How Keldwell's content is made.
Money and tax content is only worth anything if it's accurate. This page explains exactly how we research, write, check, and maintain everything on Keldwell — and how we handle money ourselves, so you can judge our independence.
Our standards in brief
1. How we research
We begin with primary sources rather than secondhand summaries. For tax topics that means the Internal Revenue Service — its forms, instructions, publications, and official pages — supplemented where relevant by the Social Security Administration, the Department of Labor, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and state tax authorities. When a topic depends on a specific figure — a bracket, a standard deduction, a mileage rate, a wage base — we trace it to the official source for the applicable tax year rather than repeating a number we saw elsewhere.
Where we link to a source, we link to the specific relevant page so you can verify it yourself. If a topic is genuinely uncertain or the rules are in flux, we say so plainly instead of projecting false confidence.
2. How we write
Our job is translation: turning dense, conditional tax language into something a busy self-employed person can act on. We write in plain English, define terms the first time we use them, and lead with the practical answer before the caveats. We deliberately avoid hype, urgency, and "hacks." When a short answer would be misleading, we flag the complication rather than paper over it — and we point you to a professional when your situation calls for one.
3. How we fact-check
Before publication, each guide and calculator is checked against its sources. For calculators, that means verifying both the underlying figures (rates, thresholds, brackets) and the logic of the computation — that the math actually implements the rule it claims to. Our calculators run entirely in your browser, and we document each tool's simplifications directly on the page so you always know what it does and does not model.
We treat numbers with particular care because they're the easiest thing to get wrong and the most consequential. Any figure that drives a calculation is tied to a specific tax year and sourced from official material.
4. Expert review by a credentialed professional
This is the step that matters most for trust. Tax content on Keldwell is reviewed for accuracy by a credentialed tax professional — a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) or, where appropriate, an Enrolled Agent (EA) — before it is published, and again when the underlying rules change. The reviewer checks that our explanations, figures, and calculator logic are correct and not misleading.
When a page has been through this review, it carries a visible byline naming the reviewer — for example, "Reviewed by [Reviewer Name], CPA." A CPA is licensed by a state board of accountancy; an EA is federally authorized by the U.S. Treasury to represent taxpayers before the IRS. Both are held to continuing-education and ethics standards. If a page does not yet carry a reviewer byline, it has not completed expert review, and we mark it accordingly (for example, as a prototype pending review).
5. How we cite the IRS and other sources
We link directly to IRS pages and publications for the rules we describe, using descriptive link text so you can see where you're going. External links to sources open transparently, and we mark links we don't control. Our aim is that any reader — or reviewer — can follow a claim back to its origin without taking our word for it.
6. Updates and corrections
Tax rules and the numbers attached to them change every year, and sometimes mid-year. We review our calculators and core tax guides at least annually and whenever a significant rule changes, and we date tax content so you can judge how current it is. If we get something wrong, we fix it promptly and, for material corrections, note what changed. Spotted an error? Please tell us at our contact page — we genuinely want to know.
7. Editorial independence and how we disclose affiliate relationships
Keldwell earns revenue in part through affiliate partnerships. When we recommend a product — such as a business bank account or accounting software — and you sign up through our link, we may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. We want to be completely clear about how this does and does not affect our content:
- Facts are never for sale. No advertiser or affiliate partner can change a tax figure, a calculation, or a factual conclusion on Keldwell.
- Recommendations are editorial. We recommend products we would suggest to a friend, chosen on the merits. Placement in our content is not sold, and a commission does not buy a better review.
- Disclosure is clear and close to the recommendation. Pages containing affiliate links carry a visible disclosure, and our site footer notes that some links are affiliate links. This is also consistent with U.S. Federal Trade Commission guidance on disclosing material connections.
- We remove recommendations that stop being honest. If a product is no longer the genuine best pick, it comes down regardless of commercial impact.
8. Our limits
Keldwell publishes general education, not personalized advice. Reading our content or using our calculators does not create a client relationship with Keldwell or with any reviewer, and it is not a substitute for guidance from your own CPA, EA, attorney, or the IRS about your specific situation. See our terms of use for the full statement.