The IRS has quietly redrawn the line on who gets to use the most popular retirement account in America.
For 2025, the income limits that determine whether you can contribute to a Roth IRA moved higher, giving a wider band of earners a shot at tax-free growth.
Here's the number that matters most: if you're single, your ability to contribute the full amount now starts phasing out at $150,000 in modified adjusted gross income, up from $146,000 last year.
For married couples filing jointly, the phase-out begins at $236,000, up from $230,000.
Single filers lose Roth eligibility entirely once their income hits $165,000.
For joint filers, that cutoff lands at $246,000.
Under those thresholds, you can still make a full $7,000 contribution for the year, or $8,000 if you're 50 or older.
Inside the phase-out range, you don't lose the whole contribution at once — the allowed amount shrinks gradually as income rises.
A single filer earning $155,000, for example, can still put in part of the $7,000 limit.
The IRS publishes a worksheet to calculate the exact figure, and getting it wrong can trigger a penalty.
The stakes are real because Roth IRAs offer something no traditional IRA can match: qualified withdrawals in retirement come out tax-free.
You fund the account with after-tax dollars, and decades of investment growth escape taxation entirely.
For younger workers expecting higher tax rates later, that's a meaningful edge.
If you're above the limit, you're not necessarily locked out.
A backdoor Roth conversion — contributing to a traditional IRA and then converting it — remains a common workaround, though it comes with its own tax rules and paperwork.
Anyone with existing pre-tax IRA money should talk to a tax professional before trying it.
Contributions for 2025 can be made until the tax filing deadline in April 2026, so there's still time to check where you land.
Log into your brokerage, pull your most recent pay stub, and confirm your MAGI before assuming you qualify.
The bottom line: the door opened slightly wider this year, but it's still a door with a strict bouncer.
Knowing your exact income number — not a rough guess — is the difference between a clean contribution and a messy correction down the road.
Final Thoughts
If your earnings sit anywhere near these thresholds, a ten-minute check now beats a headache in April.