Every year the IRS adjusts the income thresholds that determine who can fund a Roth IRA, and the 2025 numbers are now official.
If you've been assuming you make too much to qualify—or that you're safely under the cap—it's worth a fresh look, because the ceilings moved again.
For 2025, the phase-out range for single filers is $150,000 to $165,000 of modified adjusted gross income.
For married couples filing jointly, it's $236,000 to $246,000.
Below the bottom number, you can contribute the full amount.
Above the top number, you generally can't contribute directly at all.
In between, the amount you're allowed to put in shrinks as your income rises.
The contribution cap itself stays at $7,000 for people under 50, with an extra $1,000 catch-up allowed for those 50 and older.
That $8,000 total is the same as last year, but it's still one of the more generous retirement breaks available to middle-income households.
Your income for this test isn't your salary on your W-2.
It's modified adjusted gross income, which can include things like taxable investment gains, some foreign income, and certain deductions added back.
A raise, a bonus, or a good year in a brokerage account can quietly push you over a threshold you thought you'd cleared.
If you're near the edge, the safest move is to wait until you've filed your taxes or at least run the numbers carefully before contributing.
Over-contributing triggers a 6% excise tax on the excess for every year it stays in the account, which is an annoying penalty for a simple mistake.
There's a workaround many people overlook: the backdoor Roth.
You make a nondeductible contribution to a traditional IRA and then convert it to a Roth.
The catch is the pro-rata rule—if you already hold pre-tax money in a traditional IRA, part of your conversion becomes taxable, so the math gets messier.
Another option is to check whether your employer offers a Roth 401(k).
Those accounts have no income limits at all, and in 2025 you can stash up to $23,500 in a 401(k), or $31,000 if you're 50 or older.
For high earners who've been shut out of Roth IRAs, this is often the simplest path.
You have until the tax filing deadline in April 2026 to make a 2025 contribution, so there's still time to decide.
But the sooner you contribute, the longer that money has to grow tax-free—which is the whole point of the account.
One more thing worth checking: if you're married filing separately, the phase-out range is extremely narrow, from $0 to $10,000.
That catches a lot of people off guard, especially in households where one spouse earns most of the income.
The bottom line is that these limits are worth revisiting every January, not just the year you open the account.
Final Thoughts
A small income shift can change what you're allowed to do, and the fix—whether it's a backdoor conversion or a Roth 401(k)—takes about ten minutes to set up.