My husband and I are both retired and receive Social Security; however my husband has a part-time job that offers no benefits such as insurance, 401K, IRA, etc and I have been substitute teaching on a part-time basis with no benefits as well. We owe a substantual sum of money to the IRS this year because of income earned and not enough deductions.
Are we eligible to purchase an IRA for each of us to help defray some of these taxes?
Thank you

Yes - you can contribute to a Traditional IRA and deduct the contribution for tax year 2008 if you make the contribution before April 15 and before you file your taxes. You are limited to contributing a maximum of either $6K each for tax-year 2008 (I assume you are 50 or older) or the amount of your wages, whichever is less.