Since you are self employed, if you participate in a retirement plan that is available to self employed individuals, such as a SEP, then you are covered by an employer sponsored retirement plan. Please refer to the following IRS
information page for additional clarification. https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/are-you-covered-by-an-employers-retirement-plan
Your next steps depend on your situation. If you are married filing separately, then changing your status to married filing jointly might enable you to take the deduction. I have provided information below that will walk you through the process of determining if you should be able to take this deduction or not and if you can take the deduction, whether or not your deduction will be limited.
Whether or not you
can take a deduction for your Traditional IRA contributions, depends on whether
or not you or your spouse are covered by an employer sponsored retirement plan.
If one or both of you are covered by an employer sponsored retirement plan,
then your deduction might be reduced or eliminated based on your modified
adjusted gross income and your filing status.
To determine your modified adjusted gross
income, please see Worksheet 1-1 on page 15 of Pub 590A. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p590a.pdf
Please refer to
Table 1-2 and Table 1-3 on page 13 of
Pub 590A to see if your deduction will be limited. If you are collecting social
security, do not refer to these tables. Instead, see page 12 of Pub 590A under "social
security recipients" for more information.
If your deduction
will be limited, then you can use Worksheet 1-2 "figuring your reduced IRA
deduction" on page 17 of Pub 590A, to determine the amount of your
deduction.
