About PlainStub
PlainStub publishes plain language explanations of United States tax rules and free calculators that estimate those rules on your own figures. The site exists for one reason: the tax year 2026 forms ask questions that most explanations answer badly, including new wage statement codes and new deductions that have never appeared on a return before.
PlainStub is a publisher, not a tax firm. Nobody at PlainStub prepares returns, represents anyone before the IRS, or advises any individual reader. The site claims no professional credential, and no page on this site should be read as the work of a certified public accountant, an enrolled agent, or an attorney.
How every page is made
- Each calculator and each figure starts from a primary source: the Internal Revenue Code, a regulation, an IRS revenue procedure or notice, the instructions for the relevant IRS form, or a state tax agency publication. Every page names its sources and shows the date they were last reviewed.
- Secondary sources, including news coverage and other websites, are used to find questions, never as the authority for a figure.
- Where IRS guidance is not final, the page says so. Some rules on this site rest on IRS fact sheets and frequently asked questions. IRS web guidance of that kind is not binding legal authority, and the page labels any rule that rests on it.
- Figures are rechecked when the IRS publishes final forms or new guidance, and the review date on the page is updated at the same time.
Corrections
Tax figures change and mistakes happen. If you find an error, or a figure that no longer matches the IRS source cited for it, write to contact@plainstub.com. Confirmed errors are corrected, and any calculator affected by a material error is taken offline until it is fixed. Corrections are made within one business day of confirmation. Significant corrections are noted on the page itself, with the date of the change.
Contact: contact@plainstub.com. Mailing address: see the Privacy Policy.
Last reviewed: November 3, 2026.