Overtime Kept

How we research and check our numbers

Every rule and number on Overtime Kept comes from an official source. Every new page gets a second review that looks for mistakes, usually on the day it goes live. Here is how that works, and how to tell us when we get something wrong.

Who writes the pages

Overtime Kept is an independent site run by its owner. Every page and calculator is built from the primary sources below and checked against them before it's published. We don't put invented names, bylines or credentials on the site. We plan to have an independent tax professional, an enrolled agent or CPA, review the calculators and guides. When that happens, we'll name the reviewer here and on each page they checked.

Where our numbers come from

We use primary sources only. That means the official source that sets the rule or publishes the number:

  • the law itself: the Internal Revenue Code and the text of the tax laws Congress passes;
  • the IRS: forms, instructions, notices, revenue procedures, fact sheets, news releases and published statistics;
  • the Treasury Department, the Social Security Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, for the figures they set;
  • state revenue departments, for state rules and state refund trackers;
  • the U.S. Department of Labor and state labor agencies, for overtime pay rules, and NHTSA, for the vehicle identification number (VIN) check.

News stories, other tax websites and forums are not sources for a number. If one of them tells us something has changed, we go to the official source and use that.

Every number needs a source and a date. Each guide ends with an "Updated" line that names its sources and the date the page was last updated. The tax figures behind the calculators are listed on How we calculate.

Drafts, proposals and estimates are labelled

  • Drafts. The IRS often publishes next year's forms and instructions as drafts before they are final. When we use one, we say "draft" next to it, and we update the page when the final version comes out.
  • Proposals. Bills that haven't passed and proposed regulations are called proposals on our pages. We don't present them as the law.
  • Estimates. When a figure is our estimate rather than an official number, for example an expected refund date, the page says so.

How we test the calculators

Most of the tax math lives in one shared file, so the calculators use the same brackets, standard deductions, caps and phase-outs. We check it in two ways:

  1. Automated tests run the shared math on worked examples built from IRS figures, including points where a phase-out starts or ends. Every calculation fix gets a new test, and we are adding tests for the calculators that don't have them yet.
  2. We open the page in a real browser, on a phone-sized screen and a desktop screen, and check that it shows the same numbers, has no errors and fits the screen.

When we fix a calculation, we also check every other calculator that uses it.

A second review checks every new page

Every new page gets a second, separate review whose only job is to find what's wrong: a number that doesn't match its source, a rule stated more broadly than the law allows, a confusing sentence, a broken link, or a layout that breaks on a phone. That review happens when the page is published, usually the same day. The fixes are listed on What we've updated.

Keeping up with the IRS

We check IRS news and new guidance every two days. When the IRS changes a number or a rule, we update the pages and calculators it affects, change the date on those pages, and note the change on What we've updated.

Estimates, not tax advice

Our calculators and guides are general information. They give estimates and leave out parts of a real return, as explained on How we calculate. We are not a tax preparer, and we are not part of or connected to the IRS or any government agency. For advice about your own situation, talk to a tax professional or use the IRS's own tools.

How to report an error

If you think something on the site is wrong, email hello@overtimekept.com. Tell us which page, what you think is wrong, and, if you have it, a link to the official source. We check every report against the primary source. If we got it wrong, we fix the page, update its date, and the fix appears on What we've updated.

Independence: ads and affiliate links

The site is free and is supported by ads from Google AdSense. Google chooses and labels the ads; we keep full-screen ads turned off in our ad settings. Advertisers have no say in what we write, which pages we publish, or how the calculators work. Our ad rules:

  • no pop-ups, full-screen ads, "wait 5 seconds" screens, or redirects you didn't click;
  • no ads inside a calculator or between its inputs and its result;
  • few ads per page, so pages stay quick and easy to read. If ads make pages slow, we cut ads first.

We have no affiliate links today. If we add them later, for example to tax software, these rules apply:

  • only where they genuinely help, such as after a refund result or on a page comparing tax software;
  • none on guides about forms, deadlines, refunds by state, retirement, HSAs and similar topics;
  • no more than one affiliate block on a page, never inside a calculator;
  • always marked as affiliate links, with this notice: "Some links are affiliate links; we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you."

A commission or an ad never changes a calculation or what we say about a rule.

Updated November 7, 2026. See also: About Overtime Kept, How we calculate, What we've updated and our privacy policy.