Can you help me with opening an IRA or IRA'S to help with lowering what I owe? I owe $8,489.

[hbl3973 · Accepted solution]

First, off, congratulations on looking to save for retirement.  IRA accounts may be opened at most banks, credit unions, brokerages and investment companies such as Vanguard, Fidelity, JP Morgan, etc.  You have until April 18th to open an IRA for the 2016 tax return.

Whether opening one will give you a tax reduction depends on (a) your income and (b) whether you are covered by a retirement plan at work.  The details of IRAs are provided in IRS publications 590-A and 590-B, available for download from their website at

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p590a.pdf and https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p590b.pdf

As the maximum IRA contribution is $5,500 ($6,500 if 50 or older), the tax bill would only be lowered by a fraction of that, specifically your marginal tax rate times the contribution.  So if you are in, say, the 25% tax bracket, the most you would save is 25% of the amount you put into a Traditional IRA.