Corrections and audit log

Reporting policy dated 2026-09-10. Log entries are generated at every build from the data files and from the record of corrections to page copy.

Every data file keeps dated notes of what was checked and what was changed, and corrections to the written pages are recorded alongside them. Entries marked correction changed a published or draft figure or statement; audit entries confirmed figures without changing them; update entries added a rule or a period.

How to report a wrong figure

Email support@retirefigures.com with the page address (the "Copy link to this result" button keeps your inputs), the figure you expected, and the official document it comes from. A report is checked against the primary document; when it is right, the data file is corrected, the fix is dated in the file's notes, the tests are updated to pin the corrected figure, and the entry appears here at the next build.

Log (21 entries, 12 corrections)

2026-09-11

correction Life-expectancy tables (2022) — the regulation's Uniform Lifetime Table (ages 72 to 120 and over, the divisor for required minimum distributions) moved to uniform-lifetime-2022.json, unchanged, so the withdrawal calculator can ship those 49 numbers statically instead of fetching this file; lifeExpectancyTables.uniformLifetime is composed from it and still carries the same values. uniformLifetimeSepp (from age 10, Notice 2022-6 Appendix A) stays here.
correction Social Security rules — (round 3): two independent reviews (a clean-room reimplementation, report R3-SS2, and a code review, R3-CODE) found that the engine had held the claim-year credits until January even when the 70th birthday came first; §402(w)(3)'s second clause and POMS RS 00615.690 B pay them from the month of attaining 70. Fixed; for a claim at 69 years 11 months against 70 the reported break-even had been 7–72 months too early. The same round confirmed every other amount, first check, COLA truncation and break-even month in an 11,520-case grid. Also recorded: a month in which the two cumulative totals are exactly equal counts as caught up (the page's 'catches up' wording); totals by an age include the birthday month's benefit; the return compounds monthly at the twelfth root of the annual rate; the first COLA applied is the first December after the earlier claim's month.

2026-09-10

update 120% mid-term AFR history — months January 2021 through September 2026 read from the revenue rulings. The ruling for a month is normally published in the third week of the preceding month; add each new month as it appears.
update 120% mid-term AFR history — verification: the second read confirmed all 69 months. The IRS builds the 120% row from the semiannual rate and converts it to the other compounding periods, so the annual 120% figure can differ from 1.2 × the annual AFR by 0.02 points (2022-08, 2022-11, 2022-12, 2023-05, 2023-11, 2024-06, 2024-09, 2025-06); the published row is what the ceiling uses. Notice 2022-6 does not say which compounding period's 120% rate applies; the engine uses the annual figure and the pages say so.
correction Life-expectancy tables (2022) — both the CFR and the Federal Register print the Joint and Last Survivor Table with 88.5 at (2, 5) but 88.6 at (5, 2) — the regulation itself is asymmetric in that one cell; the engine returns the entry at (owner, beneficiary) as printed. Pub 590-B Table II prints 14.8 at (90, 76) where the regulation has 14.7, and 3.2 / 3.1 / 2.9 at (112, 102), (112, 103), (112, 107) where the regulation has 3.3 / 3.2 / 3.0; the regulation governs and those Pub 590-B cells are treated as misprints.
correction Life-expectancy tables (2022) — in both the CFR and the Federal Register text, the row for age 19 in the column block for ages 27–35 is printed with a value missing, so (19, 27) to (19, 35) could not be read directly; those nine cells are taken from the mirror cells (27, 19) to (35, 19), which the regulation prints in full. The table is symmetric by construction, and every other pair of mirror cells agrees except the (2, 5) / (5, 2) misprint noted above.
correction Life-expectancy tables (2022) — verification: the second transcription and the red team's reconstruction from the mortality rates confirm every cell. The reconstruction also shows the (2, 5) cell should read 88.6 like its mirror (5, 2): the 88.5 printed in both the CFR and the Federal Register is the regulation's own misprint. The engine keeps the printed value, which no 72(t) or RMD calculation can reach (an owner aged 2), and looks up (owner, beneficiary) as printed. Pub 590-B's four deviating cells are refuted by the same reconstruction.
correction Social Security break-even page — Correction (pre-launch review): the FAQ gave the reduction for claiming at 62 and 1 month with a full retirement age of 67 as 29.17%; 59 reduction months are 20% plus 23 × 5/12 of 1% = 29.58% (29.17% is the SSA's 58-month row for people born in 1959). The prose also said a claim at 70 overtakes a claim at 67 at 82 years and 6 months; the month-by-month totals cross at 82 years and 5 months. Both figures are now computed by the engine at build time.
update Social Security rules — file created. The SSA pages express the reduction and credit rules as fractions of a percent per month; the engine applies them exactly and follows the statute's rounding order (reduction up to the dime, payable amount down to the dollar), so its dollar figures match the SSA's $1,000-PIA tables and its 2026 worked cases.
update Social Security rules — verification: a blind second read of the SSA pages, 42 U.S.C. §402/§415/§416(l), IRC §86 and Publication 915 (report V-SS) reproduced every figure in this file, and a red team (report R-SS) recomputed 240 worker and spouse amounts, two month-by-month break-even paths and 20 §86 cases by hand from the documents with no arithmetic difference. The red team's findings changed the calculator page, not the numbers: a crash when 70 was entered as the earlier claiming age, an FAQ that gave 29.17% for the 62-and-1-month reduction (29.58%), a break-even quoted as 82 years 6 months (82 years 5 months), and disclosures now added. Two mechanics the second read surfaced were then modeled rather than disclosed: the statutory rounding order (§402(q)(8), §415(g), §415(i)(2)(A)(ii)) and the January timing of credits earned in the claim year (§402(w)(3)).
update US federal 2026 — the aged additional standard deduction and the 2025–2028 senior deduction added for the retirement withdrawal calculator. Two independent reads (a red-team agent and the lead, both from rp-25-32 and the enrolled text of P.L. 119-21) agree on every figure; the senior deduction is taken per qualified individual and each individual's $6,000 is reduced by the same 6% of the excess MAGI, which Schedule 1-A (2025) lines 35–37 confirm; it reduces taxable income below AGI, so it does not enter the §86 computation.

2026-09-09

correction US federal 2026 — the solo 401(k) maximum ignored the §415(c)(1)(B) 100%-of-compensation limit, which for a self-employed person makes each dollar of employer contribution cost two dollars of headroom (compensation is net earnings less the employer contribution, with elective deferrals added back). Between about $26,400 and $43,900 of net profit the old figure was too high — at $32,300 of profit it allowed $30,000 where Pub. 560's worksheet allows $27,250. The engine now follows the worksheet: deferral, then employer ≤ (net earnings − deferral) ÷ 2, then catch-up ≤ compensation − deferrals; the ceiling is reported as three components that add to the total. Two independent primary-source reads (Pub. 560 worksheet steps 11–13 and the §415/§404/§414 text) agreed on the rule. §401(a)(17) compensation limit added for the employer 25%-of-capped-compensation ceiling.
update US federal 2026 — (red team): two further corrections to the same worksheet. Each component is now settled to the cent as it is computed, so the catch-up sees the cent released by flooring the employer contribution (at $40,000 of profit with a catch-up it is $6,337.05, not $6,337.04) and the three parts add to the total exactly. And catch-up contributions made in another employer's plan now reduce what is left here: the §414(v) amount is one per individual across employers (Treas. Reg. §1.402(g)-2). An adversarial pass recomputed all 79 combinations of profit, age band and prior deferrals by hand from the worksheet; the remaining differences from a hand-worked Form 1040 are that the worksheet's inputs are whole dollars where this engine keeps cents, and that the ceiling assumes an entirely pre-tax contribution (designated Roth amounts count against it without being deductible). Both are stated on the methodology page.
correction US federal 2026 — the underpayment-penalty estimate was reported even where the statute removes the addition to tax outright — §6654(e)(1) (tax under $1,000 after withholding) and §6654(e)(2) (a full twelve-month prior year with no tax). It is now omitted in both cases, so a page can no longer show an accrued penalty and the reason it cannot arise at the same time.
correction US federal 2026 — the $1,000 floor was treated as a defence against the penalty only, so a filer expecting to owe less than that after withholding was still shown a required annual payment, installments marked short and advice to catch up — while being told no penalty could arise. Form 1040-ES's General Rule makes it a condition of the requirement itself ('you must pay estimated tax if BOTH of the following apply: 1. you expect to owe at least $1,000 after subtracting your withholding and refundable credits'), so the requirement and the whole schedule are now zero, as they already were for the §6654(e)(2) prior-year exception. Estimated payments already made do not count towards the test; only withholding and refundable credits do.

2026-09-08

update US federal 2026 — retirement-plan limits added for the SEP-IRA / solo 401(k) input (two documents: the IRS notice and the IRS limits page for the year). The self-employed health insurance and retirement deductions reduce AGI and qualified business income but not self-employment tax or the earned income used for the child and earned income credits; the health insurance deduction is capped at net earnings less the retirement deduction (§162(l)(2)(A)); the retirement deduction is capped at the lesser of the §415(c) limit and net earnings after ½ SE tax — the calculator does not know the filer's age or plan type, so catch-up limits and the SEP-only 20% cap are described on the page rather than enforced.
update US federal 2026 — annualized-installment parameters (statutory percentages, form factors), the standard mileage rate and the home office safe harbor added for the guides; the mileage and safe-harbor rates are described on the guide pages and are not inputs to the calculators.
correction US federal 2026 — the retirement-plan deduction had been capped only at the lesser of the §415(c) limit and net earnings, so an entry above a plan's real ceiling was accepted (an external review entered $100,000 on $72,000 of profit and got a $66,913 deduction). The calculator now distinguishes SEP-IRA and solo 401(k), applies the 20% self-employed rate, the §402(g) deferral less deferrals made in another employer's plan, the §415(c) cap and the age-based catch-ups, and reduces an excess entry to the plan-specific maximum with a note. Earlier text in this file saying age and plan type were not collected no longer applies.
correction US federal 2026 — the quarterly calculator had taken one 'paid so far' figure, which could not show whether past installments were met and treated withholding and estimated payments alike; the §6654(e)(1) $1,000 test also subtracted estimated payments, which the statute does not. It now credits withholding one quarter per due date (§6654(g)), each estimated payment on its date to the oldest unpaid installment (§6654(b)(3)), reports each installment's status, and estimates the penalty accrued at the §6621 rates; the $1,000 test uses withholding only.

2026-09-07

update US federal 2026 — estimated-tax safe-harbor parameters added (§6654; unchanged for years) for the quarterly-payment calculator. Two reads: the statute text and the Form 1040-ES instructions. The $150,000 / $75,000 AGI thresholds are not indexed.

2026-09-05

correction US federal 2026 — HoH 24%/32% ceilings corrected to 201,750/256,200 (Rev. Proc. 2025-32 Table 2); QBI MFS threshold corrected to 201,775 (§4.26 lists MFS separately from all other returns); ACTC limit corrected from 1,800 to 1,700 (§4.05(2) — the indexed $1,400 base did not reach the next $100 step).