No IRA deduction if you have a 401K?

[map]

This is the first year that I have been able to max out both tIRA and 401K contributions. I was starting my taxes last night and was surprised that it didn't seem like I could deduct my IRA contributions because I also have a 401k (even though I get no employer match). Does that sound right to everyone else?

[dandarc]

If your income is high enough, yeah.  If you (and your spouse, if married) DON'T have access to workplace retirement, then a tIRA is always deductible.  If you do, the deduction is subject to income limits.

How high is your income?   If you're eligible for Roth IRA regular contributions, what you want to do is recharacterize the contributions to Roth.  If you're above that limit as well as the tIRA deduction limit, then you probably want to do a backdoor Roth IRA - conversion.  There are quite a few gotchas there, given you got to this point by accident.  I think you can also request a return of contributions.

[map]

My AGI was roughly 120,000. Is the benefit of switching to Roth simply to avoid taxes on withdrawal? I had been operating under the assumption that my tax bracket would be lower by the time I would withdraw any money, so traditional sounded like the better option. It seems like I don't really benefit from a traditional IRA right now though if I get no deduction from it. Is it that simple or am I missing something?

[dandarc]

Exactly that - you're income is too high - way too high if you're filing single - to deduct the contribution.  In that case Roth makes sense.

At an AGI of 120K, if your MAGI = AGI (it may not - check the worksheets on how to figure MAGI), and you're filing single, you're actually in the phase-out range for Roth IRA contributions.  So you've got some homework as to what to do here.

[MDM]

My AGI was roughly 120,000. Is the benefit of switching to Roth simply to avoid taxes on withdrawal? I had been operating under the assumption that my tax bracket would be lower by the time I would withdraw any money, so traditional sounded like the better option. It seems like I don't really benefit from a traditional IRA right now though if I get no deduction from it. Is it that simple or am I missing something?

See
IRA Deduction Limits
Backdoor Roth IRA - Bogleheads
Traditional versus Roth - Bogleheads
for some background, but in short "yes to all previous comments".

[map]

My AGI was roughly 120,000. Is the benefit of switching to Roth simply to avoid taxes on withdrawal? I had been operating under the assumption that my tax bracket would be lower by the time I would withdraw any money, so traditional sounded like the better option. It seems like I don't really benefit from a traditional IRA right now though if I get no deduction from it. Is it that simple or am I missing something?

See
IRA Deduction Limits
Backdoor Roth IRA - Bogleheads
Traditional versus Roth - Bogleheads
for some background, but in short "yes to all previous comments".

Thanks for the links. I'm familiar with the Backdoor Roth, but I need to a do a little more research to understand the finer points before moving forward with it.