The Roth contribution band and the traditional deduction band are worked out in exactly the same way — a straight-line reduction inside the band, rounded up to the next $10, with a $200 floor. What differs is the width, and it is reversed between the two filing statuses.
1. For a single filer the contribution band is wider. $15,000 for the Roth against $10,000 for the deduction — so the deduction goes 1.5 times faster.
2. Filing jointly it is the other way round. $10,000 for the Roth against $20,000 for the deduction — now the deduction goes at half the speed.
3. And one pair is identical. The deduction band for “joint, only the spouse is covered” is $242,000 ~ $252,000 — not a dollar different from the joint Roth band.
Same rule, and the widths swap over
The width of a band is the speed of the reduction: the narrower it is, the more a given rise in income takes away. Put the widths side by side and which one disappears first is immediately visible.
For a single filer the deduction is the urgent one. The Roth contribution fades over $15,000 while the deduction is gone within $10,000 — for the same $1,000 of income the Roth loses $500 and the deduction $750 (at the $7,500 limit, our calculation).
Filing jointly, it reverses exactly. The Roth contribution is gone within $10,000, while the deduction band for a covered spouse is $20,000 — precisely twice as wide (our calculation). Here $1,000 costs the Roth $750 and the deduction $375.
In short: a single filer loses the deduction first and fast; a joint filer loses the contribution first and fast. Remember “the IRA income band” as one thing and you will have one of the two wrong.
The four deduction bands
The traditional deduction band is not set by filing status alone. Who is covered by a workplace retirement plan goes into it too.
In words, the four rows are:
- Single or head of household, you are covered — $81,000 ~ $91,000 ($10,000 wide)
- Married filing jointly, you are covered — $129,000 ~ $149,000 ($20,000 wide — the only one that is twice as wide)
- Married filing jointly, only your spouse is covered — $242,000 ~ $252,000 ($10,000 wide)
- Married filing separately, you are covered — $0 ~ $10,000 ($10,000 wide)
And if nobody is covered by a workplace plan, none of this table applies — the deduction is full at any income. The phase-out is a rule that attaches only to people who have a plan at work.
One pair that matches exactly
Take the third row above — $242,000 ~ $252,000 for “joint, only the spouse is covered” — and set it beside the joint Roth contribution band.
| What shrinks | 2026 band | Width |
|---|---|---|
| Roth IRA contribution (joint) | $242,000 ~ $252,000 | $10,000 |
| Traditional IRA deduction (joint, spouse covered only) | $242,000 ~ $252,000 | $10,000 |
Same bottom, same top, same width. So a couple in that position — you have no plan at work, your spouse does — loses the Roth contribution and the traditional deduction across the very same $10,000. Cross the top of $242,000 ~ $252,000 and both doors shut together.
It is one figure used in two places, and not a causal link — the news release publishes each separately and they happen to coincide. For the people it applies to, though, it really is a single threshold.
Contributing and deducting are different questions
This is where things go wrong most often. The traditional IRA income band decides whether you may deduct, not whether you may contribute.
Publication 590-A is plain about it — “Although your deduction for IRA contributions may be reduced or eliminated, contributions can be made to your IRA up to the general limit.” Even with the deduction at zero, you may still put in the full $7,500. It becomes a nondeductible contribution, reported separately on Form 8606.
The Roth IRA is the opposite. There is no deduction to lose, so the income band blocks the contribution itself. Two bands of the same shape, and one removes a benefit while the other closes the door.
Questions this leaves
Why contribute to a traditional IRA with no deduction?
This piece does not make that judgement. Nondeductible contributions are entangled with what happens on a later Roth conversion — the pro-rata rule — which turns on your other IRA balances and so differs person to person. That is past what the source documents settle. Work it through with a tax professional first. That each of the two steps appears in IRS documents is noted in 401(k) vs Roth IRA.
If only one spouse is covered, are the bands different for each of us?
Yes. The covered spouse reads $129,000 ~ $149,000 and the uncovered one $242,000 ~ $252,000. Two people on the same return with different bands — and the same MAGI figure feeding both. So one of you can be at zero while the other still deducts in full.
Do the deduction bands have the $10 round-up and $200 floor?
They do — the wording is if anything clearer on this side: “If the result isn’t a multiple of $10, round it to the next highest multiple of $10. (For example, $611.40 is rounded to $620.) However, if the result is less than $200, enter $200.” Different band widths mean different floor widths. There is more in the cliff the $200 floor creates.
What about a separate return where only the spouse is covered?
We could not verify it. The news release does not set that combination out. Rather than guess we left it out of the calculator as well — if it applies to you, go to the relevant table in Publication 590-A directly.
Does having a 401(k) mean I am “covered”?
This piece carries the IRS phrase “covered by a retirement plan at work” and no more. Which plans count, and how you tell whether anything was actually contributed for you that year, are not covered here — the box on your W-2 is commonly cited as the place to look, but we could not confirm that against a source and will not state it as fact. Check your plan document (the SPD) alongside your W-2.
Sources and where to check
IRS news release — IR-2025-111 (based on Notice 2025-67). The four traditional deduction bands are its figures — single and covered, “increased to between $81,000 and $91,000”; joint and covered, “increased to between $129,000 and $149,000”; joint with only the spouse covered, “increased to between $242,000 and $252,000”; separate, “remains between $0 and $10,000.” The three Roth bands are from the same document. (irs.gov)
IRS Publication 590-A — source for “the deduction may go but the contribution stays” — “Although your deduction for IRA contributions may be reduced or eliminated, contributions can be made to your IRA up to the general limit.” Also the source for the $10 round-up and the $200 floor. (irs.gov)
Our own calculation — the widths $15,000, $10,000, $10,000 and $20,000 are the two published figures subtracted; “the joint deduction band is exactly twice the contribution band” and “the two $242,000 ~ $252,000 bands match exactly” were confirmed from those same figures. The per-$1,000 amounts ($500, $750, $375) are the $7,500 limit divided by each width.
What we could not verify — the deduction band for a separate return where only the spouse is covered, and how “covered by a retirement plan at work” is determined (which plans count, and whether anything was contributed that year). Neither has been filled in by guesswork.
As of August 2026, federal only. Not investment or tax advice. To see it as an amount for your own income use the IRA contribution and deduction calculator; for the two kinds of IRA, the IRA guide; for the 401(k) alongside them, 401(k) vs Roth IRA.
