WASHINGTON – More taxpayers are opting for traditional individual retirement accounts than other related plans, the IRS report. From its Spring 2004 Statistics of Income Bulletin, the IRS reported that at the end of 2000, 46.3 million taxpayers held IRAs worth $2.6 trillion in fair market value. The bulk – $2.4 trillion, or 91.5% – was invested in traditional IRA plans, which have been available for the longest amount of time. Of the remaining amount, $134 billion was invested in Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) plans, $77.6 billion in Roth IRAs, $10.4 billion in Savings Incentive Match Plans for Employees (SIMPLE) and nearly $1 billion in Education IRAs. In addition, 15.1 million taxpayers, or 9.5% of those eligible, contributed to an IRA in 2000. The amount of their contributions totaled $36.5 billion (an average of $2,412 per taxpayer), of which $12.3 billion was tax-deductible. The Bulletin is a quarterly compilation of information on selected topics from tax returns and other sources, according to the IRS.