457 tax deferred contribution and how it effects my Federal Tax Due

[Anonymous]

I've almost finalized my taxes and I currently owe $2174. I have not yet contributed to my 457 for 2016 and have a few dollars to due so. I'm wondering how much I need to contribute to get my Federal Taxes Due close to $0. I file "married jointly". Any recommendations?

[KaylaTR]

The only IRA contribution that will reduce your tax is a deductible contribution to a Traditional IRA. A deductible contribution reduces your tax by, at most. the amount of your contribution times your marginal tax rate.

• For example, if you can make a deductible contribution and you are in the 25% marginal tax rate bracket, then a $1 contribution reduces your tax by  $1 X 0.25 = 25 cents.
• If you are in the 25% bracket then it would require a deductible contribution of   3,490 / 0.25 = 13,960 to reduce your tax to zero and you can not get there from here.