Max 401k deferal when Filling jointly

[samtonyclarke]

Does the 19k remain or is it doubled to 38k for a married couple?

[DoninGA]

The maximum is per account regardless of your tax return filing status.

Go to this IRS website for further information - https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-401k-and-profit-sha...

[Hal_Al]

No.

You can contribute $19K  pre tax to your 401k account. Your spouse can contribute $19K  pre tax to his/her 401k account. 

You cannot contribute more than 19K, to your account, just because your spouse contributed less than 19K to his/her account.

[samtonyclarke]

Thanks. So it doesn't make sense that one account will contribute say 30k and the other 8k. That is you can spread the max across both accounts?

[DoninGA]

As previously stated you can only contribute the maximum $19,000 to your tax deferred retirement account, not $30,000 to one account and $8,000 to another account when you are married.  The account owner can only contribute the maximum to his/her own individual account.

[dmertz]

The $19,000 (for 2019) section 402(g) elective deferral limit is per individual per year, regardless of how many 401(k) or similar accounts subject to this limit that the individual participates in through multiple employers.  Ignoring any catch-up contribution for those age 50 or over, this means that you can defer no more than $19,000 for 2019 to your 401(k) accounts and your spouse can defer no more than $19,000 for 2019 to your spouse's 401(k) accounts.  Any one employer is required to enforce the $19,000 limit, otherwise the employer risks disqualification of the plan.