Question on T-IRA eligibility

[jeromedawg]

Hey guys,

My wife plans to stop working come February and currently has a 401k that she's participating in with her company. Obviously once she stops working she will no longer be contributing to the 401k. In that case, would she be eligible to then contribute to a T-IRA that we could fully deduct (bah, I went and contributed/maxed out her Roth IRA for the year already... guess I'd have to recharacterize if I am able to and want to do the deduction via T-IRA?)

https://www.wellsfargo.com/investing/retirement/ira/traditional-or-roth-ira/traditional/

During the 2016 tax year, one spouse is covered by an employer sponsored plan and one spouse isn't:

    - Fully deductible if MAGI is less than $184,000 (joint)
    - Partially deductible if MAGI is between $184,000 and $194,000 (joint)
    - No deduction if MAGI is over $194,000

At this point, our MAGI would definitely be under $184k.

[MDM]

My wife plans to stop working come February and currently has a 401k that she's participating in with her company.

That means she is covered by an employer sponsored plan for 2016.  See https://www.irs.gov/Retirement-Plans/Are-You-Covered-by-an-Employer's-Retirement-Plan%3F

[seattlecyclone]

Yep, even one paycheck from a job with a 401(k) available makes her "covered by an employer sponsored plan" for the year.

[jeromedawg]

Ahhh shucks. So perhaps I should have stopped all contributions to her 401k in that case... oh well.