The maximum amount you can put in an individual retirement account (IRA) each year tends to change every few years. For tax year 2022, investors can contribute a total of $6,000 into their IRA account (traditional or Roth), and for tax year 2023, the limit is increasing to $6,500. If you’re 50 or older, you can contribute an additional $1,000 (for both tax years, 2022 and 2023).
That said, how much you can contribute also depends on your income, the IRA type, and whether you also contribute to an employer-sponsored retirement plan.
Related: What Is an IRA?
Notably, the deadline for contributions is Tax Day of the following year. So for tax year 2022, the deadline for IRA contributions is April 18, 2023.
IRA Fundamentals
An IRA stands for individual retirement account. IRAs allow people to make tax-deferred investments that they can use in retirement. There are several different types of IRAs, including traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs. You can set up an IRA with a bank, insurance company, or other financial institution.
What Types of IRAs Are Available?
Traditional IRA
A retirement investor’s contributions to a traditional IRA are typically tax-deductible. Investors won’t pay taxes on earnings with a traditional IRA. When investors reach retirement age, they’ll pay taxes on withdrawals because they’re taxed like income. It’s almost like paying yourself a salary in retirement and paying income taxes on those payments.
Related: How an IRA Works
Roth IRA
Contributions to a Roth IRA are made after taxes and aren’t tax-deductible. With a Roth IRA, earnings aren’t typically taxed, but investors won’t have to pay taxes on withdrawals from a Roth IRA when they reach retirement age and start using the funds in one of these accounts.
Sep IRA
A Sep IRA is a simplified employee pension IRA. These IRA accounts help small businesses or self-employed retirement investors make contributions to an IRA in the employee’s name.
Simple IRA
A SIMPLE IRA plan (Savings Incentive Match PLan for Employees) is an account that most resembles a traditional 401K. This savings incentive match plan for employees can be set up by small businesses that don’t have any other retirement plans. Like a 401(k), this IRA lets employees and employers contribute, but with lower costs and fewer administration fees than a typical 401(k).
Related: How to Open Your First IRA
How Much Can You Contribute to an IRA Each Year?
If you’re younger than 50, you can contribute a combined maximum of $6,000 to a traditional or Roth IRA for tax year 2022. For tax year 2023, the cap is $6,500.
After 50, you’re allowed to make “catch-up” contributions of an additional $1,000 (for tax years 2022 and 2023). Previously, you could not make contributions to a traditional IRA once you reached the age of 70.5. But starting in 2020, there is no age limit; neither is there an age limit for a Roth IRA.
Contribution limits for Roth IRA and traditional IRA for the tax year 2022:
• Under age 50: $6,000
• Age 50 and older: $7,000
Contribution limits for Roth IRA and traditional IRA for the tax year 2023:
• Under age 50: $6,500
• Age 50 and older: $7,500
Related: What Is a Roth IRA?
However, there are a few exceptions to the retirement contribution limits. If you make less than the limit in taxable income, you can only contribute up to that amount. On the other end of the spectrum, if you make too much, you can’t contribute to a Roth IRA or may only be able to contribute a reduced amount.
If you’re younger than 50, you can contribute a maximum of $6,000 into any type of IRA for tax year 2022. For tax year 2023, the limit is $6,500
For 2022, if you’re single, you can put a reduced amount into a Roth IRA if your income is between $129,000 and $144,000; above that, you can’t contribute anything. For tax year 2023, the income phase-out range is rising to $138,000 and $153,000.
Related: Traditional vs. Roth IRA: How to Choose the Right Plan
For couples filing jointly, you can contribute a reduced amount to a Roth IRA if your combined income is between $204,000 and $214,000. (The limits are based on modified adjusted gross income .) For tax year 2023, the income phase-out range is $218,000 to $228,000.
If you already contribute to a 401(k) or another retirement plan at work, you can still contribute to an IRA.
However, you may not be able to deduct all of your traditional IRA contributions if you or your spouse participates in another retirement plan at work. Roth IRA contributions might be limited if your income exceeds a certain level.
Related: 3 Easy Steps to Starting a Retirement Fund
How Do I Open an IRA?
Investors thinking about opening an online IRA may want to consider whether a Roth or a traditional IRA makes sense.
Roth IRAs have some limitations that might preclude investors from getting one.
Investors who make more than $214,000 in adjusted gross income filing jointly for tax year 2022 or $144,000 filing single may not be eligible to open a Roth IRA. For tax year 2023, the limit is $228,000 for married couples and $153,000 for individuals.
Vital information needed to open an IRA includes a driver’s license or ID, Social Security number, banking info like routing numbers to fund the account, name, and address of employer, and beneficiary information. After that, investors choose an asset mix and investment type that makes sense for their goals.
Related: The 7 Most Common Questions About IRAs
How Do I Roll Over Funds into an IRA?
Some investors might be thinking about opening a traditional IRA because they have left a job where they had a retirement account and want to move those funds to a new account (or they want to open a Roth IRA and roll over a Roth 401k). Reasons for doing this include the new investment company offers more investment options or the employee seeks more control over the funds or wants to combine funds from another retirement account with the employer-sponsored account.
Generally, funds from this type of account can be rolled over into a new account within 60 days.
The advantage of rolling over one retirement to another account is that investors don’t lose those funds’ tax-deferred status. If investors don’t roll over the funds, they do become taxable.
There are three ways investors can roll over retirement funds into an IRA.
Related: IRA Rollover Rules
Direct rollover
An investor’s old retirement funds administrator, perhaps at a previous job, sends funds directly to the new to an IRA or new employer-sponsored retirement plan. The investor won’t pay taxes or a penalty on this transfer as long as the transferred funds are going to a similarly classified account (Roth to Roth or 401k to traditional IRA).
Trustee-to-trustee transfer
If an investor is getting funds from an IRA, they can ask the financial institution that administers the old IRA to send funds to the new IRA. The investor won’t pay taxes or a penalty on this transfer.
Late or 60-day rollover
The IRS gives people 60 days from the date they receive a distribution from an IRA or retirement plan to roll it over to another plan or IRA. If you roll over after the 60 days has passed, it’s considered “late,” and the distribution will be taxed—and you’ll have to pay a penalty if you are younger than 59.5 years.
Related: IRA Transfer vs. Rollover: What’s the Difference?
Can You Withdraw From an IRA Before Retirement?
It depends. With a Roth IRA, there are situations — like buying your first home, adoption costs, or paying for higher education — where you can withdraw a limited amount with no penalties or taxes. For example, an investor can take out up to $10,000 from a traditional IRA — or in earnings from a Roth IRA — without penalties for expenses associated with buying a first home.
Investors can also withdraw funds penalty-free for qualifying medical or educational expenses. And once you hit the age of 59.5, distributions will always be penalty-free.
Here are all the exceptions for early distributions:
• Made to a beneficiary or estate on account of the IRA owner’s death
• Made because you’re totally and permanently disabled
• Made as part of a series of substantially equal periodic payments for your life (or life expectancy) or the joint lives (or joint life expectancies) of you and your designated beneficiary
• Qualified first-time homebuyer distributions
• Not in excess of your qualified higher education expenses
• Not in excess of certain medical insurance premiums paid while unemployed
• Not in excess of your unreimbursed medical expenses that are more than a certain percentage of your adjusted gross income
• Due to an IRS levy of the IRA under section 6331 of the Code
• A qualified reservist distribution
• Excepted from the additional income tax by federal legislation relating to certain emergencies and disasters (see the Instructions for Form 5329 for more information), or
• Not in excess of $5,000, and the distribution is a qualified birth or adoption distribution (see the Instructions for Form 5329 for more information)
Related: Should You Use Your Roth IRA to Buy Your First Home?
Are There Ways to Get Around IRA Contribution Limits?
Sometimes. There’s no limit to how much you can put into an IRA when you’re rolling over funds from a 401(k) or 403(b) account.
Some people also use what’s called a “backdoor Roth IRA” to get around the income limits to contribute to a Roth IRA. This involves contributing the maximum to a traditional IRA, then converting it into a Roth. (There’s no income limit for conversions.) Consult a tax professional to understand all the tax implications.
Is an IRA a Replacement for a 401(k)?
American workers have access to a 401(k) retirement plan through their employers. And, some investors might even be able to get additional 401(k) contributions in the form of an employer match. Investors who have access to a 401(k) and an IRA might be able to accelerate their retirement savings and put themselves in a better financial situation when they reach retirement age.
Related: Should You Open An IRA If You Already Have A 401(k)?
The Takeaway
The rules of IRAs can be complicated, but investing in one doesn’t need to be. SoFi Invest® is all about empowering you and your financial future. Prepare for retirement with a SoFi active or automated Roth or Traditional IRA from SoFi Invest.
Another important step is to consider moving old 401(k) accounts into a rollover IRA so you can manage all your retirement funds in one place. Note that rollovers don’t count toward your annual contribution limit.
SoFi makes the rollover process seamless and simple. There are no rollover fees, and the process is automated so you can complete your 401(k) rollover without a lot of time or hassle.
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