Workers who turn 60, 61, 62 or 63 at any point in 2026 can defer an extra $11,250 into a 401(k), 403(b), governmental 457 plan or the federal Thrift Savings Plan, on top of the regular contribution limit, the Internal Revenue Service confirmed in its annual cost-of-living update. Combined with the new $24,500 elective-deferral ceiling, the “super” catch-up created by the SECURE 2.0 Act lets an eligible worker set aside $35,750 from paycheck deferrals this year, $3,250 more than every other worker age 50 and older is allowed to defer. The allowance disappears the year a worker turns 64.
A Four-Year Window Defined by a Birthday, Not a Paycheck
The higher limit is set entirely by age, not by tenure, job title or plan design. A worker qualifies for the full $11,250 add-on the moment they turn 60, 61, 62 or 63 at any point in the calendar year, even if the birthday lands on Dec. 31, and the allowance reverts to the standard catch-up the January after a worker’s 64th birthday. Nothing about salary, years of service or how much a worker has already saved changes the eligibility test.
The $11,250 figure itself did not move for 2026. Notice 2025-67, the technical guidance behind this year’s cost-of-living adjustments, holds the age 60-63 catch-up flat at the same level that applied in 2025, even as it raises the base elective-deferral limit and the standard 50-and-over catch-up. That means the entire increase in the age 60-63 worker’s maximum this year comes from the base limit moving higher, not from any expansion of the super catch-up provision itself.
Because the increase sits on top of whichever base limit applies to a worker’s plan, the ceiling lands the same way regardless of employer type. A worker in a 401(k) or 403(b) plan reaches the identical $35,750 total as someone in a governmental 457 plan or the Thrift Savings Plan, since the IRS applies the same age 60-63 figure across all four plan types under a single provision of the tax code.
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A Mandatory Roth Rule Waits in the Wings for Higher Earners
A separate SECURE 2.0 provision, addressed in final regulations the Treasury Department and IRS issued in September, requires that catch-up contributions from higher-paid workers be designated as after-tax Roth contributions rather than pretax dollars. The rule turns on a wage threshold tied to a worker’s prior-year earnings from the plan’s sponsoring employer, and Notice 2025-67 raises that threshold from $145,000 to $150,000 for determining whether a worker’s 2026 catch-up contributions must be made as Roth.
The final regulations state that the Roth catch-up mandate generally applies to taxable years beginning after Dec. 31, 2026, meaning full enforcement arrives with the 2027 tax year, though the IRS allows plan sponsors to apply it earlier under a good-faith reading of the statute. An administrative transition period that has let plans delay full compliance, created under an earlier IRS notice, ends Dec. 31, 2025, leaving a gap in which the wage threshold is already set but the underlying requirement has not yet fully phased in.
The Roth mandate does not touch the size of the age 60-63 super catch-up. A worker in the eligible age band can still defer the full $11,250 regardless of income. What changes for a higher earner is the tax treatment: money that would have reduced current taxable income as a pretax contribution instead goes in after-tax, growing tax-free rather than deferring the tax bill until withdrawal.
The Same Age Boost Reaches SIMPLE Plans, Not IRAs
The age 60-63 catch-up is not unique to 401(k)-style plans. The same notice holds the SIMPLE plan version of the provision flat at $5,250 for 2026, even as the standard SIMPLE catch-up for workers 50 and older rises to $4,000 from $3,500, and the enhanced limit that applies to certain SIMPLE plans stays at $3,850. The structure mirrors the 401(k) system: a flat age-based bonus layered on top of a base limit that moves with inflation.
Traditional and Roth IRAs get no equivalent boost. The IRA catch-up for savers 50 and older rose only to $1,100 for 2026, up from $1,000, with no separate, larger figure carved out for workers who turn 60 to 63. A worker relying solely on an IRA, rather than a workplace plan, has no access to anything resembling the $11,250 add-on, regardless of age.
The split leaves the biggest version of the catch-up available only to workers whose employer sponsors a 401(k), 403(b), governmental 457 plan, TSP account or SIMPLE plan, and whose income and budget allow them to defer tens of thousands of dollars a year. Whether the coming Roth mandate makes that group less likely to use the full $35,750 ceiling, once a chunk of it must go in after-tax, is a question the IRS’s phase-in timeline leaves unanswered for now.
This article was drafted with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed for accuracy against primary IRS sources before publication.
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