I like your thought process but unfortunately, no. IRA contributions must be money earned from legitimate work.   ... View more

A SEP IRA allows a qualified self employed person to contribute up to $55,000 but limits this based on a maximum of 25% of income.  Just going by what you wrote it looks like Turbo Tax is telling you that you hit the limit at $2,744 based on your income for the business.  A Traditional or ROTH IRA has a lower max limit than a SEP but doesn't have the 25% max limit either, so yes, you should be able to contribute to a Traditional assuming your total income is below the total income limits set by the IRS.  Something to consider since your income was $14k if your total income is in a low tax bracket you might do the math to see if a ROTH makes sense.  This would allow your contributions to grow tax free so that later when you are presumably in a higher tax bracket your ROTH would be tax free!  This would make sense if you don't need the tax deferments now.  Good Luck! ... View more