Spousal Roth IRA
Published in Rules
If you are married but personally earn no income, your spouse can contribute to something known as a Spousal IRA as long as he or she earns enough money to cover both contributions (if they opt for their own contribution). This is best explained by an example of how the Spousal IRA works and in our example we will assume you are contributing to a Roth IRA.
Example 1: One spouse earns $60,000 a year, the other earns $0. Since the joint return will show income of $60,000, you can contribute $5000 to each of your Roth IRAs without any problems whatsoever.
Example 2: One spouse earns $8,000 a year, the other earns $0. In this case, there is not enough earned income to cover two Roth IRA maximum contributions so you’ll have to split the $8,000 between the two accounts. You can do $5,000 in one and $3,000 in the other, or $4k each, but you cannot exceed contributions of $8,000 because that’s all you have.
Eaxmple 3: One spouse earns $180,000 a year, the other earns $0. In this case, since earnings are above the 2008 Roth IRA contribution phaseouts, neither of you can contribute to your Roth IRA.
For more information, please consult a professional financial planner for your particular situation.