<prompt> Human: Currently my wife and I are being taxed at 25. And contributions to a traditional IRA are tax deductible so I am assuming if I deposit 1600 into my IRA then the 25 of that 400 would not be owed to the IRS. It is better to pay my future self than to pay the government now if it is available to me.  <response>: If you owe the IRS 400, then that has nothing to do with an IRA contribution. Now if youre looking to contribute because you currently owe 400 for taxes for the 2017 year, then simply go to taxact or TurboTax and plug that contrition in to see what the effect would be. The contribution is deducted from AGI, which is then taxed at current rate to get taxes owed for year. 