News & Insights
Recent Posts
- What You Need to Know About Business Insurance
- Tax Identity Theft: Businesses Are at Risk, Too
- Rethinking Payment Options for Your Business
- Fine-Tune Your Tax Withholding After Filing Your Return
- Cost Segregation Studies Can Reveal Substantial Tax Savings
- Charting the Path Forward: Why Strategic Planning Matters More Than Ever
- The Business Lifecycle Part 2: The Start-Up Stage
- 7 Questions Every Business Owner Should Ask About Their Financial Reporting
Ready to Grow Your Nest Egg? The IRS Releases 2026 Retirement Plan Contribution Limits
With Notice 2025–67, the IRS has issued its 2026 inflation-adjusted retirement plan contribution limits. Although the changes are more modest than in recent years, most retirement-plan-related limits will still increase for 2026. Depending on your plan, these adjustments may provide extra room to boost your retirement savings.
*Starting in 2026, the SECURE 2.0 Act requires the catch-up contributions of higher-income taxpayers to be treated as post-tax Roth contributions. Generally for 2026, the requirement will apply to taxpayers who earned more than $150,000 during the prior year. However, new final regulations state that the deadline for plan amendments to implement this change is December 31, 2026. So there might not be any adverse consequences for plans that continue to allow non-Roth account catch-up contributions for higher-income taxpayers in 2026.
Your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) may reduce or even eliminate your ability to take advantage of IRAs. Fortunately, IRA-related MAGI phaseout range limits will all increase for 2026:
| Type of Limitation | 2025 Limit | 2026 Limit |
|
Elective deferrals to 401(k), 403(b) and 457 plans |
$23,500 |
$24,500 |
|
Annual benefit limit for defined benefit plans |
$280,000 |
$290,000 |
|
Contributions to defined contribution plans |
$70,000 |
$72,000 |
|
Contributions to SIMPLEs |
$16,500 |
$17,000 |
|
Contributions to traditional and Roth IRAs |
$7,000 |
$7,500 |
|
Catch-up contributions to 401(k), 403(b) and 457 plans for those age 50 or older* |
$7,500 |
$8,000 |
|
Catch-up contributions to 401(k), 403(b) and 457 plans for those age 60, 61, 62 or 63* |
$11,250 |
$11,250 |
|
Catch-up contributions to SIMPLE plans for those age 50 or older |
$3,500 |
$4,000 |
|
Catch-up contributions to SIMPLE plans for those age 60, 61, 62 or 63 |
$5,250 |
$5,250 |
|
Catch-up contributions to IRAs for those age 50 or older |
$1,000 |
$1,100 |
|
Compensation for benefit purposes for qualified plans and SEPs |
$350,000 |
$360,000 |
|
Minimum compensation for SEP coverage |
$750 |
$800 |
|
Highly compensated employee threshold |
$160,000 |
$160,000 |
Traditional IRAs
MAGI phaseout ranges apply to the deductibility of contributions if a taxpayer (or his or her spouse) participates in an employer-sponsored retirement plan:- For married taxpayers filing jointly, the phaseout range is specific to each spouse based on whether he or she is a participant in an employer-sponsored plan:
- For a spouse who participates, the 2026 phaseout range limits will increase by $3,000, to $129,000–$149,000.
- For a spouse who doesn’t participate, the 2026 phaseout range limits will increase by $6,000, to $242,000–$252,000.
- For single and head-of-household taxpayers participating in an employer-sponsored plan, the 2026 phaseout range limits will increase by $2,000, to $81,000–$91,000.
Roth IRAs
Whether you participate in an employer-sponsored plan doesn’t affect your ability to contribute to a Roth IRA, but MAGI limits may reduce or eliminate your ability to contribute:- For married taxpayers filing jointly, the 2026 phaseout range limits will increase by $6,000, to $242,000–$252,000.
- For single and head-of-household taxpayers, the 2026 phaseout range limits will increase by $3,000, to $153,000–$168,000.