Traditional IRA Calculator
The contribution, your income, and the account behind it
Your result will appear here
Fill in the fields on the left and this updates as you type.
Know what this estimate is based on
- Jurisdiction
- General mathematical model
- Scope and limitations
- Long-range scenario, not a guarantee. Small changes in returns, inflation, fees, taxes, and withdrawal timing can materially change the result.
- Source links checked
- Jul 30, 2026
Built and regression-tested by Smart Tools Lab. It has not been individually reviewed by a licensed financial, tax, or legal professional.
How to use
- 01
Enter what you plan to contribute for the year and your age — the limit is $7,500, plus a $1,100 catch-up from age 50.
- 02
Enter your modified adjusted gross income. This is the whole deduction question: the deduction shrinks across $81,000 to $91,000 for a single filer covered by a workplace plan, or $129,000 to $149,000 married filing jointly.
- 03
Add your taxable compensation for the year. You cannot contribute more than you earned, and a blank here means the page does not apply that ceiling at all.
- 04
Enter your marginal tax rate, which is what turns a deduction into money, then the balance, return and years for the projection.
- 05
Read the headline, then the table below it: the same contribution under all three coverage cases — neither of you covered, you covered, only your spouse covered. Check box 13 of your W-2 to see which row is yours.
Formula
Limit = $7,500 + $1,100 if you are 50 or older, capped at your taxable compensation. Inside the phase-out band the LIMIT — not what you contributed — is prorated: limit × (band top − MAGI) ÷ (band top − band start), rounded up to the next $10, and lifted to $200 if it lands between $0 and $200. The deduction is then the smaller of that prorated figure and what you actually put in. Anything left over is nondeductible basis. At withdrawal, tax = (balance − basis) × your retirement rate.
Example
Age 52, $118,000 of compensation, $86,400 of modified AGI, contributing the full $7,500. The catch-up lifts the limit to $8,600, and $86,400 sits 54% of the way across the $81,000–$91,000 band, so $8,600 prorates to $3,956 and rounds up to $3,960. The deduction is the smaller of that and what went in: $3,960, worth $871 at 22%. The other $3,540 becomes Form 8606 basis. Had neither spouse been covered at work the whole $7,500 would be deductible, worth $1,650 — so the coverage question alone is worth $779 this year. On a $145,000 balance growing 6.5% with $7,500 added annually, 18 years produces $693,540; $63,720 of accumulated basis comes out untaxed, so the 22% withdrawal tax is $138,560 rather than $152,579.
Definitions
- Modified AGI
- Adjusted gross income with a handful of items added back — the measure the phase-out band is tested against. It is not the same as taxable income and it is not a line on the return.
- Covered by a workplace plan
- Being an active participant for the year in a 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), SEP, SIMPLE or pension. Box 13 of the W-2 is the check. Employer money alone makes you covered.
- Nondeductible basis
- Contributions you did not get to deduct. Tracked on Form 8606, they come back out of the account untaxed — but only if the form was filed.
- Taxable compensation
- Wages, salary, commissions, tips and net self-employment earnings. Interest, dividends, rent, pensions and Social Security do not count, so they cannot support a contribution.
Good to know
The question the account is actually about
A traditional IRA is not complicated. You put money in, it grows untaxed, and you pay ordinary income tax on the way out. The complication is entirely at the front door, and it is a question of coverage rather than income: if neither you nor your spouse is an active participant in a workplace retirement plan, the contribution is fully deductible at any income at all — a surgeon earning $900,000 with no plan at work deducts the whole $7,500. The moment a workplace plan covers one of you, an income band appears, and it is narrow. For a single filer covered at work the deduction runs out between $81,000 and $91,000 of modified AGI, so a $10,000 stretch of income is the difference between a full deduction and none. Married filing jointly with the contributor covered, it is $129,000 to $149,000. If only your spouse is covered and you file jointly, the band jumps to $242,000 to $252,000 — the law is far more generous to the uncovered spouse than to the covered one. Married filing separately is the punishing case: if either of you is covered, the band runs from $0 to $10,000, which wipes out the deduction for almost anybody.
"Covered" is not "contributing"
This is where most wrong answers start. Coverage means being an active participant for the year, and that happens on money the employer puts in as readily as on money you defer. An employer contribution to a profit-sharing plan, a match you did not have to ask for, or a defined-benefit pension accruing in the background all make you covered in a year you contributed nothing yourself and may not have thought about the plan at all. The check takes two seconds: box 13 of your W-2 has a "Retirement plan" tick box, and the employer ticks it when you were an active participant. It is ticked far more often than people expect. One asymmetry worth holding onto, because it is the whole basis of the joint-return case: coverage attaches to each spouse individually. If one of you has a 401(k) and the other does not, the covered spouse runs the $129,000 band and the uncovered one runs the $242,000 band, on the same joint return and the same modified AGI.
Inside the band, and the two rules nobody indexes
Across the band the deduction is prorated in a straight line, and the thing being prorated is the LIMIT, not what you contributed — Publication 590-A's own worksheet phases the maximum allowable contribution down first, and only then compares the result with what actually went in. The order matters for anyone who contributed less than the maximum, which is most people: phasing the contribution instead understates the deduction. Because the whole limit is prorated across a fixed band, each dollar of income inside it costs a fixed slice: an $8,600 limit across a $10,000 band means 86 cents of deduction per dollar earned, so $1,000 of extra income costs $860 of deduction and, at 22%, $189 of real tax on top of the tax on the $1,000 itself. Two small statutory rules then land on the result and neither has ever been indexed: it is rounded UP to the next $10, and a figure that lands above $0 but under $200 is lifted to $200. That $200 floor is why almost nobody at the very top of the band gets nothing — they get $200.
What the non-deductible half becomes
Nothing about the income band stops you contributing. There has never been an income limit on putting money into a traditional IRA — only on deducting it — so a contribution above the band still goes in, and the part you could not deduct becomes basis: money the government has already taxed and will not tax again. It is tracked on Form 8606, filed with the return for every year you make one, and the running total on line 14 exists in no other place. That last point is the one that costs people money. An unfiled 8606 means the basis is invisible when the money comes out, so it is taxed a second time, and reconstructing a decade of missing forms is one of the more common and more tedious cleanup jobs in the field. The other thing to know about basis is that you can never withdraw it on its own: every distribution and every conversion comes out part basis and part pre-tax, in the ratio the whole of your traditional, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs stands in. That ratio is a subject in its own right, and it is what makes a nondeductible contribution into a large existing pre-tax IRA one of the least useful places to put $7,500.
Frequently asked questions
Is my traditional IRA contribution deductible?
It depends on one thing first: whether a workplace retirement plan covers you or your spouse. If neither of you is covered, the whole contribution is deductible at any income at all — there is no limit. If you are covered, the deduction phases out between $81,000 and $91,000 of modified AGI for a single filer or head of household, and between $129,000 and $149,000 married filing jointly. If only your spouse is covered and you file jointly, the band is far higher: $242,000 to $252,000.
What counts as being covered by a workplace plan?
Being an active participant for the year — which is not the same as contributing. An employer contribution, a match, or a defined-benefit accrual makes you covered even in a year you deferred nothing yourself. The check is box 13 of your W-2: if the "Retirement plan" box is ticked, you were covered. It is ticked far more often than people expect.
Can I contribute if my income is too high?
Yes. There is no income limit on contributing to a traditional IRA — only on deducting it. Above the band the contribution still goes in, it just goes in as nondeductible basis, reported on Form 8606. That basis is exactly what a backdoor Roth converts, which is why the two pages sit next to each other.
Why is my deduction a strange number like $3,960?
Two statutory quirks nothing indexes. Inside the band the limit is prorated in a straight line, then the result is rounded UP to the next $10 — and if it lands above $0 but under $200, it is lifted to $200. So an over-50 contributor sitting $50 below the top of the band gets $200 rather than the $43 the straight line alone would give.
How much is the deduction actually worth?
Its face amount times your marginal rate — $3,960 deducted at 22% is $871 of tax. But it is an above-the-line deduction, so it reduces adjusted gross income itself and you claim it whether or not you itemize. A lower AGI can pull you back under other thresholds measured on it, which is worth more than the headline rate on its own.
What tax do I pay when I take the money out?
Everything above your basis comes out as ordinary income at whatever rate you are in then — never at long-term capital gains rates, however long it was held. Withdrawals before 59½ add a 10% penalty, and distributions are forced from age 73. Any nondeductible basis you built comes back out untaxed, which is why filing Form 8606 every year matters.
When is the deadline?
The filing deadline, not 31 December. A contribution for the 2026 tax year can be made up to 15 April 2027 — but you have to label it for 2026 when you make it, or the custodian books it to the wrong year. Extending your return does not extend this deadline.