Privacy & Limits
A trust-first tool should be plain about what it does and does not do.
FERSCalc is designed to help you reason through retirement scenarios while keeping calculator data local to your browser. That does not remove the need for official confirmation or professional judgment.
Privacy Model
Local-first by design
- Calculator scenario data is stored locally in your browser.
- You do not need an account to use the calculator.
- Public marketing pages use a first-party anonymous visitor cookie only for lightweight traffic counts and new-versus-returning summaries.
- Exported files are created locally and saved only if you choose to export them.
- Shareable scenario links are point-in-time snapshots, not server-backed accounts or synced workspaces.
- The email update form is separate from calculator scenario storage.
That public-site analytics layer is intentionally narrow. It does not inspect calculator scenario inputs, does not use third-party marketing scripts, and does not try to track you across other sites. It exists so the maintainer can tell whether public traffic is coming from people or crawlers and whether public visitors are new or returning.
Product Limits
Strong planning context, not official certainty
- FERSCalc is not affiliated with OPM or any federal agency.
- It does not replace official retirement estimates, agency counseling, or professional tax, legal, or financial advice.
- Employee-type support currently covers standard FERS tiers and 6C special-category retirement, but not CSRS, CSRS-Offset, or every special federal retirement edge case.
- State income tax is modeled for all 50 states and DC. Detailed bracket and deduction rules cover the 42 jurisdictions with income tax; the 9 no-income-tax states are also correctly handled. Implementations are planning approximations, not CPA-level filings.
- Projections are sensitive to inputs, assumptions, market behavior, and future law or policy changes.
State Tax Coverage All 50 states and DC are covered. Detailed bracket and deduction rules are implemented for the 42 income-tax jurisdictions, and the nine no-income-tax states are handled correctly.
FERSCalc includes state income tax rules for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Detailed bracket and deduction rules are implemented for the 42 jurisdictions that have a state income tax; the nine states with no income tax (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wyoming) are also handled correctly.
Implementations are planning approximations, not CPA-level filings. Some state-specific edge rules are intentionally simplified — for example, Michigan birth-year retirement tiers use Person A's age, and Oregon omits a pre-1991 service subtraction. Local city, county, and municipal income taxes are intentionally excluded. Results reflect your scenario inputs and the 2025-law baseline used in the model.
Use projections as planning context. Verify actual tax effects with a qualified tax professional before making final retirement decisions.
See the State Tax Guide → — per-state FERS pension, TSP, and Social Security treatment for all 51 jurisdictions.
Local-Only Detail What local-only means in practice Scenario data stays in your browser unless you export it or intentionally share a point-in-time snapshot link.
The calculator itself does not require you to send retirement scenario data to a server. If you leave the site, clear browser storage, or switch devices, locally stored scenario data will not automatically follow you.
If you create a share link, the URL contains a compressed point-in-time snapshot of the active scenario. Opening a shared link prompts for confirmation before it replaces the current local scenario, and the sender's later changes do not update links that were already copied.
The separate email update form exists only for product updates. Submitting your email there does not upload your calculator scenario or connect it to a user account.
Need The Full Scope?
Read the canonical assumptions and coverage page.
If you want the full list of modeled components, known gaps, and when to treat output as directional only, use the dedicated documentation page.