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December 30, 2023
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Roth IRA exceed allowed contribution if married file jointly

  • December 30, 2023
  • 2 replies
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Hi, I contribute to the roth ira because my individual income is less than $138,000. But I realized that if I want to file jointly, our total income is more than $218,000. How can I fix this?

Best answer by dmertz

Because you've made an excess Roth IRA contribution, you'll need to either obtain an explicit return of contribution from the Roth IRA or request that the IRA custodian recharacterize the Roth IRA contribution to be a traditional IRA contribution instead, otherwise you'll have a 6% penalty on the excess each year until the excess is corrected.

2 replies

Employee
December 30, 2023

I'll page @dmertz 

dmertzAnswer
Employee
December 30, 2023

Because you've made an excess Roth IRA contribution, you'll need to either obtain an explicit return of contribution from the Roth IRA or request that the IRA custodian recharacterize the Roth IRA contribution to be a traditional IRA contribution instead, otherwise you'll have a 6% penalty on the excess each year until the excess is corrected.

December 30, 2023

 

the traditional IRA also faces a phase-out if you are covered by an employer retirement plan phase-out MFJ $116 - $136K

if you are not covered but your spouse is covered by an employer retirement plan the phase-out is $218K -$228K

 

 

Employee
December 30, 2023

The traditional IRA phase out is for a deduction, not for the contribution.