Silicon Valley Dude wrote:

- quote -

Sounds like you have it covered, Dude

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A California married couple filing jointly wants to maximize
their allowable 2004 contributions to their Roth IRAs. She
is over 50, he isn't. If it matters, California is a
community property state. Thanks to the tech recession, he
had no earned income in 2004, but she had a full-time job
paying more than $10K and less than $100K; total 2004 AGI is
well under the $160K limit.

I believe that the answer is the same as if they were
eligible and contributing to a traditional IRA - she can
contribute $3500 to her own Roth IRA (for being over 50),
and he can contribute $3000 from community funds to his as a
"Spousal IRA" contribution. But the IRS pub. is a little
ambiguous on the subject (and not definitive anyway), and
I've gotten slight variations from other sources (e.g., the
custodian's phone rep claimed that both contributions had to
be made by *her*), so I wanted to double-check here to make
sure that (1) the limits are right, (2) that either spouse
can write the checks, and (3) the funds don't need to
specifically come from the account where she deposits her
paycheck, as long as the spousal contribution comes from
community funds. Do I have this right?

--
Silicon Valley Dude

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