How this site is checked

Editorial Standards

Last updated: 1 October 2026

How the calculators and the writing beside them are checked, what each verification label means, and, as plainly, what has not been checked. The formulas, the historical data and where it comes from are described on the About & Methodology page.

Verification labels

Every calculator shows one of three labels near its title, so a reader can tell the strongest tools from the weakest at a glance. A label is raised only when the work behind it exists; where there is doubt, the lower one is shown.

Checked against published tax tables

Automated tests compare the calculator’s output with figures published by a tax authority, and the authority is named in the label’s detail on the tool. Today only the salary and paycheck calculators carry this label.

Covered by automated tests

Automated tests exercise the calculator’s own logic, not merely a module it happens to use. Tests show that the code does what it was told. They cannot show that what it was told is the current rule, or the right reading of it.

Estimate — not yet independently checked

The calculator implements a documented formula that no test has yet exercised. It is the default, not a warning.

Statutory figures and rates

Tax brackets, contribution caps, exemption limits and government-set interest rates are entered by hand from the authority that publishes them. They change on that authority’s schedule, not this site’s, and some change more than once a year.

Where a figure has been checked recently, the tool says when: the salary calculators state the date their rates were last verified, and the PPF calculator states the quarter its default rate was checked against. Not every statutory figure carries a date yet. Where none is shown, check the figure that matters to you against the authority before relying on it.

Where an official figure has not yet been published, the calculator does not invent one. The capital gains calculator, for example, uses the latest notified Cost Inflation Index for a year that has none yet, and says so beside the result.

How the explanations are written

Figures come from the calculator or from a named source. A number that neither the tool computes nor a source supports is left out, and the text points to the calculator’s own output instead.
Trade-offs, not instructions. The writing explains what each option costs and gains. It does not tell you what to do with your money, and nothing here is personal advice. See the disclaimer.
Jurisdiction is stated. A calculator built for one country says so at the top, and a tax statement names the country it applies to. A tool used for the wrong country gives a confidently wrong answer.
The text matches the tool. Definitions and formulas describe what the calculator on the same page actually computes, including its simplifications.

What has not been checked

No tax practitioner has reviewed the Indian tax rules. The PPF, NPS, gratuity and capital gains calculators are covered by automated tests, which prove the code follows the rules it was given, not that those rules are complete or current.
Rule changes can take time to reach a calculator. When a government changes a rule, the tool reflects it only once it has been updated here. A calculator label describes how its logic was tested, not how recently its rules were reviewed.
Historical market data are price indices. Dividends are excluded, so returns from that data understate what a reinvesting investor earned. The About page gives the details.
Your inputs are taken as given. A calculator cannot know your tax status, contract terms or eligibility, and its answer is only as good as what you enter.

Who writes it

The calculators and guides are written by one person, published under the pen name Sanguine Straphanger; the About page explains why. Each guide carries that byline, and the page’s structured data names the same author.

Corrections