VestingTax.com publishes educational guides and calculators for U.S. employees navigating RSU, stock option, and ESPP tax questions. This page explains our editorial process so you can judge whether to trust a page before you rely on it for planning.
Who writes this content
VestingTax.com is an independent educational project — not a CPA firm, law office, or registered investment adviser. We do not name fictional experts or claim credentials we do not hold. Content is written to be accurate and cautious, then checked against primary tax sources before publication.
What we publish
Plain-language explainers, scenario examples, document checklists, and browser-based calculators. We focus on common employee situations: vest withholding, sell-to-cover, W-2 and 1099-B reporting, ISO/AMT basics, and multi-state moves.
We do not prepare tax returns, represent taxpayers, or answer personalized tax questions by email.
Source hierarchy
- Primary: IRS publications, forms, and instructions; state tax agency guidance (for example FTB or NY DTF).
- Secondary: Major broker workplace education pages when they describe standard reporting mechanics.
- Workflow only: Tax software help articles — useful for filing steps, not as authority on tax law.
Every guide and calculator page includes a Sources and notes section with outbound links to the materials that support its tax claims. See Methodology for how calculator rates are loaded and labeled.
Review process and tax-year freshness
Major pages display a Reviewed for tax year 2026 block with a last-reviewed date (July 19, 2026). That means we checked copy and assumptions against our source list for the current filing season — not that your employer, broker, or state will match our defaults.
- Guides are reviewed for correct timing language (vest vs. sale), form references, and links to official sources.
- Calculators show the tax year selected, assumption sources, and whether rates are loaded or require manual entry.
- When IRS or state guidance changes, we update affected pages and bump the last-reviewed date.
Corrections
Tax rules and employer practices change. If you spot an outdated rate, broken link, or factual error, email us at Contact with a link to an official source. We prioritize fixes that affect calculator defaults or filing guidance.
Conflicts and advertising
The site may display third-party advertising (Google AdSense). Ads do not influence which tax rates we load or which sources we cite. Sponsored content, if ever added, would be labeled clearly.
When to hire a professional
Use this site to understand mechanics and run planning estimates. Hire a CPA or enrolled agent when your facts are complex: multi-state moves mid-year, ISO and RSU stacking, AMT, international equity, or IRS notices.
Content quality standards
We write for readers who have real documents in front of them — W-2s, vest confirmations, pay stubs, and 1099-B forms — not for search engines alone. Pages should answer one specific question in the first screen, explain mechanism with citations to IRS or state sources, and give a concrete next step (a form line, calculator, or when to hire help).
- Main explanations use prose paragraphs, not long bullet outlines that could apply to dozens of URLs with a state name swapped in.
- We name forms and boxes (Box 1, Form 8949, adjustment codes) instead of vague “report correctly” language.
- FAQs are limited to high-intent questions; we do not restate the short answer six times in Q&A form.
- State tax claims link to official DOR or FTB pages in Sources and notes — we do not fabricate rates.
- New guides are checked by automated quality rules and a human read-aloud pass before publish.
Contributors and AI assistants working in this repository should follow the full checklist in docs/content-publishing.md before adding priority pages or news briefs.
Content was last reviewed for tax year 2026 on July 19, 2026. We prioritize document-first guides and calculators over thin keyword pages so readers — and ad networks reviewing site quality — can tell the difference.