IRA Contribution Limits

sahardy1 · ‎March 17, 2026

We file a joint return with income over $250K. My husband contributed 12K to a work 401K. We also each contributed 7K to our personal IRA's. While I know that those IRA contributions are not deductible, are they considered excess contributions or can they just be in the account? We are both over 65.

Opus 17

First, you or your spouse must have income that is considered compensation from working. This is usually wages from a W-2 box 1, or self-employment income from schedule C (including box 14 from a K-1). If you don't have compensation, then all IRA contributions are excess.

Then second, you don't report 401k contributions in the IRA section. 401k contributions are captured from your W-2. A 401k is not an IRA, and the only thing you should enter in the IRA section is direct contributions to a private IRA. And each spouse must have their own IRA. Make sure when entering the IRA contributions you don't accidentally assign everything to spouse #1, make sure spouse #1 and spouse #2 are entered separately.

Assuming all this is correct, your contributions should not be considered "excess" up to $8000 per spouse even though they are not tax deductible. Each spouse will get a form 8606 to keep track of non-deductible contributions and you must keep this form for when you start making withdrawals.

View solution in original post

Opus 17

First, you or your spouse must have income that is considered compensation from working. This is usually wages from a W-2 box 1, or self-employment income from schedule C (including box 14 from a K-1). If you don't have compensation, then all IRA contributions are excess.

Then second, you don't report 401k contributions in the IRA section. 401k contributions are captured from your W-2. A 401k is not an IRA, and the only thing you should enter in the IRA section is direct contributions to a private IRA. And each spouse must have their own IRA. Make sure when entering the IRA contributions you don't accidentally assign everything to spouse #1, make sure spouse #1 and spouse #2 are entered separately.

Assuming all this is correct, your contributions should not be considered "excess" up to $8000 per spouse even though they are not tax deductible. Each spouse will get a form 8606 to keep track of non-deductible contributions and you must keep this form for when you start making withdrawals.