You can reduce your taxable income (and make your tax balance smaller or tax refund bigger) by putting money into a Traditional IRA. You can put money into the IRA as late as April 15th for it to help you in the year that you are filing at the time. For example it is 2011, and you are filing your 2010 tax return. That means money that you put into your Traditional IRA is deductible on your 2010 tax return as long as you put the money into the IRA before April 15th of 2011.
Contribution Limits:
You can contribute up to $5,000 each year if you are 49 or younger, and up to $6,000 if you are 50 or older.
Tax Savings:
If you are single and make about $30,000 throughout the year, you could save as much as $1,300 by contributing the max amount into your IRA.