If you got divorced this year, you might wonder how that will affect your Roth individual retirement account (Roth IRA) and that of your partner. The simple answer? It won’t.

The (slightly) more complicated answer is that you will now be filing taxes as a single person (unless you get remarried, of course), but your contribution limits for Roth IRAs will stay the same. The limit is $6,000 in 2022 for those under age 50 (increasing to $6,500 in 2023), or $7,000 for those 50 and older ($7,500 in 2023).

The only slight complication is that you’ll need to recheck the Roth IRA income limits, because if you were the primary earner in your marriage, then you now might be above the individual income limit. In this article, we’ll show you how to work that out.

Check the Roth IRA Income Limits

Normally, getting divorced won’t affect your Roth IRA. If you were both making regular contributions before you got divorced, you can both keep doing so afterward. The only complicating factor is that you’ll need to check the Roth IRA income limits for your filing status. Here are the limits:

Do You Qualify for a Roth IRA?
Category	Income Range for 2022 Contribution	Income Range for 2023 Contribution
Married and filing a joint tax return or qualifying widow(er)	Full: Less than $204,000 Partial: From $204,000 to less than $214,000	Full: Less than $214,000 Partial: From $214,000 to less than $228,000
Married, filing a separate tax return, lived with spouse at any time during the year	Full: $0 Partial: Less than $10,000	Full: $0 Partial: Less than $10,000
Single, head of household, or married filing separately without living with spouse at any time during the year	Full: Less than $129,000 Partial: From $129,000 to less than $144,000	Full: Less than $138,000 Partial: From $138,000 to less than $153,000

It’s important to note that it’s your status on the last day of the year—Dec. 31—that counts. So, even if you got divorced on Dec. 30, you will count as married as far as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is concerned.

After getting divorced, you should check the single row in the table above. If your individual income (or, more precisely, your modified adjusted gross income, or MAGI) is below the full amount, you can contribute up to 100% of your income or the Roth IRA contribution limit, whichever is less. The contribution limit in 2022 is $6,000 ($6,500 in 2023) or $7,000 if age 50 or older ($7,500 in 2023).

If your income falls within the partial range, subtract your income from the full level and then divide that amount by the pha搜索引擎优化ut range to determine the percentage of $6,000 (or $7,000) that you are allowed to contribute. For 2023, use $6,500 (or $7,500).

If your individual income is above the full amount for a given year, you will not be able to contribute to your Roth IRA for that year. Of course, the opposite might be the case as well. It might be that your partner was earning too much to allow either of you to contribute to a Roth IRA when you were married, but you fall below the income limit now that you are divorced. In that case, you should look at whether a Roth IRA is now a good option for you to save for retirement.

Understanding Your Filing Status

If your individual income will be too high to allow you to contribute to your Roth IRA after you get divorced, you might think that you could get around this by contributing money before your divorce is finalized.

That’s not the case, says , a CPA in Martinsville, N.J. “The allowable contribution is calculated based on your earned income and filing status at the end of the year,” she explains. This means that whatever filing status you are on the last day of the year counts as your status for the entire tax year.

However, this also means that if you have already contributed to the Roth for the year and now your income disqualifies you, you still have time to undo the contribution before the tax year ends. “If you made an IRA contribution and it becomes unallowable, it must be withdrawn by the due date of the tax return,” Rosen says. “This can occur if, for instance, you are a single person with no earned income,” or if you remarry.

The Bottom Line

Normally, getting divorced won’t affect your Roth IRAs. You can keep contributing as you were before: up to $6,000 in 2022 if you are under age 50 ($6,500 in 2023), or $7,000 if 50 or older ($7,500 in 2023). The exception is if your individual income is now higher than the income limits for Roth IRAs set by the IRS.

You can’t get around this by contributing before your divorce is finalized, because it’s your status on the last day of the tax year that counts. There are, however, indirect ways of contributing to your Roth IRA, even if you are above the income limits. Learn the income limits and possible strategies that you can use to contribute to a Roth IRA.