Traditional IRA Married Filing Seperately

[Paylward55]

Hello,

Quick 2 Questions.  

My wife and I are both employed and have employment that offers 401k's.  We both max out but want to save more.  Now as I understand, in the past, if you file married filing separately you are not able to contribute to Roth, which is ridiculous, but my Tax Advisor said I also cannot contribute to traditional IRA either.

So is it true I cannot contribute to Traditional IRA filing MFS, and convert to Roth.

Or could I do backdoor contribution.

[macuser_22]

True for Roth if your MAGI is more then $10,000 and you live together at any time during the year.

See this IRS article for Roth contribution limits:

https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/roth-iras

That limit also applies to the deduction limits for a Traditional IRA but there is no limit for non-deductible contributions.

So, yes you can contribute to a Traditional IRA and convert to a Roth.  Whether it would be taxable or not depens if you have any other existing Traditional IRA.

See this IRS link for Traditional IRA deduction limits when covered by a retirement plan at work.

https://www.irs.gov/Retirement-Plans/IRA-Deduction-Limits

[VolvoGirl]

Read IRS pub 590-A.  See page 2

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/p590a--2019.pdf 

and I'll page someone else for you @dmertz  

[dmertz]

macuser_22 pretty much said it all.  You are both eligible to contribute to a traditional IRA (I assume that your have W-2s showing enough in box 1 to support the contributions), the contribution just won't be deductible and must be reported on Form 8606 as nondeductible.