Bonus Check Calc

Editorial policy

Last reviewed by the Bonus Check Calc Editorial Team

Sourcing

Every rate, threshold and rule on this site comes from a primary source: an IRS publication or revenue procedure, a state revenue department's employer withholding guide or table, a state statute or administrative rule, or the agency that runs a payroll contribution program. We do not take figures from payroll vendors, tax-software blogs or other calculators, even as a fallback; when we could not reach a primary source, the affected line says so and asks for your figure instead of showing a borrowed number.

Each figure is stored with the document it came from, that document's edition (for example "NC-30, 2026" or "Circular M, Rev. 12/25"), and the date we read it. The sources page lists all of them, and each calculator result names the sources behind the lines you see.

When an agency blocks automated access

Several agency websites refuse plain HTTP clients. In those cases we read the document through a standard headless web browser, or — when the live page itself is unavailable — through a dated Internet Archive copy of the agency's own page. The sources page marks every figure obtained that way.

Verification cadence

  • Annually, December–January: new IRS Publication 15 and 15-T, the Social Security wage base and every state's withholding guide for the coming year. Most state rules on this site are dated to their 2026 guide and expire on December 31, 2026 unless a newer guide has been verified.
  • When a law changes mid-year: for example Georgia's 2026 rate change (5.19% to 4.99% from May 11, 2026), Utah's June 2026 schedules and Indiana's October 2026 county-rate update.
  • On any credible correction report.

The build checks every rule's validity window. If a window ends within 45 days without a verified successor, the test suite fails, so an expiring figure cannot quietly stay on the site. After a window ends, the calculator stops showing the old figure and asks for the official one.

Corrections

Readers can report a wrong figure, rule or source through the corrections form. We check the report against the primary source, fix confirmed errors, re-run the full test suite and update the page's verified date. We do not silently change numbers: if a published figure was wrong, the fix is noted on the affected page.

Automation and AI disclosure

This site is built with substantial help from AI software: it assisted with locating agency documents, extracting figures from them, writing the calculator code and drafting page text. Every figure is tied to a specific agency document that was retrieved and read, and the calculator's results are tested against hand-worked arithmetic for all 51 jurisdictions and against the agencies' own published examples (for instance Delaware's $269.63 and Massachusetts' $24,854). Automated checks also guard page quality: no page may substantially duplicate another, and every page must cite its sources and show a verified date.

Independence

No employer, payroll vendor or agency pays for or reviews our content. There is no advertising and there are no affiliate relationships.