<prompt> Human: The bonus comes in December and could be 0, could be 100,000, or anywhere in between. If its 0 then I can contribute 5500 to the IRA, but if I get a bonus greater or equal to 29,000, I cant contribute anything. I think I remember reading that contributions can be made up to March or April of the following year. Is the best thing to do just wait until after I find out about what if any bonus Ill be getting? What if Ive already contributed my 5500. Can I take it out if I get a large bonus in December? Or will there be penalties?  <response>: My suggestion would just be doing a backdoor Roth to contribute immediately. Nothing prevents a backdoor Roth regardless of your income, so you will be fine no matter how large your bonus.But regardless, you are correct that you can wait until 2015 to contribute for the 2014 tax year. April 15th, 2015 is the deadline.If you make an inappropriate contribution to a Roth IRA, you will need to take corrective action. The easiest in your case, assuming you are wholly ineligible for a Roth IRA, would be recharacterization of the account as a traditional IRA. Basically you could talk to the brokerage that holds the Roth, and they can walk you through the process. 