Guided federal 1040
With a live refund meter.
Work through your federal return step by step while the refund meter recomputes live — you watch every answer change the number, instead of waiting for a total at the end.
Adytum Platform — Tax Prep
Live — app at /tax/
A consumer 1040 that shows its work.
A guided federal 1040 with a live refund meter, a state engine covering 51 jurisdictions, and a what-if builder that recomputes real dollars. Every amount is computed with its caveats shown — and to be plain about it up front: this is not an e-file or filing service.
Part of the Adytum platform: everything settles into the ledger. Tax Prep reads from the same data spine the other products post into — and never writes the books. See the whole platform →
The return, worked in the open.
Guided preparation that keeps the math visible at every step.
State engine — 51 jurisdictions
Plus an all-states local layer.
A state engine covering 51 jurisdictions, with an all-states local layer underneath it.
W-2s from payroll data
Where the data already exists.
Where payroll data is present on the platform, Tax Prep reads your W-2s from it — less re-typing of numbers the system already has.
What-if & Maximize
Ranked moves, real dollars.
Ranked moves — IRA, HSA — each with real recomputed dollar savings, plus a 9-lever what-if builder for exploring scenarios. What-ifs save nothing: they recompute, you look, your return is untouched.
Honest math, stated plainly.
What Tax Prep is not
It is not an e-file or filing service. Tax Prep computes your return and shows its work; it does not transmit anything to the IRS or a state. Filing is a separate step you take yourself.
Amounts are computed, with the caveats shown. Every number comes with its assumptions visible, not hidden behind a total.
What-ifs change nothing. Scenario exploration recomputes the math without saving anything to your return.
How it connects to the core
Reads the spine
Tax Prep reads from the same data spine the rest of the platform posts into — that's how W-2s can come from payroll data where present.
Never writes the books
Tax Prep has no write path into the ledger. It computes on top of the data; the books stay untouched.
One core underneath
The double-entry core is written only through named RPCs, by the products that generate money events — Tax Prep isn't one of them, by design.