If you're single and your modified adjusted gross income cleared $168,000 in 2026, the IRS says you cannot contribute to a Roth IRA. Married filing jointly, that wall is $252,000.
Except you can. There's a completely legal, well-documented workaround that takes about ten minutes at your brokerage, and the IRS has acknowledged it for years. It's called the backdoor Roth IRA, and the only thing standing between most people and a clean execution is one rule that catches an enormous number of first-timers.
The limits, and the gap in them
Here's where things stand for 2026:
| Single / Head of household | Married filing jointly | |
|---|---|---|
| Full contribution allowed | MAGI under $153,000 | MAGI under $242,000 |
| Reduced contribution | $153,000 – $168,000 | $242,000 – $252,000 |
| No contribution allowed | $168,000+ | $252,000+ |
The 2026 contribution limit is $7,500, or $8,600 if you're 50 or older.
Now the gap. Those income limits apply to Roth contributions. They do not apply to Roth conversions — the income cap on conversions was eliminated in 2010 and never came back.
So while you can't put money directly into a Roth IRA above those thresholds, you can put money into a traditional IRA (which has no income limit on contributions) and then convert it. Same destination, different door. That's the entire strategy.
The four steps
1. Contribute to a traditional IRA, non-deductible. Open one if you don't have one, and contribute up to $7,500. Because your income is above the deduction thresholds anyway, this is an after-tax contribution — you get no deduction, which is exactly what makes the next step clean.
2. Leave it in cash. Do not invest the money yet. Park it in the settlement fund or money market. Any investment gains that occur before you convert become taxable income at conversion, which is a small annoyance you can avoid entirely by waiting a few days.
3. Convert to your Roth IRA. Most brokerages have a button for this — Fidelity, Schwab, and Vanguard all handle it online in a couple of clicks. Since your contribution was after-tax and the balance hasn't grown, there's nothing to tax. Once the money lands in the Roth, invest it.
4. File Form 8606. This is the step people skip, and it matters. Form 8606 is how you document that your traditional IRA contribution was non-deductible. Without it, the IRS has no record of your after-tax basis and you can end up paying tax twice on the same dollars. File it every year you do this.
The pro-rata rule, which ruins everything
Here's the trap. The IRS does not let you cherry-pick which dollars you convert. When you convert, it looks at every traditional, rollover, SEP, and SIMPLE IRA you own, combined, and treats your conversion as a proportional slice of the whole thing.
Work through a common scenario. You rolled an old 401(k) into a rollover IRA a few years back and it's now worth $92,500. You make your $7,500 non-deductible contribution. Your total IRA balance is $100,000, of which only $7,500 — 7.5% — is after-tax money.
Convert $7,500 and the IRS says only 7.5% of it is tax-free:
- Tax-free portion: $562.50
- Taxable portion: $6,937.50
In a 32% bracket, that's about $2,220 in unexpected tax on a maneuver you thought was free. Worse, you don't get to clear out the after-tax basis — it stays proportionally spread across your IRAs, and you'll be tracking it on Form 8606 for years.
The fix is straightforward if you have a workplace plan. Employer 401(k) balances are not counted in the pro-rata calculation — only IRAs are. So if your current employer's 401(k) accepts incoming rollovers, move your pre-tax IRA money into it. That drops your traditional IRA balance to zero and makes every future conversion clean.
One detail that gives you breathing room: the pro-rata calculation uses your total IRA balance on December 31 of the year you convert, not the balance on the day you converted. If you convert in March and clear out your rollover IRA in November, you're still fine.
If you're currently deciding where to send an old 401(k), this is a strong argument for rolling it into your new employer's plan rather than an IRA — a choice that's much easier to make correctly the first time than to unwind later.
When you shouldn't bother
The backdoor Roth is not universally correct.
If you have a large pre-tax IRA you can't move, the pro-rata bill may not be worth it. Some employer plans don't accept incoming rollovers, and self-employed people with big SEP IRA balances often have nowhere to put the money.
If your income is below the phase-out, just contribute to the Roth directly. The backdoor adds paperwork for no benefit.
If you might need the money within five years, be aware that each conversion starts its own five-year clock. Withdraw converted principal before that clock runs out and before age 59½, and you can owe a 10% penalty — even though the money was already taxed.
If you're in an unusually low-income year, you may be better off with a deductible traditional IRA contribution instead.
Is it still legal?
Yes. Congress has looked at closing this — a provision to eliminate backdoor Roth conversions appeared in the Build Back Better bill in 2021 and didn't become law. As of 2026 the strategy remains legal and widely used.
That said, it exists because of a gap between two rules rather than because lawmakers designed it, so it's the kind of thing that could be legislated away in a future tax bill. That's an argument for using it now if it fits, not for assuming it'll be there in twenty years.
One step further: the mega backdoor Roth
If your employer's 401(k) allows after-tax contributions beyond the normal pre-tax limit and permits in-plan Roth conversions or in-service withdrawals, you can move far more than $7,500 into Roth accounts each year — potentially tens of thousands.
Both plan features are required, and many plans have neither. It takes one call to your plan administrator to find out. If the answer is yes, it's usually the single highest-value tax move available to a high earner.
What to actually do
Check your MAGI against the table above. If you're over the limit, look at your total balance across every traditional, rollover, SEP, and SIMPLE IRA you own. If that number is zero, the backdoor Roth is a ten-minute task you should do every January. If it isn't zero, your first project is getting that money into a 401(k) before December 31 — then start.
And if you haven't already maxed the accounts with even better tax treatment, do those first. A Roth IRA is excellent, but the HSA is the only account with a triple tax advantage and it deserves your dollars before this one does.