An individual retirement account or IRA is one of the most commonly used types of retirement funds for people to use. An IRA is an account where money can be invested and be withdrawn at a later date after retirement age. Many of these IRAs have tax benefits. In a Roth IRA contributions that have already been taxed are added and will not be taxed again while in a Traditional IRA all contributions are tax deductible and money from it is taxed when taken out.