Retirement Contribution Limits

Most savers run into four separate ceilings, and each has its own rules.

The employee deferral limit, set by section 402(g) of the tax code, caps what you choose to have taken from your pay for a 401(k), 403(b) or the TSP: $24,500 for 2026, up from $23,500. Pre-tax and Roth 401(k) deferrals share it. The total additions limit, section 415(c), caps everything that goes into one employer’s plan for you in a year, including your deferrals, employer contributions and after-tax contributions: the lesser of 100% of your pay or $72,000.

The IRA limit is $7,500 for 2026, shared across all your traditional and Roth IRAs and capped at your taxable compensation. A spousal IRA lets a spouse with little or no pay contribute on the strength of a joint return. The HSA limit depends on your health coverage, $4,400 for self-only and $8,750 for family coverage, and any employer HSA money counts inside it.

From age 50, catch-up contributions add room to workplace deferrals and IRAs, and from 55 to HSAs. Workplace catch-ups sit outside the $72,000 total, so an older worker’s ceiling is higher.

The deferral limit follows you, not the plan. If you change jobs midyear or hold two jobs, deferrals to every 401(k), 403(b), SIMPLE plan and SARSEP count toward one $24,500. Payroll departments at different employers don’t compare notes, so keeping the total under the limit is your job.

The total additions limit works the other way: it applies separately to each unrelated employer. Someone with a day job and a solo 401(k) for side-business income shares one deferral limit between the two plans, but each plan has its own $72,000 ceiling for everything else.

A 457(b) plan has its own deferral limit that isn’t combined with 401(k) or 403(b) deferrals, so a public employee offered both a 403(b) and a governmental 457(b) could defer $24,500 to each in 2026. IRA contributions are separate again: a workplace plan doesn’t reduce how much you can put in an IRA, though it can limit whether a traditional IRA contribution is deductible.

The gap between your deferrals and the $72,000 total is where employer money and after-tax contributions land. A plan that accepts after-tax money and lets you convert or withdraw it can move that gap into Roth accounts, the strategy known as the mega backdoor Roth.

Some limits depend on income rather than setting a dollar cap. Eligibility to contribute to a Roth IRA phases out at modified AGI of $153,000–$168,000 for single and head-of-household filers and $242,000–$252,000 for joint filers in 2026. Above the top of the range you can’t contribute directly, which is why the backdoor Roth IRA exists. For married people filing separately who lived together during the year, the range is $0–$10,000.

The traditional IRA deduction phases out when you or your spouse is covered by a workplace plan: $81,000–$91,000 of MAGI for a covered single filer, $129,000–$149,000 on a joint return where you are covered, and $242,000–$252,000 when only your spouse is. Above those ranges you may still contribute, but the contribution is nondeductible.

Two other pay-based rules shape workplace saving. Only the first $360,000 of compensation counts when a plan figures contributions for 2026, and a SEP IRA contribution is capped at 25% of pay up to $72,000. And anyone whose 2025 FICA wages from their employer exceeded $150,000 must make 2026 workplace catch-up contributions as Roth rather than pre-tax.

Workplace deferrals count in the year they come out of your paycheck, so the last chance for 2026 is your final 2026 paycheck. IRA and HSA contributions for 2026 can be made until the April 2027 filing deadline, not counting extensions.

Going over has different consequences by account. An excess 401(k) or 403(b) deferral, most often caused by two employers, must be paid back out by April 15 of the following year. If it is, the excess isn’t taxed a second time, its earnings are taxable in the year distributed, and the 10% additional tax doesn’t apply. If it isn’t, the excess is taxed twice: once in the year deferred and again when it eventually comes out.

An excess IRA contribution is charged a 6% excise tax for every year it stays in the account. Withdrawing the excess and its earnings by the due date of that year’s return, including extensions, avoids the tax. Excess HSA contributions work the same way, with a 6% tax each year unless the excess and its earnings come out by the return’s due date. In every case the fix is cheaper before the deadline than after.