SheltrIQ doesn’t just store your records — it computes real tax figures from hard-coded federal and state rates, brackets, exemptions, and depreciation rules. A wrong constant is a wrong return. This page describes exactly how each of those numbers gets into the product and how we keep it correct, including what our reviews have found. For how we protect your data, see Trust & data safety.
Every rate, bracket, exemption, and depreciation rule comes from the authority that sets it — a state revenue department’s form or instruction booklet, the enacted text of a bill, or an IRS Revenue Procedure. Not a summary site, not a competitor’s guide, not a tax blog.
If an outside source says one of our figures is wrong, that opens an investigation — it does not change the number. We go to the statute. In our July 2026 review a secondary source flagged Maine’s head-of-household surcharge threshold as incorrect; the enacted statute (Ch. 650) showed our figure was right. We left it alone.
Proposed legislation stays out of the engine until it is enacted, no matter how likely it looks. Ohio HB69 would repeal that state’s bonus-depreciation add-back; it is still sitting in committee, so our add-back still applies. Filing against a bill that never passed is its own kind of wrong answer.
States publish next-year numbers on their own schedule, and many land after the year has already begun. Where a 2026 figure isn’t out, we hold the last verified value, flag it in the code as a carry-forward, and replace it the moment the real one publishes. We never invent a number to fill the gap.
A tax constant cannot change in SheltrIQ without a regression test covering it and the primary source cited in the change itself. That way a future edit that quietly breaks the math fails the build instead of reaching your return.
Tax figures go stale on a predictable schedule, so the review runs on one too. Verification isn’t something we do when we happen to think of it.
States publish next-year rates and the IRS issues its annual Revenue Procedure in this window. Every state’s figures and the federal numbers are re-traced to primary sources before filing season.
Catches rate cuts, repeals, and threshold changes enacted mid-year with a future effective date — the things that would otherwise sit unnoticed until the next filing season.
When a specific law changes, that constant is re-verified immediately rather than waiting for the next scheduled pass.
In the July 2026 pass, every in-scope constant was traced back to a primary source. Two were wrong, and both were corrected:
The 2025 married-filing-jointly 37% bracket was set at $752,800. IRS Revenue Procedure 2024-40 puts it at $751,600. Corrected.
Ohio’s personal-exemption amounts needed a year-aware income ceiling under ORC 5747.025 as amended by HB96. Corrected.
We publish this because finding errors is what a real review looks like. A verification process that never turns anything up isn’t a verification process.
Not every number for a given tax year exists when that year starts. States index brackets, standard deductions, and exemption amounts to inflation and publish the results on their own timelines — sometimes not until the following January.
Where that happens we hold the last verified figure, mark it in the code as a carry-forward, and track it on a list until the official number publishes. California is a current example: its 2026 bracket schedule wasn’t out at the time of writing, so the engine uses the verified 2025 schedule and will be updated when the Franchise Tax Board publishes the real one.
We’d rather tell you where the edges are than imply a precision we don’t have.
SheltrIQ is software. It applies published tax rules to the figures you give it, shows its work, and produces reports you and your accountant can check. It does not see your whole financial picture, it does not know the parts of your situation you haven’t entered, and it is not a substitute for a CPA or a tax attorney. For anything unusual — and for the final call on what you file — talk to a professional.
Primary sources only: state revenue-department forms and instruction booklets, the enacted text of legislation, and IRS Revenue Procedures and Notices. Every constant in the tax engine is traced to one of those before it ships, and the citation is recorded alongside the value in the code.
On a fixed schedule. A full re-verification of every state plus the federal figures runs each November through January, when states publish next-year data and the IRS issues its annual Revenue Procedure. A lighter enacted-law sweep runs quarterly to catch mid-year changes, and any specific alert triggers an immediate re-check of that one item.
We hold the last verified value, mark it in the code as a carry-forward, and swap in the official figure as soon as it publishes. We do not estimate or invent numbers to fill the gap. Some states run months late — a carry-forward is the honest answer, and it is tracked rather than forgotten.
Yes, and we fix and document them. The July 2026 full pass traced every in-scope constant to a primary source and found two: the 2025 married-filing-jointly 37% bracket threshold was $752,800 and should have been $751,600 per IRS Revenue Procedure 2024-40, and Ohio’s personal-exemption amounts needed a year-aware ceiling under ORC 5747.025. Both were corrected, both shipped with regression tests.
No. SheltrIQ is software that applies published tax rules to the figures you enter, shows you its work, and produces reports you and your accountant can review. It does not know your full financial picture and it is not a substitute for a CPA or tax attorney. For anything unusual — and for the final call on your return — talk to a professional.
Tell us and cite what you’re looking at. If it points to a primary source we will trace it and correct the engine if it’s wrong — that is exactly how the process is supposed to work. Email [email protected].