My husband and I are both retired public school teachers. I no longer have an earned income, but he has a modest one as a self employed musician. By the time we take all the deductions for his business, we usually have no taxable income for that business; therefore, we can no longer contribute to our IRA’s. We are in our mid 50’s. Would we be better off not using our business deductions so that we show a business income each year, which would be about $10,000 but we can then contribute to our IRA’s although we would have to pay social security and income tax on the full amount, or continue to show a loss or break even and reduce our income taxes each year?