Spousal IRA

A spousal IRA isn’t a separate kind of account. It is an ordinary traditional IRA or Roth IRA, opened in the lower earner’s own name. What changes is whose pay counts. Normally each spouse’s IRA limit is capped by their own compensation, even in community property states. The Kay Bailey Hutchison Spousal IRA limit, the rule’s formal name in the tax code, lets a spouse on a joint return who earns less count the couple’s combined taxable compensation instead, minus whatever the higher earner puts into their own traditional and Roth IRAs that year.

The account belongs to the spouse whose name is on it. That spouse chooses the investments, names the beneficiaries and keeps the account whatever happens to the marriage, although a divorce decree can transfer all or part of an IRA to the other spouse without tax. Despite the similar name, it has nothing to do with Social Security spousal benefits, which are paid from a worker’s earnings record.

The spousal contribution can go to a traditional IRA, a Roth IRA or both, within the one per-person limit. Its tax treatment is whatever that account’s rules say: a traditional contribution may be deductible, and a Roth contribution is subject to the joint Roth income limits. The contribution deadline is the same as for any IRA, the return due date without extensions, generally April 15, 2027 for 2026.

Four conditions apply for the year. You must be married at the end of it, file a joint return and have less taxable compensation than your spouse, whether that is nothing at all or simply less. Together you must also have enough taxable compensation to cover both spouses’ IRA contributions. No age limit applies to either type of IRA, and the $1,100 catch-up for 2026 depends on the account owner’s age, not the earner’s.

Compensation mainly means taxable pay for work: wages, salaries, tips, commissions and net self-employment earnings. For employees it is the wage figure in box 1 of Form W-2, which already leaves out pre-tax 401(k) deferrals, so a couple’s usable compensation can be lower than their gross pay. Pensions, Social Security, interest, dividends and rent don’t count, which is why a couple in which both spouses have fully retired can’t use the rule.

Filing separately ends it. On separate returns each spouse is limited to their own compensation, and married filing separately also squeezes Roth eligibility to a $0–$10,000 range for couples who lived together. If you are divorced or legally separated by December 31, you can’t deduct contributions to your former spouse’s IRA.

Deductibility turns on workplace plan coverage, and the two spouses are judged separately. If neither spouse is covered by a retirement plan at work, traditional contributions for both are fully deductible at any income.

The common case is a working spouse with a 401(k) or pension and a spouse at home who has no plan. For 2026 the working spouse’s own deduction phases out between $129,000 and $149,000 of joint modified AGI, but the spouse without a plan keeps a full deduction up to $242,000 and loses it at $252,000. A couple with $180,000 of modified AGI can therefore deduct a spousal contribution in full while the earner’s own traditional contribution isn’t deductible at all.

For a Roth contribution, the joint phase-out of $242,000 to $252,000 applies to both spouses. A couple above it can still fund both accounts through nondeductible traditional contributions and later conversions, the route known as a backdoor Roth IRA. Each spouse’s pro-rata rule is figured separately, on that spouse’s own traditional IRAs.

The rule matters most for one-income households: a parent at home with children, a spouse in school or between jobs, or an early-retired spouse whose partner still works. It also helps a part-time earner whose own pay is below the limit; a spouse who earns $3,800 can still contribute the full amount on a joint return. Beyond the tax break, it builds retirement savings in the lower earner’s own name, which gives that spouse assets of their own and adds a second set of accounts for tax diversification. The slips below are the most common: