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ALTHOUGH REPUBLICANS HAVE VOWED NOT to cut taxes until they've agreed on some $968 billion in spending cuts, members of the tax-writing House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees have already begun planning their menu of tax breaks. As previously reported in Money, the likeliest main courses are a $500-per-child tax credit, capital-gains tax relief and an expanded IRA.

However, a few members of Congress are also offering up side dishes that some taxpayers may find even more appetizing than the entrees. They include tax-favored savings accounts for health care, tax relief for Social Security recipients and easier rules for deducting home offices.

Here's what's in these proposals for you, should they become law. But don't make any tax-related moves before the budget is wrapped up, which may well take until Thanksgiving. While these proposals have been gaining support in recent weeks, a great deal of horse-trading remains before any of them become law.

Medical savings accounts (odds of passage: good). A sideshow in last year's health-care debate, medical savings accounts took center stage this summer when Rep. Bill Archer (R-Texas), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, introduced an MSA bill. An MSA is an account that you would own and you or your employer would fund. Your contributions would be deductible. Any employer contributions would be excluded from your wages and therefore also nontaxable. Employers who offered MSAs would be likely to couple them with a high-deductible health insurance policy-for example, a plan that starts to pay only after you've incurred $3,000 in medical costs. That would lower the cost of the insurance.

You could withdraw money tax-free from the account to pay for medical expenses, and anything left at year-end could be used for future medical bills. You could also tap the money for other purposes, though you would face a 10% penalty, plus income taxes on the amount withdrawn. Other MSA proposals would allow you to withdraw money after age 59E without penalty, though Archer's plan doesn't have that provision.

Proponents contend that MSAs would curb overall health-care costs because MSA owners would be spending their own money rather than an insurer's. They also claim the program would increase the nation's savings rate. Whether an MSA would be a good deal for you depends on how much you spend on health care. According to a study by the American Academy of Actuaries, about two-thirds of employees who switched from a typical low- deductible health insurance policy to a high-deductible MSA plan would come out ahead, with savings ranging from $414 to $608 a year on average. The remaining third-generally sick people and pregnant women-would pay $414 to $483 more a year on average.

Lifting the Social Security earnings limit (odds: fair to good). Under current law, workers ages 65 through 69 forfeit $1 in Social Security benefits for every $3 they earn above an annual limit, currently $11,280. Many consider that a slap at retirees who need to work. "It's time to stop penalizing seniors for trying to supplement their Social Security," says Rep. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), the chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security, who wrote a bill that would raise the earnings threshold to $30,000 by the year 2000, at a cost of $7.6 billion.

Some lawmakers hope that a higher earnings limit will mollify senior citizens upset by possible Medicare cuts. As written, Bunning's proposal seems too generous to suit congressional budget balancers, but a target below $30,000 or a later phase-in date might give it a greater chance of passage.

Liberalizing the home-office deduction (odds: fair to good). Both parties crave the support of small business in the '96 elections, which bodes well for relaxing the rules on home offices. For example, a bill introduced by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) would allow you to write off your home office if you do work there that is essential to your business and you have nowhere else to do it. Under current law, you can write off a home office only if it is your principal place of business.