Can I contribute to traditional IRA for 2024 if I received social security benefits, my wife worked only part of 2024 and was covered by 401K, and we file jointly?

[ThomasM125]

You can likely do a spousal IRA, up to the yearly limit or the amount of your spouse's earned income, whichever is less. You can learn more from this IRS article. Here is an excerpt from that article:

I suggest you go into TurboTax and enter the amount you want to contribute, if it is allowable you will not see a message disallowing it.

[LCTN22]

Thanks. I did that and nothing was disallowed. I found some nice, concise answers thru TurboTax last year, but this year's software keeps sending me in circles and trying to get me to become a customer, even though I'm already a customer.

[RachelW33]

From the information you have given, you should be able to make a deductible Traditional IRA contribution for 2024, as long as your Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) is $230,000 or less.  If that is the case and you are not receiving the deduction, I would like to take a deeper look at this. However, I need a diagnostic file which is a copy of your tax return that has all of your personal information removed. You can send one to us by following the directions below:

TurboTax Online:

1. Sign into your online account.
2. Locate the Tax Tools on the left-hand side of the screen.
3. A drop-down will appear. Select Tools
4. On the pop-up screen, click on “Share my file with agent.”
5. This will generate a message that a diagnostic file gets sanitized and transmitted to us.
6. Please provide the Token Number that was generated in the response.

TurboTax Desktop/Download Versions:

1. Open your return.
2. Click the Online tab in the black bar across the top of TurboTax and select “Send Tax File to Agent” *
3. This will generate a message that a diagnostic copy will be created.  Click on OK and the tax file will be sanitized and transmitted to us.
4. Please provide the Token Number (including the dash) that was generated in the response.

*(If using a MAC, go to the menu at the top of the screen, select Help, then, “Send Tax File to Agent”)

@LCTN22 
 

[LCTN22]

Rachel, I appreciate your offer to help in that manner, but I've now satisfied myself that I will be able to contribute $8000 to my IRA and my wife will be able to do the same to her IRA.

It's just been a frustrating process this year with TurboTax. It used to be simple to look up answers using the tools they included in the software. Now, they want me to log in to their online software where they immediately try to sell me new software rather than acknowledging that I'm already a paid customer of TurboTax Premier. I went around in circles with TurboTax software for over an hour before just googling the answer.