Setting Up A SEP-IRA You can set aside retirement money even though you're the boss.

Cooking for an easy way to cut your business taxes? Open atax-deferred retirement account created just for small-businessowners. One plan, the Self-Employed Pension-Independent RetirementAccount, also known as the SEP-IRA, is designed to be easy to openand maintain, while taking advantage of tax-free investing.

The SEP-IRA account is available to anyone earning income fromself-employment. You can open a SEP-IRA whether you are runningyour business part time or full time, and whether your company isstructured as an S corporation, a partnership or a soleproprietorship. Of the three major plans--the Keogh, SEP-IRA and,for the 1997 tax year, the Savings Incentive Match Plan forEmployers (SIMPLE), only the SEP-IRA permits contributions even ifyou're covered by another plan, such as a 401(k), at anotherjob. A SEP-IRA is as easy to open as a standard IRA account andoffers the most flexible funding options.

Its flexibility is what sets the SEP-IRA apart from otherretirement plans. Annual contributions can be as little as zero andas high as 15 percent of your net profit, for a maximum of$24,000--much higher than the $2,000 maximum for an individual IRA.In the years when your business is booming, you can contribute themaximum, and in leaner years, you can contribute less. And you caneven wait as late as April 15 to open an account and make acontribution for the previous tax year.