[Dianna]

According to my financial advisor, you can make an IRA payment in this year to affect last year's income,before the tax filing deadline. I don't know how you designate a deposit made in 2012 for 2011.

We found this out after filing our taxes and played with the numbers. If I added $1000 to the IRA line, our refund went up by $250. It was proportional, for every $1000 invested our refund would go up by $250.

We decided it wasn't worth the hassle and filing an amended return over.

[ken in texas]

According to my financial advisor, you can make an IRA payment in this year to affect last year's income,before the tax filing deadline.

Yes, that is true for a Traditional IRA, and has been true for many years. However, the poster specifically mentioned a Roth IRA. Those IRAs have different rules.