: Married Filing Jointly & one spouse has employer 401K. Would each still be able to contribute to a Traditional IRA? The husband participates in his employer's 401K, while the wife is unemployed. Assuming this couple does

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Provided that you had earned income in 2013, you can always open a
Traditional IRA for 2013 (or make a contribution for Year 2013 to an existing
Traditional IRA) as long as you were under age 70.5 on December 31, 2013.
If you did not have earned income in 2013, you can nonetheless make
a contribution to your Traditional IRA as long as your spouse had earned
income, you are under age 70.5, and you file a joint return with your
spouse. What is restricted
is the ability to deduct the amount of the contribution from current
income, and that ability is determined not only by whether you are
covered by a retirement plan at work (even if you have chosen to not
participate in the plan) and your income level (which you are already aware of)
but also your tax filing status.

From Publication 590 (edition dated 1/6/2014) from the IRS

For 2013, if you are covered by a retirement plan at work,
your IRA deduction will not be reduced (phased out) unless
your modified AGI is:


More than ,000 but less than ,000 for a single individual (or head of household),
More than ,000 but less than 5,000 for a mar­ried couple filing a joint return (or a qualifying widow(er)),


or


Less than ,000 for a married individual filing a sep­arate return.

(Note: these numbers are scheduled to increase slightly for 2014 contributions).

If you do not meet these requirements, some or all of your Traditional
IRA contribution will not be deductible from your current income. The
nondeductible part of the contribution can stay in your IRA if you
like, and if you leave it in there, it
becomes part of the basis (the sum of the
post-tax contributions) of the IRA . The basis
amount is not taxed when you withdraw it since you have already
paid tax on it but any earnings
from the basis that have accumulated within the IRA are taxable
when withdrawn. You need to file Form 8606
with your income tax return to report any changes in basis to the IRS.

So, suppose that you are not age 70.5 as yet, and you are earning
mucho big bucks so that none of your Traditional IRA contribution for Year 2013
is deductible. Your spouse has no earned income but nonetheless
made a contribution to the spouse's IRA and you are filing a joint return
for Year 2013. @JoeTaxpayer clarifies OP Geo's question asking

"Is the spouse's IRA contribution deductible even if yours isn't?"

The answer is, "It depends on what mucho big bucks means" Publication 590
says

If you either live with your spouse or file a joint return, and your spouse is covered by a retirement plan at work, but you are not, your deduction is phased out if your modified AGI is more than 8,000 but less than 8,000. If your modified AGI is 8,000 or more, you cannot take a deduction for contributions to a Traditional IRA.

(Note: these numbers are also scheduled to increase for 2014).

Thus, it would appear that if the modified AGI on your joint
return is more than 5K but less than 8K, then you
cannot deduct your IRA contribution but your nonworking spouse
(or even a working spouse who is not covered by a retirement
plan at work) can deduct the IRA contribution. Hmmmm,
weird twist in the rules that I never knew existed.