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Modified Adjusted Gross Income and Traditional IRA Deduction

This is not a question, but rather sharing something I learned that was confusing  in the way TurboTax presented it. My wife and I filed Married Filing Jointly.  I got a message during the process that said "Mark's" Modified Adjusted Gross Income is too high to received a deduction on a Traditional IRA. 

 

Here's where it was confusing: It listed our combined income, but it described the income only as mine. So I thought that somewhere in the system, it had characterized our combined income only as mine, which would be wrong and would also prevent me from receiving deductions on a Traditional IRA. However, when it said "Mark's" MAGI, it was referring to both of ours combined. It used my name because I am the one filing taxes and my name was first on the Form 1040.

 

It turns out that because my wife and I both have a workplace retirement program, we actually are making too much to receive a deduction for a Traditional IRA. So that part was correct. But I wanted to make sure that when people see a message that message indicating that all the income is for one person instead of the couple, it does not lead to confusion. It should be worded better, but it is essentially correct in a 1970s kind of way.

 

The threshold for not being able to deduct for contributions for a Traditional IRA is apparently much lower if the couple both have workplace retirement plans. In 2022, it's $129,000 for a Married Filing Jointly couple.

 

Here is the IRS documentation on it:  https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590a

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