Tool · Eligibility

MAGI Estimator for Roth IRA Eligibility

Start with adjusted gross income from your tax return or projection, then apply the Roth IRA adjustments. See how income affects your contribution ceiling—and which other eligibility checks still matter.

2026 IRS Notice 2025-67· §408A(c)(3)(B)· Dollar-denominated levers · By RothIRAHub Editorial · Updated 2026-09-23 · Editorial reference content

All calculations run locally in your browser. Your inputs are never transmitted or stored.

Correction, September 23, 2026: We corrected the AGI-to-MAGI adjustments and clarified what this estimate can and cannot establish. Read the correction history.

1. Your 2026 starting point

Use AGI from a draft return or your tax software. It should already include taxable retirement distributions and reflect the deductions and exclusions you claimed. Do not start with gross salary.

Adjusted gross income (AGI), dollars

A negative AGI is allowed. Enter 0 only if it is your actual estimate; a blank is not zero.

Filing status MFS: lived apart from spouse for the entire year Your age on December 31, 2026

2. Add back these claimed amounts

Enter only amounts already deducted or excluded in your AGI. Leave the displayed 0 for items that do not apply. These are the adjustments in IRS Publication 590-A, Worksheet 2-1.

The personal Traditional IRA deduction is not the employer SEP/SIMPLE or self-employed qualified-plan deduction. Do not add those employer/plan deductions back as personal IRA deductions.

3. Subtract eligible Roth IRA conversion income

Taxable IRA conversions and qualified-plan rollovers to a Roth IRA included in AGI ($)

Use the taxable amount, not the whole account transfer. Do not include an in-plan Roth 401(k) conversion here. Do not subtract ordinary taxable withdrawals or RMDs. The subtraction is for the direct Roth IRA contribution test only; it does not remove the income from your tax return.

Follow the calculation

Starting AGI

− Eligible taxable conversions/rollovers to Roth IRA
Estimated Roth IRA MAGI

What a $1,000 change could do

These are isolated illustrations, not recommendations. They assume eligibility, unused contribution room and a fully allowed deduction or exclusion. Other tax interactions may change the result. The last column changes only the income-based ceiling, not your final IRA room.

Change	MAGI change	Ceiling change

A personal Traditional IRA contribution can use shared IRA room even when its deduction is neutral for MAGI. Do not interpret a $0 MAGI change as no effect on your remaining Roth contribution room.

How to use this estimate

MAGI means modified adjusted gross income. For a Roth IRA, it is one eligibility test—not the only one. Start with AGI that already reflects your full return, then apply the displayed additions and subtraction. This avoids counting foreign exclusions or retirement distributions twice.

Example: AGI of $160,000 includes a $20,000 taxable IRA-to-Roth conversion. With a $1,000 student-loan interest deduction and no other listed add-backs, estimated Roth IRA MAGI is $160,000 − $20,000 + $1,000 = $141,000. Ordinary taxable RMD income stays in AGI for this test; an RMD cannot be converted.

2026 limits and the reduction

The age-based IRA limit is $7,500 under 50 or $8,600 at 50 or older. The Roth phase-out bands are $153,000–$168,000 for Single/HoH and MFS lived apart all year; $242,000–$252,000 for MFJ/qualifying surviving spouse; and $0–$10,000 for MFS who lived with a spouse at any time during the year. These 2026 amounts come from Notice 2025-67.

Inside the band, this tool multiplies the full age-based limit by the fraction of the band still available, rounds the result up to the next $10, and applies a $200 minimum. At or above the upper cutoff, the result is zero. The $200 minimum cannot create compensation or unused shared IRA room. The full Publication 590-A, Worksheet 2-2 also applies compensation and other-IRA limits.

For a single filer under 50 with $162,000 MAGI, the income-based ceiling is $7,500 × ($168,000 − $162,000) ÷ $15,000 = $3,000. Actual eligibility still depends on qualifying compensation and other contributions. MFJ spouses each have their own IRA; a spousal contribution requires enough shared compensation.

Important boundaries

Not IRMAA or ACA MAGI: Medicare IRMAA generally adds tax-exempt interest to AGI and uses a two-year lookback. Taxable conversion income is not removed from IRMAA MAGI by this Roth-specific rule.
No obsolete add-backs: the current Roth worksheet does not list a tuition-and-fees deduction or domestic-production deduction. Rental losses and taxable Social Security can require a refiguring of AGI; they are not blanket amounts to add back.
No automatic backdoor recommendation: a nondeductible Traditional IRA contribution followed by a Roth conversion can be an option above the income cutoff. Contribution eligibility, shared limits, Form 8606 and the Traditional/SEP/SIMPLE IRA pro-rata rule still matter. See the backdoor Roth guide.
Filing status is not just a switch: use the status you qualify for and the corresponding return's AGI. The standard deduction and tax brackets do not themselves change AGI.
Foreign and unusual tax situations: verify that the starting AGI and claimed exclusions match your return. This estimate does not establish that income excluded from tax counts as IRA compensation.

Method: the adjustments in Publication 590-A, Worksheet 2-1 and the Form 8606 instructions, with annual limits from Notice 2025-67. The linked publications currently explain 2025 returns; their contribution-dollar examples are not the 2026 ceilings used here. Inputs stay in this browser page; this tool does not submit or save them.

Corrections and updates

September 23, 2026 — Correction: Removed the incorrect RMD subtraction and obsolete add-back claims. Replaced the incomplete income build-up with explicit AGI input, included taxable qualified-plan rollovers to Roth IRAs, and clarified that the output is an income-based ceiling, not final contribution permission. Corrected phase-out explanations and added missing-input checks. Correction record.

August 22, 2026 — Clarification: Distinguished Roth-contribution MAGI from IRMAA MAGI; the separate IRMAA tool remains the relevant Medicare starting point.