To qualify for a Roth IRA, you need two things: earned income and a modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) below the IRS phase-out threshold for your filing status. There is no age requirement, so even teenagers with a summer job can qualify, and a non-working spouse can qualify through a partner’s earnings. Here’s what each requirement looks like in practice.
The Earned Income Requirement
The IRS requires “taxable compensation” before you can put money into a Roth IRA. That means money you actively worked for. Wages, salaries, tips, bonuses, self-employment income, and freelance earnings all count. Commissions and taxable alimony received under pre-2019 divorce agreements also qualify.
What doesn’t count: investment income, rental income, Social Security benefits, pension payments, interest, dividends, and capital gains. If every dollar you received in a given year came from these passive sources, you can’t contribute to a Roth IRA for that year. This distinction matters most for retirees living entirely on investment returns or Social Security, and for students whose only income is from scholarships or financial aid.
Your contribution for the year can’t exceed your earned income. If you earned $4,000, your maximum Roth IRA contribution is $4,000, even though the annual limit is higher.
Income Limits and the Phase-Out Range
Unlike a traditional IRA, where anyone with earned income can contribute (though the tax deduction phases out), the Roth IRA has a hard income ceiling. Once your MAGI passes a certain threshold, the amount you’re allowed to contribute starts shrinking, and above a second threshold, you’re locked out entirely.
These phase-out ranges are adjusted for inflation each year and differ by filing status. Single filers and married couples filing jointly each have their own brackets. Married couples filing separately face a much narrower range that effectively eliminates eligibility at very modest income levels. The IRS publishes updated thresholds annually, typically in the fall for the following tax year, so check the current numbers before you contribute.
If your income falls within the phase-out range rather than above it, you can still contribute a reduced amount. The IRS provides a worksheet in Publication 590-A to calculate your reduced limit. Essentially, the deeper you are into the phase-out zone, the less you can put in.
Contribution Limits for 2026
For 2026, the Roth IRA contribution limit is $7,500 if you’re under 50. If you’re 50 or older, the catch-up provision raises your limit to $8,600. These limits apply across all of your traditional and Roth IRAs combined. If you contribute $3,000 to a traditional IRA, you can only put $4,500 into a Roth IRA (assuming you’re under 50).
How a Non-Working Spouse Can Qualify
If you’re married, file a joint return, and one spouse has no earned income, the working spouse’s income can support contributions for both. This is called a spousal IRA, named after the Kay Bailey Hutchison Spousal IRA provision. Each spouse can contribute up to the full annual limit to their own Roth IRA, as long as the couple’s combined contributions don’t exceed the total taxable compensation reported on their joint return.
For example, if one spouse earns $60,000 and the other stays home, both spouses can each contribute $7,500 to their own Roth IRA for 2026 (assuming both are under 50). The non-working spouse opens and owns the account in their name. The only requirements are that you file jointly and the working spouse earns enough to cover both contributions.
How Minors Qualify
There’s no minimum age for a Roth IRA. A child who earns money from a job, babysitting, lawn mowing, or any other work can qualify. The account is opened as a custodial Roth IRA, where a parent or guardian manages the account until the child reaches legal adulthood (typically 18 or 21, depending on your state), at which point the account converts to a standard Roth IRA in the child’s name.
The child’s contribution limit is the lesser of the standard annual limit or their total earned income for the year. A teenager who earned $2,500 over the summer can contribute up to $2,500. The money deposited doesn’t technically have to come from the child’s own pocket. A parent or grandparent can fund the contribution, as long as it doesn’t exceed what the child actually earned. To open the account, you’ll need Social Security numbers for both the custodian and the child, along with basic employment and banking details.
The key documentation issue for minors is proving the income. Formal W-2 wages are straightforward. Informal earnings from babysitting or yard work should be tracked carefully, with records of dates, services, and amounts paid, in case the IRS ever questions the contribution.
What to Do If Your Income Is Too High
If you earn too much to contribute directly, the backdoor Roth IRA is a widely used, IRS-sanctioned workaround. It takes advantage of the fact that traditional IRA contributions have no income limit (though the tax deduction may phase out), and anyone can convert a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA regardless of income.
The process works in three steps. First, contribute to a traditional IRA with after-tax dollars (meaning you don’t take a tax deduction). Second, convert the traditional IRA balance to a Roth IRA, which is simply a transfer between accounts at your brokerage. Third, report the non-deductible contribution on Part I of IRS Form 8606 and the conversion on Part II when you file your taxes. Many people repeat this annually.
There’s one important wrinkle called the pro-rata rule. If you already hold pre-tax money in any traditional IRA, SEP IRA, or SIMPLE IRA, the IRS treats your conversion as pulling proportionally from both your pre-tax and after-tax balances across all those accounts. That means part of your conversion could be taxable, even though the new contribution was made with after-tax dollars. To avoid this, you’d need to roll any existing pre-tax IRA balances into a workplace 401(k) before converting, so the only money in your traditional IRA is the non-deductible contribution you just made.
If your traditional IRA earns any interest or gains between the time you contribute and the time you convert, you’ll owe ordinary income tax on that growth. Most people minimize this by converting within days of contributing, before significant gains accumulate.
Filing Status Considerations
Your filing status affects both the income phase-out thresholds and the spousal contribution rules. Married couples filing jointly get the most generous phase-out range and access to spousal contributions. Single and head-of-household filers have a lower phase-out range but still have a meaningful window. Married filing separately is the most restrictive: if you lived with your spouse at any point during the year, the phase-out range is extremely narrow, starting near zero. This makes Roth IRA contributions effectively unavailable for most couples who file separately.
If you’re unsure which MAGI figure to use, it’s your adjusted gross income with certain deductions added back in, such as student loan interest deductions, foreign earned income exclusions, and tuition deductions. For most people, MAGI is identical or very close to their AGI on their tax return.
When Contributions Must Be Made
You have until the federal tax filing deadline (typically April 15 of the following year) to make Roth IRA contributions for a given tax year. That means you can contribute to your 2026 Roth IRA anytime between January 1, 2026, and the April 2027 filing deadline. This extra window is useful if you’re not sure whether your income will land within the eligible range. You can wait until you have a clearer picture of your annual earnings before committing the money.
If you contribute and later discover your income exceeded the limit, you can withdraw the excess contribution (plus any earnings on it) before the tax deadline to avoid a 6% penalty that applies each year the excess remains in the account.