Kept

Open tax years

Dates and limits are worked out from today, in your own time zone.

Your tax year, priced

The tax code pays you to do certain things. Each window closes on its own date.

Kept works out your whole tax year: the moves that are still open, what each one is worth at your own marginal rate, and the date it closes. Enter your numbers and every move is priced, with the days it has left.

Fourteen lessons, fourteen calculators, one profile.

Work out my year in 3 questions or open the app empty

No account. No card. Nothing you type leaves this browser.

A worked example

Example data

A married couple in California on $400,000 of pay, with a 401(k) at work and money invested outside retirement.

Still on the table, estimated
Estimated tax
Effective rate
Rate on the next dollar earned

Estimates from published federal and state schedules. Not modelled: credits, AMT, local taxes. Method and sources

Change the assumptions behind the example
Open these figures as my plan

The problem

Nothing sees your whole year while you can still change it.

What closes when

The last day of the tax year401(k) deferrals, harvested losses, Roth conversions
Mid-January of the next yearFourth-quarter estimated payment
The day the return is dueHSA and IRA contributions for the year; the return itself

The exact dates and the days remaining are worked out from today's date. A due date on a weekend or federal holiday moves to the next business day.

Every piece of your financial life goes to somebody else, in a fragment. Payroll knows your deferral percentage. The broker knows your cost basis. Nobody holds the whole year in one place until the return is filed, and by then the year is spent.

So the money is not lost to a complicated code. It is lost to timing. Some things have to happen inside the tax year: the deferral that has to leave a paycheck, the loss that has to be realized, the conversion that cannot be undone. The HSA and the IRA run until the return is due. Everything else has already closed.

Kept closes that gap. One profile, every move priced on your numbers, every deadline on your calendar.

How it works

Read the rule, run it on your numbers, keep the date.

  1. Read the rule in eight minutes

    Fourteen lessons written for this app. No video, no presenter. Each one gives you the rule, the limit, the deadline and the trap.

  2. Run it on your numbers

    Every lesson ends in a calculator that already knows your income, your state and your filing status. It prices the move against your whole return, not a headline bracket.

  3. Put the date on your calendar

    Each move carries its statutory deadline into a calendar file with two reminders, fourteen days out and two days out.

What is in it

Fourteen lessons. Fourteen tools. One profile they all share.

Change your income once and every calculator moves with it. The 401(k), the HSA, the backdoor Roth, the conversion, the S corporation, the estimates.

The 401(k), the match and the true-upthe limit
The HSA, and the payroll tax it skipsself and family
The backdoor Roth and the pro-rata trapthe limit
The mega backdoortotal additions
Capital gains, the 0% bracket and harvestingthe 0% ceiling
Roth conversions and bracket fillingto the line
Solo 401(k), QBI and the S corporation25% of profit
Home office and mileageper mile
QSBS, the exit that is not taxedper issuer
Quarterly estimates and the safe harbor110%

Each limit is shown for the tax year it belongs to.

Nothing held back

One piece of the math, worked in full.

A pre-tax deduction comes off the top of your income, so it is worth whatever the top of your income is taxed at. That is not your bracket alone. Add your state. If the money goes through payroll as an HSA or a dependent care FSA, add payroll tax too: 7.65% while your wages are under the Social Security wage base, 1.45% above it.

Through payroll, an HSA contribution also skips payroll tax, and how much depends on your wages, not your bracket. Under the Social Security wage base it is 7.65% of the contribution. Above the base only Medicare is left, 1.45%, or 2.35% once the 0.9% additional Medicare tax applies.

The whole course is in that table. The moves are identical for everyone. The price is not. That is why the app prices each one on your numbers instead of printing a headline percentage. Check it yourself with the 401(k) tool. It is free and needs no account.

Here is what one more $1,000 of pre-tax contribution is worth, computed at each marginal rate

12% federal, no state income tax (Texas)$120
22% federal, no state income tax (Texas)$220
24% federal + 9.3% California$333
32% federal + 9.3% California$413
35% federal + 10.7% New York State and City$457

Same $1,000. Different price.

Illustrative. Each row assumes that federal bracket and that state rate apply to the last dollar; New York City adds 3.876% on top of the state's 6.85%.

Why you can check it

Every constant is public.

Nobody should take a stranger's word on a tax number. Every figure here comes from a published source for its own tax year: IRS revenue procedures and notices, the Social Security wage base and the Tax Foundation's state brackets. Each one is listed with the date it was read, and a figure that is not published yet is shown as not published.

Under every result there is a show the math control that prints the actual computation: the rate, the amount, the product. If a number is wrong you can tell exactly where.

See every constant and source

Your numbers never leave this browser

There is no account, no database and no server to send them to. No analytics, no third-party scripts, no fonts fetched from anywhere. Open the network tab and watch: after the page loads, nothing goes out. Export gives you the whole plan as a JSON file you own.

What it will not do

It does not file anything, it does not connect to your bank, and it does not tell you what to invest in. It is education and software. It is not a tax preparer, an accountant, an investment adviser or a law firm. The list of what it does not model is on the method page, and it is longer than the list of what it does.

Price

Free while it is in preview.

No card, no trial, no email wall. When there is a paid tier it will be a plain annual price with a plain refund. Not a guarantee that makes us prove we found you something.

Work out my year

Three questions. About two minutes. Nothing leaves your browser.

Questions

Keep them. A CPA files in April, after the year is over. Most of the moves here close when the tax year does, and this is how they get decided before then. Bring the plan to your CPA as a starting point.

No. It is education and software that computes estimates from the numbers you enter. It is not a tax preparer, accountant, investment adviser or law firm, and it does not file anything. Verify every figure against the IRS and your own facts.

No, and it never asks. You type in what you know from a pay stub and last year's return. There is no bank integration and no account to create.

The federal arithmetic follows Form 1040 in order and each tax year's own brackets, standard deduction, capital-gain stacking, self-employment tax and surtaxes. The method page lists exactly what it does not model, including credits, AMT, local taxes, rentals and K-1s. Those gaps can be large. Treat every number as a well-sourced estimate, not a return.

It stays in this browser's local storage. There is no server. The delete button on the method page wipes it, and the export button gives you a file you own.

Because a video cannot run on your numbers. The lesson is worth eight minutes; the calculator is worth the rest. Text also means you can check every claim against the statute it cites.