401(k) Catch-Up Contribution 2026
Current year
For 2026, the 401(k) Catch-Up Contribution is +$8,000 (Catch-up limit, age 50 and over), +$11,250 (Catch-up limit, ages 60 through 63) and $150,000 (Roth catch-up wage threshold).
Effective 2026-01-01Source: Notice 2025-67 (IRS)Verified 2026-09-01
Compared with 2025
| Item | 2025 | 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catch-up limit, age 50 and over | +$7,500 | +$8,000 | +$500 (+6.7%) |
| Catch-up limit, ages 60 through 63 | +$11,250 | +$11,250 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
| Roth catch-up wage threshold | $145,000 | $150,000 | +$5,000 (+3.4%) |
Who it applies to
Participants aged 50 or over in an applicable employer plan who want to contribute above the regular elective deferral limitation, and the employers and administrators who apply the figure. The notice states these limitations for applicable employer plans other than the SIMPLE arrangements it addresses in separate sentences. The $11,250 figure reaches only participants who attain ages 60 through 63 during 2026.
What changed this year, and why
Notice 2025-67 increases the catch-up contribution limitation under section 414(v) that generally applies to individuals aged 50 or over in an applicable employer plan from $7,500 to $8,000 for 2026. The separate limitation for individuals who attain ages 60 through 63 remains $11,250, the same figure the notice for 2025 stated. Both amounts are published as the cost-of-living adjusted limitations for 2026.
Common questions
- What is the catch-up contribution limit for 2026?
- For 2026 the catch-up contribution limitation under section 414(v) that generally applies to individuals aged 50 or over in an applicable employer plan is $8,000. Notice 2025-67 states it as increased from $7,500. It is an additional catch-up figure, stated separately from the elective deferral limitation the same notice adjusts under section 402(g), and it applies to plans other than the SIMPLE arrangements the notice covers on their own.
- Did the catch-up contribution limit change from 2025?
- Yes. Notice 2025-67 states the section 414(v) catch-up limitation for individuals aged 50 or over as increased from $7,500 to $8,000. The limitation that applies to individuals who attain ages 60 through 63 did not move: the notice states it as remaining $11,250, which was also the figure for 2025.
- Is there a higher catch-up limit for ages 60 through 63 in 2026?
- Yes. Notice 2025-67 states a separate catch-up limitation under section 414(v) for individuals who attain ages 60 through 63 in 2026, and gives it as $11,250. The notice states $8,000 as the limitation that generally applies for individuals aged 50 or over, and $11,250 as the limitation for that narrower age band. Each appears as a limitation in its own sentence. The larger of the two is widely called the super catch-up, which is not the notice’s own word for it: the notice names no such thing and states only the two limitations and the ages each applies to.
- Why did the ages 60 through 63 catch-up amount not increase for 2026?
- Notice 2025-67 states that figure as remaining $11,250 rather than increasing. The notice applies the cost-of-living adjustment described in section 415(d) and then applies rounding rules before publishing each amount, so a movement smaller than a rounding step leaves the published figure where it was. The notice writes remains for amounts in that position and increased from for the ones that moved, such as the $8,000 age 50 catch-up.
- What happens in the year I turn 64?
- Notice 2025-67 states the $11,250 limitation only for individuals who attain ages 60 through 63 in 2026. Someone who attains 64 during 2026 falls outside that band, so the figure that applies is the limitation the notice states generally for individuals aged 50 or over, which is $8,000 for 2026. The notice sets no separate catch-up amount above that age band.
- Do SIMPLE plans use these same catch-up amounts?
- No. Notice 2025-67 states the $8,000 and $11,250 figures for an applicable employer plan other than the SIMPLE arrangements it addresses separately. For a SIMPLE retirement account the notice sets out its own catch-up limitations under section 414(v), including a separate figure for individuals who attain ages 60 through 63 in 2026. Those SIMPLE amounts are lower and are published in their own paragraphs.
- Do catch-up contributions have to be designated Roth contributions?
- For some people, yes. Notice 2025-67 states a Roth catch-up wage threshold under section 414(v), increased from $145,000 to $150,000, and describes it as the figure used to determine whether an individual's catch-up contributions to an applicable employer plan for 2026 must be designated as Roth contributions. The threshold is read against the wages the notice states it for, which is the year before this one, not 2026 itself. Someone whose wages from the employer sponsoring the plan were above $150,000 that year makes their 2026 catch-up as designated Roth contributions; someone at or below it is not made to by this threshold. It is a wage test, stated in its own sentence and separately from the $8,000 catch-up limitation, so it changes how a catch-up is made rather than how much of one there is.
- Where does the 2026 catch-up limit come from?
- It is published in Notice 2025-67, the annual IRS notice of amounts relating to retirement plans and IRAs as adjusted for changes in cost-of-living. Section 415 of the Internal Revenue Code provides for limitations on benefits and contributions under qualified retirement plans, and section 415(d) requires the Secretary of the Treasury to adjust those limitations annually for cost-of-living increases. The catch-up figures are adjusted at the same time and in the same manner as the limitation of section 415(b).
Every amount on this page is a published figure rather than yours. The Catch-up contribution per pay period takes the number you enter and works it out against them, showing which published figure it used.
Your plan has to allow it, and you must turn 50 by year end
A 401(k) plan is not required to allow catch-up contributions. The plan document must specifically permit participants who reach age 50 by the last day of the calendar year to make these additional elective deferrals. For 2026, the catch-up limit is $8,000. If your plan does not include this provision, you cannot make catch-up contributions even if you are otherwise eligible based on age. Additionally, the catch-up amount you can actually contribute is subject to a further cap: you cannot contribute more in catch-up than the amount by which your compensation for the year exceeds your regular (non-catch-up) elective deferrals.
A 401(k) plan can permit par- ticipants who are age 50 or over at the end of the calendar year to also make catch-up contributions.
Publication 560 (2025), Retirement Plans for Small Business (SEP, SIMPLE, and Qualified Plans) (IRS)
The catch-up sits outside the overall contribution limit
A defined contribution plan places an overall annual cap on the total contributions and other additions to each participant's account. Catch-up contributions are explicitly excluded from this overall cap. This means that the catch-up amount - $8,000 for the standard catch-up in 2026, or $11,250 for the enhanced catch-up - does not count toward the plan's general annual additions ceiling. The practical effect is that participants who are eligible for catch-up contributions can save the full catch-up amount without it reducing the room available for employer contributions, forfeitures, or other plan additions. Without this exclusion, older participants who already receive substantial employer contributions might find little or no space remaining for their catch-up deferrals. The catch-up operates as a separate, additional allowance layered on top of the regular contribution framework.
Catch-up contributions (discussed later under Limit on Elective Deferrals) aren't subject to the above limit.
Publication 560 (2025), Retirement Plans for Small Business (SEP, SIMPLE, and Qualified Plans) (IRS)
Your pay can cap the catch-up below the stated limit
A participant's catch-up contributions for the year cannot exceed the lesser of the catch-up limit or the participant's compensation reduced by regular elective deferrals. The catch-up limit is $8,000 for 2026 for the standard catch-up, or $11,250 for the enhanced catch-up. If a participant's compensation is modest relative to the regular deferrals already made during the year, the remaining compensation available to support catch-up contributions may be less than the full catch-up limit. In that situation, the catch-up amount is effectively reduced to match whatever compensation remains. The plan must perform this comparison and enforce the lower of the two amounts. This compensation-based cap ensures that catch-up contributions do not exceed what the participant actually earned beyond what was already deferred through regular elective deferrals.
A participant's catch-up contributions for a year can't exceed the lesser of the following amounts. • The catch-up contribution limit. • The excess of the participant's compensation over the elective deferrals that aren’t catch-up contributions.
Publication 560 (2025), Retirement Plans for Small Business (SEP, SIMPLE, and Qualified Plans) (IRS)
The plan document itself must enforce the deferral limit
The plan document must contain a provision that prevents employees from deferring more than the applicable annual limit. This is a structural requirement of the plan itself, not merely a participant responsibility. When an employee participates in plans sponsored by more than one employer, the total of all deferrals across every plan must stay within the single annual limit that applies for that year. If the combined total exceeds the limit, the excess is included in the employee's gross income. The employee is then responsible for notifying the plan and having the excess distributed, along with any attributable earnings, by the deadline that falls on the fifteenth day of April of the following year. The plan administrator must enforce the limit throughout the year to prevent excess deferrals from arising in the first place.
Your plan must provide that your employees can't defer more than the limit that applies for a particular year.
Publication 560 (2025), Retirement Plans for Small Business (SEP, SIMPLE, and Qualified Plans) (IRS)
What to do when you defer too much across two jobs
When an employee's total deferrals across multiple plans exceed the annual limit, the overage is treated as an excess deferral. The employee can request distribution of the excess from any plan that allows such distributions. The employee must notify the plan by April 15, 2026 of the amount to be withdrawn from each plan, or by any earlier date the plan specifies. The plan must then pay the employee the excess amount plus any earnings on that amount through the end of 2025, also by April 15, 2026. This correction must be completed by the deadline to avoid the excess being taxed in both the year of deferral and the year of distribution. The earnings distributed with the excess are taxable in the year of distribution.
the employee can have the difference (called an excess deferral) paid out of any of the plans that permit these distributions. The employee must notify the plan by April 15, 2026 (or an earlier date specified in the plan), of the amount to be paid from each plan. The plan must then pay the employee that amount, plus earnings on the amount through the end of 2025, by April 15, 2026.
Publication 560 (2025), Retirement Plans for Small Business (SEP, SIMPLE, and Qualified Plans) (IRS)
You do not elect a catch-up: your deferrals become one
Nothing on a payroll form is labelled catch-up. A participant makes one election - defer this much of my pay - and what it produces are ordinary elective deferrals until they pass a ceiling: the annual deferral limit, $24,500 for 2026, or the plan's own lower limit where it sets one, or the ADP test limit a plan is held to under the nondiscrimination rules. Whatever runs past whichever of those is reached first is what counts as the catch-up, up to $8,000 for 2026. Two things follow. Someone who defers less than $24,500 across the year never reaches the catch-up at all, however old they are, because there is nothing above the ceiling to reclassify. And someone who does reach it makes no second election to claim it: the reclassification is the plan administrator's arithmetic. The catch-up is the last money in, not the first.
Elective deferrals aren't treated as catch-up contributions for 2025 until they exceed the $23,500 limit ($24,500 limit for 2026), the ADP test limit of section 401(k)(3), or the plan limit (if any).
Publication 560 (2025), Retirement Plans for Small Business (SEP, SIMPLE, and Qualified Plans) (IRS)
The larger catch-up for ages 60 through 63
The larger catch-up is defined by the age you attain during the tax year, not by an age you hold for all of it: a participant who turns 60, 61, 62 or 63 at any point in the year is inside the band, and one who turns 64 is back outside it. For 2026 the amount for those ages is $11,250, against $8,000 for every other catch-up-eligible participant, and it sits on top of the ordinary elective deferral limit the same way the smaller one does. Section 109 of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 permits a plan to offer it; it does not require one to. So the question of whether you can actually defer the larger amount is answered by your plan document, and a plan that stays with the ordinary catch-up is within the law. Ask the administrator before setting a deferral rate on it.
Beginning in 2025, section 109 of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 permits a deferred compensation plan (including most 401(k) and 403(b) plans) to allow participants to make a higher amount of catch-up contributions in a tax year in which they attain age 60, 61, 62, or 63.
Publication 560 (2025), Retirement Plans for Small Business (SEP, SIMPLE, and Qualified Plans) (IRS)
How each figure was verified
Each number below was read from a stored copy of the document named beside it, and checked to occur word for word in the quoted sentence. The digest is of that stored text.
Notice 2025-67 (IRS)
- Catch-up limit, age 50 and over
The limitation under section 414(v)(2)(B)(i) for catch-up contributions to an applicable employer plan other than a plan described in section 401(k)(11) or section 408(p) that generally applies for individuals aged 50 or over is increased from $7,500 to $8,000.
- Catch-up limit, ages 60 through 63
The limitation under section 414(v)(2)(E)(i) for catch-up contributions to an applicable employer plan other than a plan described in section 401(k)(11) or section 408(p) that applies for individuals who attain age 60, 61, 62, or 63 in 2026 remains $11,250.
- Roth catch-up wage threshold
The Roth catch-up wage threshold for 2025, which under section 414(v)(7)(A) is used to determine whether an individual’s catch-up contributions to an applicable employer plan (other than a plan described in section 408(k) or (p)) for 2026 must be designated as Roth contributions, is increased from $145,000 to $150,000.
By year
Every published year
11 years on record, 2026 back to 2016. Each year links to its own page, its own document and its own verification date.