2027 401(k), IRA, and HSA Limits: How to Reset Your Contributions for January

Danielle Brooks, a 41-year-old nurse manager in Phoenix, opened her benefits portal this week and found the open enrollment screen asking for her 2027 elections. She wants to max out her 401(k), keep funding the family health savings account she uses with her husband, and set up a monthly transfer to her Roth IRA. The portal wants a dollar amount or a percentage for each one, and her first paycheck of the new year arrives on January 8. The trouble is that only one of those three limits had been published by the IRS when she went to fill in the boxes.

That mismatch is common in November, and it does not have to stall anything. You can set every contribution now using the numbers that are official, mark the ones that need a second look, and finish the job in a few minutes once the IRS publishes the rest. Here is how to do it without overshooting a limit or leaving an employer match behind.

Where the official numbers stand as of November 9, 2026

Health savings accounts are settled. The IRS published Revenue Procedure 2026-24 earlier this year, setting the 2027 HSA contribution limits at $4,500 for self-only coverage and $9,000 for family coverage under a high-deductible health plan. Those are up from $4,400 and $8,750 for 2026.

The 2027 limits for 401(k) plans and IRAs are a different story. As of November 9, 2026, the IRS had not announced them. Its newsroom releases through November 6 include the tax year 2027 inflation adjustments for brackets, the standard deduction, and gift and estate amounts, but no retirement plan limits. The IRS retirement limits page still shows 2026 as the most recent year. Last year, the IRS announced the 2026 retirement limits on November 13, 2025, in news release IR-2025-111 and Notice 2025-67, but the agency does not commit to a date in advance.

That means any 2027 401(k) or IRA figure you see before the IRS release is a projection, not a limit. This article does not use projections. Until the 2027 notice is out, the official figures are the 2026 ones:

For 2026, the elective deferral limit for 401(k), 403(b), governmental 457 plans, and the federal Thrift Savings Plan is $24,500. Workers age 50 and older can add a catch-up contribution of up to $8,000, and those who turn 60, 61, 62, or 63 during the year can contribute a higher catch-up of up to $11,250. The 2026 IRA limit is $7,500, plus a $1,100 catch-up for people 50 and older, for a total of $8,600.

Reset the HSA first, because you can

Since the HSA number is final, start there. The goal is to divide the 2027 limit, minus anything your employer puts in, across the paychecks you will receive next year.

Take Danielle's example. She and her husband have family coverage, so the 2027 cap is $9,000. Her employer adds $1,000 a year, and IRS Publication 969 says employer contributions, including your own pretax payroll contributions made through a cafeteria plan, count toward the limit. That leaves $8,000 for her. She is paid every two weeks, so 26 paychecks means about $307.69 per check. If she had been contributing at the 2026 family pace, her election needs to rise.

Three rules can change that math. People age 55 or older can add $1,000 a year to their own HSA, and if both spouses qualify, each must put the extra amount in a separate account. Anyone who enrolls in Medicare can no longer contribute for the months they are enrolled, which matters for workers turning 65 in 2027. And the plan itself has to qualify: for 2027, the IRS requires a high-deductible health plan to have a deductible of at least $1,750 for self-only coverage or $3,500 for family coverage, with out-of-pocket costs capped at $8,700 or $17,400. If your employer changed plan designs this fall, confirm the 2027 plan still counts.

Payroll contributions have another advantage. Publication 969 treats contributions you make through a cafeteria plan at work as employer contributions, and those may be excluded from your gross income. You get the tax benefit with each paycheck instead of waiting to claim a deduction on your return. If you have been making HSA deposits directly from your bank account, January is a good time to ask whether payroll deduction is available.

Set the 401(k) election in two passes

For the workplace plan, think of the reset as a first pass now and a second pass when the IRS publishes the 2027 limit.

Pass one: enter an election that works with the official 2026 limit and tell yourself it is temporary. In the example, Danielle earns $110,000. Contributing $24,500 over 26 paychecks works out to about $942.31 per check, or roughly 22.3 percent of her pay. If your plan accepts a dollar amount per paycheck, that is the cleaner choice, because a percentage can drift when you get a raise.

Pass two: once the 2027 limit is official, log back in and recalculate. Divide the new limit by the number of paychecks left in the year. If the change comes before your first January paycheck, you only need to replace one number.

Before you finalize either pass, read how your plan handles the employer match. Some employers calculate the match paycheck by paycheck. If you reach the annual limit by September, your deferrals stop, and so can the match for the last few months. Other plans make a year-end "true-up" contribution to cover the gap. Your summary plan description or HR team can tell you which applies. If there is no true-up, spreading your deferrals evenly across all 26 paychecks protects every dollar of match.

Many plans stop deferrals automatically when you reach the annual limit, but that safeguard only works inside a single plan. That leads to a trap for anyone who changes jobs.

If you changed jobs this year or will next year

The elective deferral limit applies to you, not to each employer. If you contributed to two 401(k) plans in the same calendar year, the total across both counts against one limit. Neither employer can see what you put in at the other.

The IRS says that if your total deferrals exceed the limit, you should notify a plan administrator before April 15 of the following year and ask for the excess, plus earnings, to be paid out. The excess is taxable in the year it was deferred. If it is not removed by April 15, it can be taxed twice: once in the year you contributed it and again when you eventually withdraw it.

For anyone starting a new job in early 2027, the fix is simple. Track your year-to-date deferrals from your final 2026 pay stub at the old employer separately from the new one, and when you enroll in the new plan, set your election based on what is left. The same awareness applies if you have a 401(k) and a 403(b) at the same time, which is common for health care and university workers.

Change your catch-up approach for 2027

Two catch-up rules are worth checking during this reset, especially for workers in their 50s and early 60s.

First, the higher catch-up for ages 60 through 63 is based on the age you reach during the calendar year. Someone who turns 60 in 2027 can use it for all of 2027, if the plan offers it. Someone who turns 64 drops back to the standard catch-up. The 2026 figures are $11,250 and $8,000; the 2027 figures will come with the IRS notice.

In dollar terms, the IRS says most participants age 50 and older could contribute up to $32,500 in 2026, counting the regular limit and the standard catch-up. For those in the 60 to 63 window, the same math with the higher catch-up comes to $35,750. If you plan to use catch-up room in 2027, build it into your first-pass election now at the 2026 amounts, then adjust once the new figures arrive.

Second, the Roth catch-up rule from the SECURE 2.0 Act. Under it, catch-up contributions for higher earners must be made as Roth contributions. The IRS catch-up page says this applies for 2026 to participants whose prior-year wages from the employer exceeded $150,000. Final Treasury and IRS regulations issued in September 2025 generally apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2026, so 2027 is the year plans must follow the final rules. The wage threshold is adjusted for inflation, and the IRS had not published the figure that will apply for 2027 as of November 9. If your 2026 wages from your employer will be near that range, ask HR how your catch-up contributions will be classified in 2027 and whether your plan offers a Roth option at all.

Automate the IRA, and do not forget the 2026 deadline

IRA contributions follow a different calendar from workplace plans. You can make contributions for a given year up to the due date of that year's tax return, not counting extensions. That means you still have until April 15, 2027, to finish your 2026 IRA contribution of up to $7,500, or $8,600 if you are 50 or older.

That makes the January reset a two-track job. If you have not reached the 2026 limit, decide whether the next few deposits should be coded as 2026 contributions; most providers ask which year a deposit is for. Then set the recurring transfer for 2027 based on the 2026 limit until the IRS announces the new one. In Danielle's example, $625 a month adds up to $7,500 over 12 months. When the 2027 limit is announced, she can adjust the monthly amount or make a top-up in early 2028 before the deadline.

Roth IRA eligibility is the other thing to check. For 2026, the IRS income phase-out range for Roth IRA contributions is $153,000 to $168,000 for single filers and heads of household, and $242,000 to $252,000 for married couples filing jointly. The 2027 ranges have not been published. If your income is close to the range, a raise or a bonus can change what you can contribute, so you may want to wait until you have a clearer picture of your income for the year before contributing the full amount.

A short January reset calendar

Now through your open enrollment deadline: set the 2027 HSA payroll amount using the official $4,500 or $9,000 limit, minus employer contributions. Enter a 401(k) election based on the official 2026 limit and note that it is temporary.

When the IRS publishes the 2027 retirement limits: recalculate the 401(k) per-paycheck amount and the catch-up, update the recurring IRA transfer, and check the new Roth IRA income range.

After your first January paycheck: compare the pay stub to your elections. Check the deferral amount, the HSA amount, and whether a match landed.

By April 15, 2027: finish any 2026 IRA or HSA contributions you intend to make, and fix any excess 401(k) deferrals from 2026.

Do the HSA today, park the 401(k) and IRA on official 2026 numbers, and put a reminder on your calendar to check the IRS newsroom. The second pass takes ten minutes once the numbers are real.