Introduction An individual retirement arrangement (IRA) is a personal savings plan that offers you tax advantages to set aside money for your retirement. This chapter discusses: The rules for a traditional IRA (those that are not Roth or SIMPLE IRAs), and The Roth IRA, which features nondeductible contributions and tax-free distributions. Simplified Employee Pensions (SEPs) and Savings Incentive Match Plans for Employees (SIMPLEs) are not discussed in this chapter. For more information on these plans and employees' SEP-IRAs and SIMPLE IRAs that are part of these plans, see Publication 590.