Free tool · Financially Sovereign Academy

Contribution Cap Planner

Your employer says they'll contribute. Does that mean you can still add the full amount yourself? Put in your numbers and see the arithmetic.

Rules still settling — every figure on this page verified 24 August 2026. Final §530A regulations are not yet published. Two sets of proposed rules are open for public comment right now: employer contributions and nondiscrimination (comments close 25 September 2026) and eligible investments (comments close 20 October 2026). The caps below are not indexed for inflation until after 2027, so they hold for this year. Every figure is linked to its primary source at the foot of this page.

The rules this tool applies

Editable, so the tool stays correct when the numbers change — and so you can see exactly which rule produces your result.

Combined annual contribution cap, per child

Maximum employer contribution, per employee, per year

This amount is excluded from your income — and it counts inside the combined cap above, not on top of it. That is the single most misunderstood rule in this program.

Your situation

Nothing here leaves your browser. There is no account, no tracking, and nothing is sent anywhere.

How much will your employer contribute this year?

How much have you (or family) already contributed this year?

How much more were you planning to contribute this year, on top of what is already in?

Has the child received the $1,000 federal seed deposit?

Yes Not yet / not sure Not eligible

The seed sits on top of the contribution cap — it does not use up any of your $5,000. It is not part of the calculation below.

Contribution headroom left this year $0

Where the cap goes

Employer Already contributed Headroom left

This one needs a professional, not a calculator

What to bring: the numbers above, your filing status, your state, and the specific question you want answered. Ten minutes of preparation makes a paid hour worth far more.

The question this raises

This tool does the arithmetic. It does not tell you where the next dollar belongs — that depends on things it cannot see. What it can do is tell you exactly which questions now matter:

This is one section of a longer session.

The cap arithmetic above is the part families get wrong most often, but it is not the whole decision. The family decision session asks ten connected questions once — eligibility, this cap, what the lock until eighteen buys, and five accounts annotated against your own answers — and hands your numbers to the compound growth calculator. Free, in English and Spanish.

What this tool does not do

It does not model state tax treatment. State conformity varies and is unsettled. If your state's treatment matters to your decision, this tool cannot help.
It does not compare accounts. It computes one number about one account.
It does not model growth, returns, or outcomes. No projections.
It does not know your income, filing status, or benefits. It never asks.
It is not advice. It is arithmetic on figures you entered, plus the questions your own result raises.

Silent incompleteness is worse than stated incompleteness. If something matters to your decision and isn't in that list, assume this tool doesn't handle it and ask someone who does.

Where these figures come from

Every default above is linked to the primary source it comes from, with the date that source carries. Nothing here is asserted on our own authority.

$5,000 combined annual cap, indexed for inflation only after 2027 — IRS Notice 2025-68: “subject to an aggregate annual limit of $5,000… subject to cost-of-living adjustments after 2027.”
The $1,000 federal deposit does not use up any of your $5,000. Children born 1 January 2025 through 31 December 2028, a U.S. citizen with a valid SSN — IRS, Trump Accounts and Instructions for Form 4547.
$2,500 employer contribution limit, excludable from your income under §128, also indexed only after 2027 — proposed regulations REG-101355-26, Federal Register 11 August 2026. Proposed, not final.
Locked until 1 January of the year the child turns 18; after that, traditional IRA rules apply, including the §72(t) additional tax on distributions before 59½ unless an exception applies — IRS Notice 2025-68.
Tax-deferred is not tax-free. Earnings are included in gross income when distributed, as ordinary income — not at capital-gains rates — IRS Notice 2025-68.
Generally not ERISA pension plans, subject to stated conditions — DOL Technical Release 2026-02, 17 June 2026. This can evolve.
What the account may be invested in is still being written — proposed regulations, eligible investments, Federal Register 21 August 2026, comments close 20 October 2026.
Gift tax safe harbor for certain contributions — Rev. Proc. 2026-25, 29 June 2026.

There is no October 15 deadline. That claim is circulating widely and it is not in any official source. We are not going to invent an urgency you don't have.

The Sovereign Academy is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. government, the Treasury, the IRS, or the Trump Accounts program.
This is general education, not personalized tax, legal, or financial advice. Rules are still being finalized and vary by state — verify against primary sources before acting. Nothing you type here is stored or transmitted.