2026 U.S. retirement account limits, and the rules that changed

By Kaz · Verified 6 September 2026 · How this site checks figures

For the 2026 tax year, the 401(k) employee deferral limit is $24,500 and the combined traditional and Roth IRA limit is $7,500. A SEP IRA or Solo 401(k) is capped at $72,000 per participant, and catch-ups at age 50 add $8,000 to a 401(k) and $1,100 to an IRA.

The limits are half of the answer. Whether an account is open at all depends on an employer plan, self-employment income and modified AGI, three facts already written on a payslip or a tax return. This page applies those facts first and the account types second.

Checked 6 September 2026

For the 2026 tax year, an employee can defer $24,500 into a 401(k), 403(b) or governmental 457 plan, $7,500 can go into traditional and Roth IRAs combined, and a SEP IRA or Solo 401(k) can take up to $72,000 per participant. Two rules changed for 2026: the deferral limit went up, and a participant whose prior-year wages from the plan sponsor exceeded $150,000 must make any catch-up contribution on a Roth basis where the plan offers a Roth feature.

The table

The three facts that decide it

The first fact is on the payslip: whether an employer sponsors a plan, and whether the reader is eligible to join it. That fact controls access to the elective deferral of $24,500 for the 2026 tax year, the largest amount an employee can put into any account in the comparison out of their own pay.

The second fact is on the tax return: is there self-employment or business income. It controls the employer-side accounts, the SEP IRA and the Solo 401(k), which are funded out of a business rather than out of payroll.

The third fact is a line on the same return: modified adjusted gross income. It does not control whether an IRA can be opened. It controls whether a Roth IRA contribution is permitted at all, and whether a traditional IRA contribution can be deducted. Those are two mechanisms with two sets of ranges, and they are easy to confuse.

What actually leaves the account in 2026

$24,500 for the 2026 tax year is the elective deferral limit for a 401(k), a 403(b) or a governmental 457 plan. It is the employee's own money, withheld from pay. The catch-up on top is $8,000 for the 2026 tax year at age 50 or above, and $11,250 for the 2026 tax year for a participant who turns 60, 61, 62 or 63 during the year. The higher figure replaces the standard catch-up for those four ages; it does not add to it.

$7,500 for the 2026 tax year is the combined traditional and Roth IRA limit, with a catch-up of $1,100 for the 2026 tax year at age 50 and above. Combined means one limit across both account types, not one each.

$72,000 for the 2026 tax year is the overall defined-contribution annual additions limit under section 415(c) — everything employer and employee put in for one participant in one plan. The Internal Revenue Service records that this cap excludes catch-up contributions. $360,000 for the 2026 tax year is the annual compensation limit under section 401(a)(17), which caps the compensation a plan may count when it applies a percentage formula.

$72,000 for the 2026 tax year is also the SEP IRA maximum, and it arrives through a formula rather than a flat allowance. In the Internal Revenue Service's words: "Employer contributions to a SEP-IRA are limited to the lesser of: 1. 25% of the employee's compensation, or 2. $72,000 for 2026." The same cost-of-living notice records $800 for the 2026 tax year as the SEP minimum-compensation threshold.

A SIMPLE IRA, which appears where a small employer sponsors one rather than a 401(k), takes an employee deferral of $17,000 for the 2026 tax year, or $18,100 for the 2026 tax year where the higher limit for certain small-employer plans applies. Its catch-up is $4,000 for the 2026 tax year at age 50 and above, and $5,250 for the 2026 tax year at ages 60 to 63.

Which catch-up has to be Roth in 2026?

It depends on last year's wages. For 2026, a participant whose prior-year wages from the plan sponsor exceeded $150,000 must make catch-up contributions on a Roth basis, if the plan offers a Roth feature. The Internal Revenue Service puts it this way: "Beginning in 2026, participants of plans with Roth features offering catch-up contributions must make catch-up contributions on a Roth basis if prior-year wages with the plan sponsor exceeded $150,000 (for 2026)."

Three conditions sit inside that sentence. The plan must have a Roth feature. The wages are the prior year's, not this year's. And they are wages with the plan sponsor rather than total income: the final regulations base the test on the prior-year FICA wages reported in Box 3 of Form W-2 from the employer sponsoring the plan. It changes the tax treatment of the $8,000 or $11,250 catch-up, not the amount.

What a phase-out range does

A phase-out range is not a cliff. Between the bottom and the top, the maximum contribution falls in proportion to how far modified adjusted gross income has traveled through the range: the full amount at the bottom, nothing at the top, a reducing fraction in between.

For a Roth IRA contribution, the range is $153,000-$168,000 of modified AGI for a single filer or head of household for the 2026 tax year, and $242,000-$252,000 of modified AGI for a married couple filing jointly for the 2026 tax year.

For the deduction on a traditional IRA contribution, the ranges are different and there are three of them. A single filer who is an active participant in a workplace plan has a range of $81,000-$91,000 of modified AGI for the 2026 tax year. A married couple filing jointly, where the contributing spouse is an active participant, has a range of $129,000-$149,000 for the 2026 tax year. Where the contributing spouse is not an active participant but the other spouse is, the range is $242,000-$252,000 for the 2026 tax year.

Two things follow. The Roth range decides whether money may go in at all; the traditional range decides only whether it is deductible. And "active participant" is a status that comes from the workplace plan, so the first fact on the payslip reappears here, deciding which of the three traditional ranges applies.

Why a lower earner may contribute at all

The Saver's Credit has ceilings of its own for the 2026 tax year: $40,250 of AGI for a single filer or a married person filing separately, $60,375 for a head of household, and $80,500 for a married couple filing jointly. Below those ceilings, a contribution to an eligible account can qualify for the credit for the 2026 tax year; above them, it cannot.

The self-directed variant

A self-directed IRA or Solo 401(k) is the same account type under the same limits, held with a custodian or administrator whose documents permit a wider range of assets to be held inside the account. The $7,500 IRA limit for the 2026 tax year and the $72,000 annual additions limit for the 2026 tax year apply unchanged. What changes is the asset list and the rules that police it: section 4975 forbids whole categories of transaction and whole classes of counterparty, and the consequence of breaching them is severe. Those prohibitions are set out in what a self-directed IRA forbids.

One administrator of these accounts publishes its own account terms and fee schedule, which is where the charges and the permitted-asset list are actually written down: See how a self-directed account is administered. That is a link to a provider's own documentation, not a recommendation: the same account types can be held at any custodian that offers them. Read the fee schedule, the permitted-asset list and the transaction-approval process, in that order.

Which questions to work through

So what do you do

If the payslip shows an employer plan and modified AGI is below $153,000 single or $242,000 married filing jointly for the 2026 tax year, both the $24,500 deferral and a full Roth IRA contribution of $7,500 are open for the 2026 tax year, and the question is how much rather than which. If the tax return shows self-employment income and the business has no employees beyond the owner and a spouse, the SEP and the Solo 401(k) are both in scope and the $24,500 deferral is what separates them until compensation reaches $190,000. Otherwise, do not decide yet: if last year's modified AGI figure is not to hand, or the employer plan's entry conditions have not been read, the ranges above cannot be applied to anything.

Frequently asked questions

Can you contribute to a 401(k) and an IRA in the same year?

Yes, because they are separate limits: $24,500 for the 2026 tax year in the 401(k) and $7,500 for the 2026 tax year across traditional and Roth IRAs combined. What a workplace plan changes is not the right to contribute to a traditional IRA but the deductibility of it, which is where the $81,000-$91,000 single and $129,000-$149,000 married-filing-jointly ranges for the 2026 tax year apply.

Does the $72,000 annual additions limit include the catch-up?

No. The Internal Revenue Service describes the $72,000 figure for the 2026 tax year as the combined employer and employee cap per participant per plan, and records that it excludes catch-up contributions. The $8,000 catch-up and the $11,250 catch-up at ages 60 to 63, both for the 2026 tax year, attach to the elective deferral rather than sitting inside the cap.

What happens above the top of a Roth range?

No Roth IRA contribution is permitted once modified AGI reaches $168,000 for a single filer or head of household, or $252,000 for a married couple filing jointly, for the 2026 tax year. Below the range the full $7,500 for the 2026 tax year is available; inside it the permitted amount reduces as income rises.

Sources

• 2026 elective deferral limit of $24,500 for 401(k), 403(b) and governmental 457 plans; 2026 catch-up of $8,000 at age 50 and above; 2026 IRA limit of $7,500; Saver's Credit ceilings of $40,250, $60,375 and $80,500, with $48,500 and $52,500 as bracket thresholds: 401(k) limit increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA limit increases to $7,500, Internal Revenue Service. Checked 20 August 2026.
• 2026 higher catch-up of $11,250 at ages 60 to 63; 2026 IRA catch-up of $1,100; 2026 section 415(c) annual additions limit of $72,000, excluding catch-up contributions; 2026 annual compensation limit of $360,000; 2026 SEP minimum-compensation threshold of $800; 2026 SIMPLE higher deferral limit of $18,100: Notice 2025-67, Internal Revenue Service. Checked 20 August 2026.
• 2026 SEP IRA maximum of $72,000 and the quoted rule that employer contributions are limited to the lesser of 25% of compensation or $72,000 for 2026: SEP contribution limits (including grandfathered SARSEPs), Internal Revenue Service. Checked 20 August 2026.
• 2026 SIMPLE IRA deferral limit of $17,000, catch-up of $4,000 at age 50 and above and $5,250 at ages 60 to 63: Retirement topics — SIMPLE IRA contribution limits, Internal Revenue Service. Checked 20 August 2026.
• 2026 Roth IRA phase-out ranges of $153,000-$168,000 single or head of household and $242,000-$252,000 married filing jointly; 2026 traditional IRA deduction phase-out ranges of $81,000-$91,000 single active participant, $129,000-$149,000 married filing jointly with an active-participant contributor, and $242,000-$252,000 where the contributing spouse is not an active participant: Publication 590-A, Internal Revenue Service. Checked 20 August 2026.
• The 2026 Roth catch-up requirement, quoted verbatim, and the $150,000 prior-year wage threshold with the plan sponsor: Retirement topics — catch-up contributions, Internal Revenue Service. Checked 6 September 2026.
• The rule that the Roth catch-up test is based on prior-year FICA wages reported in Box 3 of Form W-2 from the employer sponsoring the plan: Internal Revenue Bulletin 2025-40, Internal Revenue Service. Checked 6 September 2026.
• Publication 590-A, Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs), by title: About Publication 590-A, Internal Revenue Service. Checked 20 August 2026.
• Publication 560, Retirement Plans for Small Business (SEP, SIMPLE and Qualified Plans), by title, and the Solo 401(k) eligibility conditions referred to in the text: About Publication 560, Internal Revenue Service. Checked 20 August 2026.
• Section 4975 prohibited transactions and disqualified persons, referred to in the self-directed section: Retirement topics — prohibited transactions, Internal Revenue Service. Checked 20 August 2026.
• The statements that compensation of $288,000 is where 25% of compensation first reaches $72,000, and that $190,000 of compensation is where a Solo 401(k) first reaches $72,000, are this site's own arithmetic from the 2026 limits above. Calculated 20 August 2026.