How These Guides Are Made

Last updated: 5 November 2026

The guides on this site are researched, drafted and checked with AI tools (Anthropic's Claude). I approve every guide before it is published, with the result of every check in front of me, and every change to a published guide before it goes live.

I'm Liam Williams, and I run Tax Court Help as a personal project. I'm studying tax and preparing for the IRS's enrolled agent exam; I'm not an attorney, CPA, or enrolled agent. This page explains how a guide is made, what the checks can't do, how you can check a guide yourself, and how to tell me about a mistake.

Why AI Tools

A sound guide to a Tax Court question means reading the statute, the regulations, the IRS's own guidance and manuals, the Court's rules and many court opinions. AI tools let one person research and check guides at a depth that would otherwise take a team. They also make mistakes, including citing cases that don't exist, so every draft goes through the checks below before it reaches me.

Before a Guide Is Published

1. The topic. An AI tool suggests a shortlist, using a map of which parts of the tax code and the Court's rules the site already covers, and I choose the topic.

2. Research. An AI researcher works from the primary sources: the Internal Revenue Code, Treasury regulations, IRS guidance and manuals, the Tax Court's rules, and the court opinions themselves, from the Court's own docket system and free public archives. It records where each point comes from.

3. The draft. An AI writer turns that research into a plain-English guide.

4. Review. Three AI reviewers, each run separately from the writer, then read it: an editor, for clarity and the site's style; a fact-checker, which checks each case, statute, rule, quote, deadline and figure against its source; and a reader advocate, which reads it as a reader in the situation it covers would, looking for questions it leaves unanswered. Their findings are fixed, or put to me where they are my call, and any legal point the fixes add or change goes back to the fact-checker.

5. Automatic checks. Scripts then check that:

   • every case the guide cites is linked to a copy on an approved free site, such as the Tax Court's own docket system or CourtListener, or is on a short list I have signed off where no usable free link was found;
   • each quote's words are found, word for word, in a saved copy of a source (a separate AI checker reads the source for any quote the script can't find, and the fact-checker confirms each quote comes from the source the guide names);
   • links within this site work, and links to other sites are tested where those sites allow automated checks (some, such as CourtListener, don't);
   • every figure drawn from the site's file of figures fills in properly and reads correctly in its sentence. The figures the guides use most, such as the filing fee and the main deadlines, are kept in that one file with a note of where each comes from, so one change there, once I approve it, updates every guide that uses them.

   A guide that fails these checks isn't published.

6. My approval. I see every change and the result of every check on one page, and nothing is published until I approve it.

After a Guide Is Published

A script then checks the live page: that it loads with every heading, table and the disclaimer, that no figure is left unfilled, and, after a change, that each changed passage is live.

This is how each new guide is made now. The process has grown since the site began, and guides from earlier in the year were made with fewer of these steps. All of them were re-checked in two site-wide AI audits in October 2026, and the errors those audits confirmed have now all been corrected, each only once I approved it. If you relied on a guide before 6 November 2026, read its current version, as it may have been corrected since. Before any change to a guide goes live, the case, link and figure checks run again.

What the Checks Can't Do

The checks make errors less likely. They can't rule them out: AI tools make mistakes, the checks can miss them, and so can I. The scripts confirm that each case is linked to an approved site, that a quote's words appear in a saved source and that a link still opens where the site lets scripts check; they can't tell whether a guide has read the law correctly. That rests on the AI fact-checkers and on me, and the audits have found errors in published guides. The law also changes after a guide is written. Before you rely on a guide, check its sources, as the next section shows.

How To Check a Guide Yourself

• Cases. Click the case's linked name or citation (the rare case with no usable free copy online has no link). For a Tax Court case it usually opens the case's page on the Court's own docket system, where the opinion is listed; for other courts it opens the opinion. Then find the passage the guide relies on.
• The law. Code sections and regulations link to their full text, and IRS forms, publications and manual sections link to irs.gov.
• Figures. Fees, rates and dollar limits change. Confirm the current figure at its source: the Tax Court's website for its fees, and irs.gov for IRS figures and interest rates.
• Whether a case is real. The steps in How To Verify a Case Is Real Before You File work on any guide, this site's included.

Spotted an Error?

Email contact@mail.taxcourthelp.com. Please say which guide and what is wrong. Don't send details of your own tax affairs: the guides can't advise on them, and a correction doesn't need them. I read every report myself. Your email and your details are never put into the AI tools that make the guides: if a guide needs correcting, I pass on only the error and its source. When a mistake is confirmed, I correct it. The Privacy page explains how emails are handled.

Information, Not Advice

The guides explain the law and Tax Court procedure in general terms. They are not legal or tax advice. For advice on your situation, consult a qualified tax professional or attorney. If you can't afford one, a Low Income Taxpayer Clinic may be able to help for free or for a small fee, and When To Get Professional Help sets out your options.