Quick Question about spouse IRA when starting a job late in the year

[Heroes821]

Good Morning Mustacians.

I'm a little confused by some information I've been getting regarding my wife's IRA.  Last year we capped her IRA before she had a job or even a plan of getting a job.  When she did get a job she ended up making about $4300 before Social security.


Does this mean we over contributed to her IRA, she is covered by an employer plan.  I'm not worried about how much deductible, I just want to make sure that putting $11,000 in our 2 IRAs total was fine since our incomes get looked at as one regardless of how much money she made as an individual. 

I can't seem to find any documentation on the IRS website regarding that except that if can't put in more than you make as a single person.

[walkwalkwalk]

Spousal IRAs
If you file a joint return, you may be able to contribute to an IRA even if you did not have taxable compensation as long as your spouse did. The amount of your combined contributions can’t be more than the taxable compensation reported on your joint return. See the formula in IRS Publication 590-A.
If neither spouse participated in a retirement plan at work, all of your contributions will be deductible.

https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-ira-contribution-limits

[Heroes821]

Thanks Walk,

I know about the spousal IRA from when she was a non-working spouse but I wasn't sure if that still applied when she was working.

[walkwalkwalk]

Working or nonworking, point is she doesn't have to have income to cover her contribution, just need to have at least 11k between both of you.

For example, my mom makes 6k but can do the 6500 (with the 1k 50+ age catch-up) because my dad works.

[Heroes821]

Awesome man, that was my understanding until my CPA brought it up a few weeks ago, but I think he meant deductions.  Another CPA friend of mine who only does businesses said what you just said but he doesn't do personal returns so I wanted to sanity check with everyone here.