For an Individual Retirement Account (IRA), the standard limit for the 2025 tax year is $7,000. However, if you are 50 or older, you can make a catch-up contribution of up to $1,000, for a total of $8,000. The limits are the same as in 2024 – and if you haven’t exhausted your 2024 contribution yet, you can still do so; The deadline is April 15, 2025.

The contribution limits will be increased for people with company pension schemes. In 2025, people over age 50 can contribute up to $31,000 to a 401(k), 403(b), or Thrift savings plan (and most 457 plans). That’s $500 above the 2024 cap. The limit for workers ages 49 and younger increases from $23,000 to $23,500 in 2025.

4. “Super catch-up” posts

Starting in 2025, employees nearing retirement age will be able to invest even more in employer-sponsored retirement plans. The so-called “super catch-up contribution,” enabled by the SECURE 2.0 Act, a 2022 federal law intended to help U.S. workers save more, takes effect Jan. 1.

Under this provision, savers aged 60 to 63 can make larger catch-up contributions than other workers over 50: up to $11,250 above the standard limit, for a total of $34,750.

Workers in their early 60s can make super catch-up contributions to a 401(k), 403(b), state 457 or Thrift savings plan. The super catch-up process is linked to inflation and can increase from year to year.

5. RMDs

Individuals age 73 and older are required to make minimum annual withdrawals from traditional IRAs and workplace retirement plans. Roth IRAs and workplace accounts are exempt from these required minimum distributions (RMDs) as long as the original account owner is alive.

The IRS calculates your RMD based on the account balance and your life expectancy. You will owe federal income taxes on the withdrawal at your regular tax rate. If you turned 73 in 2024, you have until April 1, 2025 to take your RMD; otherwise the deadline ends on December 31, 2024.

The new RMD rules, which take effect in 2025, will impact some heirs who inherit an IRA. These beneficiaries are typically required to make minimum annual withdrawals, but were able to spread them out over their entire lives until 2025. Starting January 1, IRA heirs other than a spouse—such as a child, sibling, or close friend—have 10 years to deplete the account.

This 10-year rule was part of a 2019 federal retirement law, but the IRS delayed implementation for several years. It applies to beneficiaries of accounts whose original owner died on or after January 1, 2020. (In most cases, surviving spouses still have their entire lifetime to empty an inherited account.)

6. Standard tax deduction

Most taxpayers take the standard deduction instead of itemizing their tax return, and taxpayers age 65 and older can deduct a little more from their taxable income. The IRS adjusts the amounts annually for inflation.

Here are the regular standard deductions for the 2024 tax return (which you must file by April 15, 2025):

• Married couple submitting the application together: $29,200 (up from $27,700 in tax year 2023)
• Separate registration for singles or married people: $14,600 (was $13,850)
• Head of household: $21,600 (was $20,500)