Terms of Use

What this site is

How Much It Really Costs is a free, educational calculator that estimates the full cost of a purchase — income tax, sales tax, ownership costs, and opportunity cost — using published tax rates and public data. The disclaimer explains how to use these estimates in a personal decision.

Accuracy

Figures use published rates, thresholds and other cited public data. See the methodology, sources and model scope for the inputs behind a result.

No warranty

This site is provided "as is," without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of accuracy, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, this site's operator is not liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential loss arising from your use of, or inability to use, this site or its figures — including any financial decision made in reliance on them.

Accounts and saved settings

There is no account system on this site. Your saved profile is stored in your browser. Calculator links can contain your chosen values; see the privacy policy for how links, hosting and analytics handle those details.

Content ownership

The site's design, code, written analysis, and the specific presentation of its data are owned by its operator. The underlying tax rates and thresholds are public information, cited to their original government sources on every page that uses them.

The figures and downloadable datasets this site computes are licensed underCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). You may reuse them, including commercially, as long as you credit How Much It Really Costs and link to the page the figures came from.

Changes to these terms

These terms may be updated as the site changes. The date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision.