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How Getting Married Affects Your Roth IRA

By

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Matt Ryan Webber

Updated May 18, 2024

Reviewed by Margaret James

Fact checked by

Betsy Petrick

Part of the Series

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If you are getting married this year, you might be wondering how that will affect your Roth individual retirement account (Roth IRA) and that of your pಞartner. The simple answer? It won’t.

The slightly more complicated answer is that in most cases, you’ll both be able to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:contribute to your Roth IRA just as you did before, unless your combined income is now higher than the income limits set by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for Roth IRAs. And you can’t get around that by either 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:filing separately or contributing to your Roth IRA before your wedding day.

In this article, we’ll explain why.

Key Takeaways

Normally, getting married won’t affect your Roth individual retirement accounts (Roth IRAs). You can both keep contributing as you were before.
The exception is if your joint income is now higher than the income limits for Roth IRAs set by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for couples filing jointly: $218,000 in 2023; $230,000 in 2024.
You can’t get around this by contributing before your wedding date, because it’s your status on the last day of the tax year that counts.
And you can’t get around it by filing separately, because the income limit is just $10,000 for married people filing separately if you lived with your spouse at any time during the year.

Check the Roth IRA Income Limits

Getting married won’t normally affect your Roth IRA. If you were both making regular contributions before you got married, you can keep doing so afterward. The only complicating factor is that you’ll need to check the Roth IRA income limits for your 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:filing status. Here are the limits:

Do You Qualify for a Roth IRA?
Category	Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) Range for 2024 Contribution	Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) Range for 2023 Contribution
澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Married and filing a joint♈ tax return or 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:qualifying widow(er)	Full: Less than $230,000 Partial: From $230,000 to less than $240,000	Full: Less than $218,000 Partial: From $218,000 to less than $228,000
澳洲幸运5开奖号码历𒁏史查询:Married, filing a 𒈔separate tax return, lived with spouse at any time during the year	Full: $0 Partial: Less than $10,000	Full: $0 Partial: Less than $10,000
Single, 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:head of household, or married filing separately without living with spouse at any time during the year	Full: Less than $146,000 Partial: From $146,000 to less than $161,000	Full: Less than $138,000 Partial: From $138,000 to less than $153,000

Source: Internal Revenue Service

It’s important to note that it’s your status on the last day of the U.S. tax year (and calendar year)—Dec. 31—that counts. Even if you got married on Dec. 30, you will count as married as far as the IRS is concerned.

Most people who are married will file taxes jointly, so check that row in the table above. If your joint income—or, more precisely, your ꦚ澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:modified adjusted gross i🌊ncome (MAGI)—is below the full amount, then you can contribute up to 100% of your income or the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Roth IRA contribution limit, whichever is less. The contribution limit in 2023 is $7,000 ($7,500 in 2024) or $8,000 if age 50 or older ($8,500 in 2024), so both you and your partner can contribute that amount.

If your income falls within the partial range, subtract your income from the full level, then divide that amount by the phaseout range to determine the percentage of the maximum that you are allowed to contribute.

If your joint income is above the full amount for a given year, then you will not be able to contribute to your Roth IRA for that year.

Important

Check the Roth IRA contribution limits when you get married to make sure that your joint income is within them. Exceeding the contribution limit can cost you a 6% penalty on the excess each year until you rectify the mistake.

Understanding Your Filing Status

If your joint income will be too high to allow you to contribute to your Roth IRAs, you might think that you could get around this by contributing money before your wedding day. You can’t. It’s your status on Dec. 31 that counts, no matter when you got married and when you made the contributions.

But that also means that if you have already contributed to the Roth for the year 𝓀and now your income disqualifies you, you still have time to undo the contributiꦺon before the tax year ends.

Similarly, you can’t get around the Roth limits by filing taxes separately. As you can see in the table above, the income limit is just $10,000 for married people filing separately if they lived with their spouse at any time during the year.

There are indirect ways of contributing to your Roth 💞IRA, even if you are꧅ above the income limits.

How Do Roth Individual Retirement Accounts (Roth IRAs) Work When Married?

There is no special type of individual retirement account (IRA) for spouses. The rule allows spouses who are not earning taxable income to contribute to a 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:traditional IRA or a Roth IRA, provided that they file a joint tax return with their working spouse. IRAs opened under 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:spousal IRA rules are not co-owned.

What Happens to My IRA When I Get Married?

The I in IRA stands for “individual,” and 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:even after you get married, the account doesn’t chang🍨e. When you get married, 𒆙however, each spouse can contribute to their own IRA up to their annual contribution limit.

Can My Spouse Contribute to a Roth IRA if They Don’t Work?

A spouse who is not earning a taxable income can open and contribute to a spousal IRA. Provided that the other spouse is working and the couple files a joint federal income tax return, the non-salary-earning spouse can open and contribute to their own 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:traditional or Roth IRA.

The Bottom Line

Normally, getting married won’t affect your Roth IRAs. Both of you can keep contributing as you were before—up to $6,500 in 2023 ($7,000 in 2024) or $7,500 if age 50 or older in 2023 ($8,000 in 2024). The exception to this is if your joint income is now higher than the income limits for Roth IRAs set by the IRS: $218,000 in 2023; $230,000 in 2024.

You can’t get around this by contributing before your wedding date because it’s your status on the last day of the tax year that counts. And you can’t get around it by filing separately, because the income limit is just $10,000 for married people filing separately if you lived with your spouse at any time during t🗹he year.

There𓄧 are indirect ways of contributing to your Roth IRA, even if you are above the income limits. Familiarize yourself with the various strategies by reading up on Roth IRAs and learning the income limits.

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