[Kristin]

I have a Roth IRA question— I’ve researched a bit and don’t feel entirely reassured. My husband is our main income earner and accidentally contributed more than the individual limit to the Roth IRA that he funds through payroll deductions.

Some sources I looked at seemed to suggest that since we are married filing jointly, it would be okay to contribute up to twice the individual limit. Is that true? Or do we need to move some to a different account?

Thanks for your collective wisdom!

[Andrew]

The limit is per account. Spouses each have an individual account and can contribute up to limit (7k each). Spouses can contribute to the others account, meaning I can contribute 7k to my wife’s account. But I can’t do more than 7k to one individual account.

Does that make sense?

[Jex]

If he’s contributing to it via payroll deductions, are you sure it’s not a Roth 401(k)? If so, the limit for those in 2023 was $22,500.

If he did contribute more than $6,500 to a Roth IRA (and he’s under age 50), he’ll need to remove the excess contributions. But the IRA limits are per person, so you can fund your own Roth IRA as well.

Explore these too: Does 401k rollover count towards Roth IRA contribution limit?

[Michael]

The income limit applies to each individual because an IRA is associated with one SSN. Each person in the marriage can contribute to their own, but you can’t double up one of them.

[Michelle]

Is it a Roth IRA or a Roth 401k? Likely 401k in which case he probably didn’t overcontribute (HR almost always stops that from happening).

[Tricia]

I think til tax day he can talk to the bank and they can designate some of the funds to 2024 to fix this.

[Sean]

You have to look up what he actually contributed to. Because companies can’t offer Roth IRAs. Was it a Roth 401k or 403b? Or a Roth simple IRA?

This is the first year a Roth simple IRA has been allowed so I doubt many companies have switched to allowing it quite yet.

So I would double check the type of account and the limits for that specific account to know if he’s actually over.

It’s highly unlikely that the payroll department would allow him to overcontrubute, they generally just stop withdrawals when they reach the limit.

[Author]

Posts