Personal Finance (Not Investing) • Re: Solo 401k (Contributing for Spouse as well)?

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You cannot a contribute for a spouse. A spouse who also works in the business can participate in the 401k without subjecting it to the additional requirements of other 401ks that having any other employee would.

You cannot contribute for your spouse. Your spouse can earn her own income and have the same contribution rules that you have. You could employ your spouse as well.

Thank you for the help.

So, please correct me if I am wrong:

1) If my spouse is a co-owner of the business, I can "pay" her up to the employee contribution max of $23,000 and defer the entire $23k into the solo 401k, so in essence she is not being physically paid.

The short answer is almost certainly no unless she is actually legitimately working for the business.

The longer answer as to why depends on how the business is structured.

Thank you...from what I am reading, if the spouse is a co-owner of the business, the spouse can contribute to the solo401k plan as well (she receives income from the business). Am I understanding this incorrectly? Business structure is an LLC taxed as an S Corp.


Your spouse is the singular exception to the no-employees rule. As long as they are a part- or full-time employee of the business or a co-owner, they can also contribute to your solo 401(k) using the income they earned from your business.

You can effectively double the contributions listed above if both you and your spouse contribute up to the maximum amount. But in order to do that, both of you must have earned enough to cover your contributions for the year.

https://www.fool.com/retirement/plans/s ... the%20year.

Statistics: Posted by jolmscheid — Fri Aug 16, 2024 3:37 pm

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