My wife and I grossed 81,000$ for the year...this does not include standard deduction. I contributed $5000 to retirement plans but turbotax denies retirment savers credit

[skibum1702]

I am thinking we will be somewhere in the mid 50k to low 60k after standard deduction applies for married couple.  also, before april 15th i plan on maxing out our two roth ira for 12k total.  Do I qualify for this credit?

[BillM223]

You probably do not qualify for the Saver's Credit.

The upper limit to be able to qualify for the Saver's Credit is based on your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI). This is line 11 on your form 1040.

The Standard Deduction is on line 12, so it does not factor into the AGI.

Please see this IRS webpage about the credit.

[dmertz]

An AGI of $81,000 is well above the $65,000 AGI limit for being eligible to receive a Retirement Savings Contributions Credit.  Even if you meant that you made a $5,000 deductible contribution that reduces your AGI to $76,000, that's still well above the $65,000 limit.

Your standard or itemized deductions are not a factor in determining your eligibility for this credit.  The limit is based on AGI, not taxable income.

Roth IRA contributions are not deductible.  If your AGI is $81,000 without any IRA contributions, deductible traditional IRA contributions of $6,000 each would still only bring your AGI down to $69,000 which is above the $65,000 limit for 2020.  If you had above-the-line deductions in addition to a $12,000 IRA deduction that would bring your AGI down to $65,000 or below (but still over $48,750), your credit would likely be $400, but no more.