Editorial Policy

Start with the transaction and the taxpayer

A capital-gain claim is checked against the actual seller, asset category, acquisition record, holding period, residence and tax year. An individual’s stock sale is not an estate’s liquidation or a corporation’s disposal. We describe the calculation scope beside the controls before publishing an output. A state headline percentage is insufficient evidence for a complete annual liability: income adjustments, loss netting, deductions and credit eligibility can change the result.

Which references establish a rule

Our preferred references are enacted statutes, revenue-department instructions, official rate schedules and agency notices. A search result, competitor calculator or old internal table is a lead for research rather than proof. We reconcile the source’s effective date with its stated tax year. A packet filed in 2026 can cover tax year 2025; we keep that distinction visible instead of changing its label to match the calendar.

What is calculated and what is prepared

The federal worksheet uses verified 2026 ordinary and preferential bands and separate NIIT inputs. State modes can apply a confirmed resident zero treatment, a verified prepared-base rate, an annual excise schedule or a jurisdiction-specific resident computation. Approved taxable-income categories, net losses, exemptions and usable credit balances remain separate inputs when the tool cannot establish them. Missing information leaves the affected result unresolved. Entered final liabilities provide a comparison for unsupported return effects; they are not proof that the site prepared that return.

Verification before publication

Worked examples and boundary cases check arithmetic, credit caps and unknown handling. A changed worksheet is also filled in by hand with a sample sale, cleared, shared and reread on a phone-width and a desktop-width screen before it goes out. Each printed figure is then compared once more with the cited statute, instruction booklet or rate table, including the tax year and effective date that source states; where our wording and the source differ, the source's year and date win. Source review dates identify the content review; they are not automatically advanced by rebuilding unchanged files.

Automation and corrections

Software and AI assistance can help extract source candidates, draft explanations and run checks. The publisher remains responsible for reconciling the result with primary evidence. We do not invent a credentialed author or portray automation as an independent professional review. Use the corrections form with a public source and anonymized example when a number or interaction seems wrong. We reproduce supported defects, revise the affected method and retain a useful regression case. Receipt of a report does not establish that its proposed interpretation is correct.

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