Retirement tax questions

No. Absolutely not. A deductible contribution to a Traditional IRA does not reduce your tax dollar for dollar. It reduces your tax by reducing your taxable income. The maximum benefit is the amount of your deductible contribution times your marginal tax rate, so, for example, if your marginal tax rate is 25%, then a $1 contribution reduces your tax by, at most, 25 cents. Further, if you are covered by a retirement plan at work your deductible IRA contributions are limited and you may not qualify for any deduction at all. You can find the income limits in IRS Pub. 590-A, at this link
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p590a.pdf

View solution in original post