Editorial Policy
What this site is for
MilitaryTaxBreak.com exists to explain one federal tax deduction clearly: the unreimbursed travel deduction for National Guard and Reserve members who travel more than 100 miles from home and stay overnight for duty. The calculator estimates it and the guides explain the rules behind the estimate. This page describes how those pages are researched, checked, reviewed and corrected, and how money is kept away from the advice.
How a page is researched
Every figure and rule on this site starts from a primary source, meaning the agency or statute that actually sets it. For tax rules that is the Internal Revenue Code, IRS publications, form instructions and IRS notices. For lodging and meal rates it is the General Services Administration (GSA) per diem files and the Federal Travel Regulation. For standard mileage rates it is the IRS rate table and the notice behind each rate. For pay and benefits it is the agency that publishes them, such as DFAS and the Thrift Savings Plan. We read the source itself rather than a summary of it. A blog post, forum thread or news article can point us toward a question, but it is not accepted as the answer.
When a page states a number, a date or a threshold, we record where it came from and link to that source on the page so you can check it yourself. The full list of sources we rely on is on the sources page. Worked examples are calculated from the published rates, and the arithmetic is shown so you can reproduce it with your own numbers.
What we do when a source is unclear
Tax rules have edge cases, and official guidance is sometimes silent or written for a different situation than a reservist's. When the primary source does not answer a question, we say that plainly and point you to the form instructions or a qualified tax professional. We do not fill the gap with a confident guess. If we could not retrieve a source on the day we reviewed a page, we leave that fact out instead of repeating it from memory. You will see this on the news page, where items we could not confirm are removed rather than carried forward.
Review schedule
The site is reviewed weekly. The news page is checked against its sources each review, and each item shows the date it was checked. The guides are re-checked whenever a figure they depend on changes, and at least when a new tax year or federal fiscal year begins: the IRS standard mileage rates usually change each January and can change mid-year, and GSA per diem rates change each October 1. Every page shows a last-updated date. That date means a person looked at the page against its sources on that day; it is not changed to look fresh when nothing was checked.
Corrections
If something on this site is wrong or out of date, tell us through the contact page and include the page and what you believe the correct information is. We verify the claim against the primary source. If you are right, we fix the page, the calculator and any other page that repeats the figure, and we update the last-updated date. We do not quietly delete a mistake that could have affected someone's return: where a correction changes what a reader should have done, the page says what changed.
How advertising and affiliate links are kept separate from advice
The site is free to use and is supported by affiliate commissions from a tax-filing service and, where approved, display advertising. Neither of those decides what the guides or the calculator say. The calculator applies the published rates and the published caps whether or not you ever click a link. Affiliate links are labeled, marked as sponsored in the page code, and covered by a disclosure at the top of the pages where they appear. Any display advertising is served by a third party, is separate from the article text, and is described in our privacy policy, including how to opt out of personalized ads. We do not write about a product because it pays us, and we do not take payment to change a figure, a conclusion or a recommendation.
What this site does not do
We are not tax professionals, and nothing here is personal tax advice. The calculator produces an estimate. Your return depends on facts we cannot see. We also do not accept sponsored articles, and we do not publish unverified claims about legislation: proposed bills are described as proposed, and we report only the actions we can confirm from the legislative record. For your own situation, use the IRS instructions, a qualified tax preparer, or the free tax help offered to service members, such as MilTax and VITA.
Who writes it
The site is written and maintained by its creator, a reservist who built it after seeing how many Guard and Reserve members miss this deduction. Read more on the about page.