The Tax Guides Library
Every U.S. tax question, answered in plain English.
Browse 4,200+ evergreen federal guides and 980+ state-specific walkthroughs — written by our Denver editorial desk, reviewed by a CPA or Enrolled Agent before publication, and updated within 14 days of every IRS release.
Founded in 2009 by former IRS revenue agents Patricia Holloway, EA, and Marcus Lin, CPA. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado.
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Filter the library
Four quick filters to land you on the right walkthrough in under ten seconds. Every combination is editorially maintained — no orphaned, auto-generated pages.
Can’t find your topic? Our editors have published 4,200+ walkthroughs — request a new guide and we’ll queue it for the next editorial sprint.
Editor’s picks — this filing season
Most-read guides, reviewed and updated this month
Every card links to a step-by-step walkthrough reviewed by a credentialed preparer. The review date and reviewer initials sit at the top right of each card — so you can see who answered your question before you read it.
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W-2 · First-time ML, CPA · Jan 14, 2026How to read your 2025 W-2 in 6 minutes (line-by-line)
A literal box-by-box translation of every line on Form W-2, with worked examples for hourly, salaried, and tip-earning workers. Includes a checklist for missing or incorrect boxes.
11 min read → -
1099 · Freelancer PA, CPA · Jan 9, 2026Self-employment tax: the 15.3% surprise, explained
Why 1099 workers owe both halves of FICA, how to deduct half of it, and a four-step quarterly estimate routine that keeps the IRS off your back.
14 min read → -
Deductions DO, EA · Jan 12, 2026Standard vs. itemized: a 2025 decision tree
When the $15,000 / $30,000 standard deduction wins, when itemizing beats it, and a printable worksheet that compares both using your real numbers in under five minutes.
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Retiree · RMDs PH, EA · Jan 16, 2026Required Minimum Distributions after SECURE Act 2.0
Updated RMD age, the 2025 & 2026 table factors, and a plain walkthrough of what happens if you miss a withdrawal — with the new reduced penalty.
12 min read →
For your situation
Find guides built for who you actually are
Federal and state rules are the same — your life isn’t. These four pathways pre-qualify your intent and route you straight to the sub-libraries our readers come back to year after year.
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01
First-time filer
You’ve never filed or you filed once and barely understood it. Start with the 1040 walkthrough, the dependency rules, and the refund-tracking checklist.
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Freelancer / 1099
Side gigs, contract work, or a one-person business. Self-employment tax, quarterly estimates, home-office math, and the deductions most freelancers leave on the table.
- Quarterly estimated tax in four steps
- Home-office deduction (simplified vs. actual)
- SEP-IRA vs. Solo 401(k)
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Retiree
Social Security taxation, RMDs, Roth conversions, and the brackets that quietly decide whether your savings last. Updated for the SECURE Act 2.0 changes every January.
- Are your Social Security benefits taxable?
- Roth conversion ladder, year by year
- Required distributions after 73
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Military & overseas
Active-duty, reserve, or living abroad. Combat-zone exclusions, the moving-expense deduction, FEIE eligibility, and state-specific residency rules for service members.
- Combat pay, exemptions, and pitfalls
- FEIE vs. FTC for expat filers
- State residency & the Military Spouses Act
Running a small business instead? See our S-corp & partnership pathways, reviewed quarterly by our credentialed tax attorneys.
State-specific walkthroughs
Filed federally isn’t filed everywhere
28 of the 43 states with a personal income tax are covered in depth, with the rest — including the seven no-income-tax states — handled through our residency-change and reciprocal-agreement guides. Counts show live editorial depth as of January 2026.
California
FTB-form walkthroughs, Mental Health Services surcharges, the Renters’ Credit, and how Prop 19 affects parent-to-child transfers.
→Texas
No state income tax — but property, franchise, and the “Texas while working in another state” traps.
→New York
Empire State ITC, NYC’s separate rate, Yonkers, and the recently-passed middle-class rebate.
→Florida
No income tax, but the “Florida domicile” file isn’t optional for snowbirds.
→State × audience
Filtered for you, automatically
Looking for freelancer rules in Colorado, or retiree taxation in Pennsylvania? Every state explainer tags its guides by audience, so the same editorial depth applies whether you’re a 1099 driver in Austin or a K-1 partner in Boston.
Open the full state directory →Illinois
Flat-tax transition year, the new 4.95% rate, and property-tax credit rules.
→Pennsylvania
Flat 3.07%, local Earned Income Tax, and the “PA while commuting from NJ” form.
→Colorado
Flat 4.4%, the TABOR refund, and a guide built for our home state.
→Editorial standards
How every guide in this library gets here
Plain English is the bar. The process behind it — the reviewer, the legal-citation check, the IRS-update pass — is what makes the answer reliable. Five transparent steps, repeated for every guide, every quarter.
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CPAs / EAs on staff
Every guide is reviewed by a credentialed preparer before publication. Initials appear in the byline, every time.
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14 days
Max IRS-update lag
New IRS bulletin or inflation adjustment? The relevant guide is republished within 14 days, with a dated changelog visible at the top.
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16 yrs
Continuous operation
Founded in 2009 by former IRS revenue agents Patricia Holloway, EA, and Marcus Lin, CPA — 16 filing seasons, none missed.
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Libraries & universities
Cited by 34 U.S. public-library reference desks and 11 university financial-literacy programs as a trusted source.
The five steps a guide clears before it joins the library
- Drafted by one of our 14 full-time writers, anchored to a real reader question logged in our search-console queue.
- Cited against the actual IRC section, Treasury regulation, or IRS publication — not paraphrased from a competitor.
- Reviewed by a CPA or EA on the editorial team. Reviewer initials and the review date go on the byline.
- Tested with a real return scenario. Every worked example is reproducible in TurboTax, FreeTaxUSA, or a paper 1040.
- Republished within 14 days of any IRS change, with a dated changelog block at the top of the guide.