Tax Planning · 6 min read
The $11,250 Catch-Up: Why Ages 60–63 Get the Biggest Bucket in 2026
The 2026 401(k) employee limit is $24,500, per IRS Notice 2025-67. Savers 50 and older add an $8,000 catch-up — $32,500 — and savers who reach 60, 61, 62, or 63 during the year add $11,250 instead: $35,750. The year you reach 64, the allowance steps back down. IRAs allow $7,500 plus a $1,100 catch-up on top, and starting in 2026, catch-up dollars must go in as Roth for anyone whose prior-year wages from that employer topped $150,000. The full table is below. This is an educational summary, not advice.
Every November the IRS publishes the next year's retirement plan limits, and most coverage stops at the headline number — $24,500 for a 401(k) in 2026. The more interesting line sits further down the notice: savers who are 60, 61, 62, or 63 during the year get a catch-up allowance of $11,250, about 40 percent more than the standard catch-up everyone else over 50 receives. Four birthdays, a bigger bucket, and then at 64 the allowance quietly steps back down. It is the newest wrinkle in the contribution rules, and for the people it covers, it lands in exactly the years when retirement saving tends to matter most.
The 2026 Numbers, in One Table
All figures below are from IRS Notice 2025-67, the annual cost-of-living adjustment notice published in November 2025:
| Limit | 2026 Amount | Who It Applies To |
|---|---|---|
| 401(k)/403(b)/457 employee deferral | $24,500 | Everyone with plan access |
| Standard catch-up | +$8,000 | Age 50 and older |
| Enhanced catch-up (replaces the $8,000) | +$11,250 | Ages 60–63 during the year |
| IRA contribution | $7,500 | Anyone with earned income |
| IRA catch-up | +$1,100 | Age 50 and older |
Stack the pieces and the personal ceilings come out to:
- Under 50: $24,500 in the 401(k) + $7,500 IRA = $32,000
- 50–59: $32,500 in the 401(k) + $8,600 IRA = $41,100
- 60–63: $35,750 in the 401(k) + $8,600 IRA = $44,350
- 64 and up: back to $32,500 + $8,600 = $41,100
The enhanced catch-up replaces the standard one in those four years — it does not stack on top of it. $24,500 + $11,250 = $35,750 is the 401(k) employee ceiling at ages 60–63, not $24,500 + $8,000 + $11,250.
Why Do Ages 60–63 Get More?
The enhanced band comes from the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, which created a special inflation-indexed catch-up for the ages 60–63 window. For 2026 that indexed amount is $11,250, per IRS Notice 2025-67 — the same as in 2025, since the inflation adjustment did not move it this year.
The age test is calendar-simple: what matters is the age you attain during the year. Turn 60 in December 2026 and the $11,250 allowance applies to all of 2026. Turn 64 in January 2026 and it does not — the year you reach 64 you are outside the band, and the standard $8,000 catch-up is your allowance again. The window is exactly four calendar years, tied to the birthdays that fall in them.
The Other 2026 Change: High Earners' Catch-Ups Go Roth
A second SECURE 2.0 provision takes effect in the same year. Beginning in 2026, an employee whose prior-year Social Security wages from the employer sponsoring the plan exceeded $150,000 must make any catch-up contributions as Roth — after-tax dollars in, tax-free qualified dollars out. (IRS, Retirement topics — catch-up contributions; the wage threshold is set in Notice 2025-67.)
What changes in practice: the up-front deduction on catch-up dollars goes away for earners above the threshold. What does not change: the dollars still go in, still grow, and qualified withdrawals come out federally tax-free — the same trade every Roth dollar makes, just no longer optional for this slice of contributions. Employees at or below $150,000 of prior-year wages keep the choice. The rule applies to 401(k), 403(b), and governmental 457(b) plans, not to SEP or SIMPLE arrangements.
What About the $72,000 Limit?
One more number from the notice puts the others in context. The overall defined-contribution limit — employee deferrals plus every employer dollar (match, profit-sharing, after-tax) — is $72,000 for 2026. Catch-up contributions sit on top of that figure, not inside it: a 62-year-old maxing everything with a generous employer could see $72,000 + $11,250 = $83,250 land in the account in a single year. Few plans and fewer budgets get there, but the architecture is worth seeing whole: the limits are a set of nested containers, and the catch-up bands are the only ones that read your birth certificate.
What These Limits Do Not Decide
A ceiling is not a recommendation. Whether to fill the enhanced band is a cash-flow question — $35,750 of deferral is real money out of four years of paychecks, and it competes with paying down a mortgage, bridging health coverage to 65, or simply holding cash for the transition. Whether to fill it with pre-tax or Roth dollars is a bracket question: pre-tax deferrals trade today's bracket for tomorrow's, and the arithmetic runs exactly like the conversion math, just in the other direction. And none of it is available at all unless the plan document adopted the enhanced catch-up — most large plans have, but the plan's own summary is the place that answers it. The limits set the size of the container. What goes in it, and in which tax wrapper, is the household's decision.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the 401(k) contribution limit for 2026?
$24,500 in employee deferrals. Savers 50 and older can add an $8,000 catch-up ($32,500 total), and savers who reach age 60, 61, 62, or 63 during 2026 can add $11,250 instead ($35,750 total), per IRS Notice 2025-67.
Q: Does the $11,250 stack on top of the $8,000 catch-up?
No. The enhanced catch-up replaces the standard one in the years it applies. The 401(k) employee ceiling at ages 60–63 is $24,500 + $11,250 = $35,750.
Q: What happens at age 64?
The year you reach 64 you are outside the enhanced band, and the standard age-50 catch-up — $8,000 for 2026 — is your allowance again. The enhanced amount exists only for the years you attain ages 60 through 63.
Q: Who has to make catch-up contributions as Roth in 2026?
Employees whose 2025 Social Security wages from the employer sponsoring the plan exceeded $150,000. Their catch-up dollars must go in as Roth; employees at or below the threshold keep the pre-tax/Roth choice. The rule does not apply to SEP or SIMPLE plans.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of The Financial Sciences Company as of the publish date and are provided for informational and educational purposes only. They are not personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. The Financial Sciences Company, LLC is an investment adviser registered with the State of Texas. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Additional information is available in our Form ADV at adviserinfo.sec.gov.
General educational information, current as of 2026. Not personalized investment, tax, or legal advice — figures and rules change. For guidance specific to your situation, talk to a qualified professional.
See how this fits your plan — the 3-minute Retirement Checkup scores your income, taxes, resilience, and clarity.
Take the Checkup