 One factor for determining IRA deductibility is whether a worker is an “active participant” in a retirement plan at work. (This is sometimes referred to as “being covered” by a workplace plan.) If neither you nor your spouse (for those married filing jointly) has a retirement plan through an employer — no 401(k), no SEP, no SIMPLE, etc., then neither of you is “covered,” and each can deduct a traditional IRA contribution. Single filers not covered by an employer plan also qualify for a deductible IRA contribution.

 Your W-2 form will usually indicate if you are covered by a work plan or not. If you are not covered by a work plan, there should NOT be a check in the “retirement plan” box (Box 13) on the W-2. If there is no checkmark and compensation was earned, a traditional IRA contribution can be deducted. The amount earned is irrelevant. (Be careful – sometimes employers mistakenly complete Box 13, so if any questions exist, it is advisable to confirm with the employer.)

 If you are/were an active participant in an employer plan, you must consider the phase-out ranges for traditional IRA deductibility. For 2026, if you are a married active participant in a plan, your ability to deduct your traditional IRA contribution will phase out when your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) is between $129,000 and $149,000.

 Even if you are not an active participant, you may still not be able to deduct your traditional IRA contribution if you are married. There is another IRA deductibility phase-out range when one spouse is covered by an employer plan and the other is not. The covered spouse uses the married/filing joint phase-out ranges mentioned above. The uncovered spouse is permitted a higher phase-out range. If you are not covered by an employer plan but your spouse is, the MAGI phase-out range for 2026 is $242,000 – $252,000.

 Example: Uma is an active participant in her company’s 401(k) plan. Her husband, Josh, works for a company that does not offer a retirement plan. For 2026, their MAGI is $300,000. If Josh makes a traditional IRA contribution for 2026, he cannot deduct any part of it because his spouse, Uma, is an active participant in a workplace retirement plan and their income exceeds $252,000. (Uma also could not make a deductible IRA contribution for 2026.)

 Copyright © 2026, Ed Slott and Company, LLC Reprinted from The Slott Report, [July 27, 2026], with permission [https://irahelp.com/how-your-spouse-can-impact-your-traditional-ira-deduction//] Ed Slott and Company, LLC takes no responsibility for the current accuracy of this article.

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