Retirement Calculator Suite

The Retirement Calculator Suite gathers the retirement-account calculators a CPA reaches for into one offline desktop tool, kept current on 2026 contribution limits. The set includes a 401(k) projection, a SEP IRA calculator for both sole proprietors and S-corp owners, RMD and inherited-IRA RMD math under SECURE Act rules, Roth and Traditional IRA projections, a Roth-versus-Traditional comparison, and 401(k)-withdrawal taxes.

The idea is that these eight calculations are the ones an advisor or accountant actually runs when modeling contributions, conversions, and required distributions, gathered in one place rather than scattered across free sites that may not track the current limits. You pick the account type, enter balances, ages, and contributions, and the retirement calculator suite returns the projection or the required distribution with the math shown.

The workflow is short. You choose the calculator that fits the question, whether that is a 401(k) projection or a required minimum distribution. You enter the balances, ages, and contribution figures it asks for. Then you read the result. Nothing is filed and nothing leaves your machine, because the whole suite runs locally on current limits rather than in an ad-supported browser tab.

RMD stands for required minimum distribution, the amount the tax code makes an account holder take out once they reach the qualifying age. SECURE Act changes reshaped both the timing and the inherited-IRA rules, and the suite reflects them, including the penalty math for a missed distribution. That penalty detail is exactly where a quick web calculator or a homemade sheet tends to fall short.

Several of these calculators serve self-employed savers directly. The SEP IRA is a retirement vehicle built for the self-employed, and the IRS Self-Employed Individuals Tax Center covers the tax and contribution rules that apply to sole proprietors and owners funding one. The suite sizes a SEP contribution for both the sole-prop and S-corp cases, which are computed differently and easy to confuse.

It is worth being clear about why a suite rather than a single calculator. Retirement questions rarely come alone. An owner deciding on a SEP contribution is often also weighing a Roth conversion, and a client facing a first required distribution usually has a 401(k) balance to project and a withdrawal-tax question close behind. Keeping the eight calculators together means an advisor can move between related questions without re-entering the same balances into a new site each time. The Roth-versus-Traditional comparison is a good example, because the answer depends on assumptions about tax rates now versus later that the same person modeling a SEP or an RMD is already thinking about. Having the pieces in one place is what lets the modeling stay coherent rather than fragmenting across a handful of disconnected web pages.

What you get is current retirement math across eight common questions, kept private because it runs on your own machine, with the figures shown so you can explain them. You keep your own judgment about what fits a client. The retirement calculator suite does the arithmetic. You can read more on the Retirement Calculator Suite product page, or see the rest of the SortTax lineup on the accounting and tax page. The tool does one job, the retirement estimate, the same way every time.

The SEP IRA is where the Retirement Calculator Suite is most useful to a self-employed saver, because the contribution math is genuinely different depending on how the business is set up. The suite sizes a SEP IRA contribution for both a sole proprietor and an S-corp owner, which are computed on different bases and are one of the more common places a do-it-yourself estimate goes wrong.

A SEP IRA is a retirement plan built for the self-employed and small-business owners, and the tax rules around it sit with the rest of a self-employed filer’s obligations. The IRS Self-Employed Individuals Tax Center is the hub for those rules, covering how self-employment income and the deductions tied to it work. The retirement calculator suite computes the contribution against that framework so the number is grounded, not a rough percentage.

The sole-proprietor case is the one people most often miscompute. The contribution is based on net self-employment earnings after the deduction for half of self-employment tax and the plan contribution itself, which creates a circular calculation a spreadsheet handles badly. The suite does that math for you, so the sole-prop SEP figure reflects the actual base rather than a gross-income shortcut that overstates what can be contributed.

The S-corp case works from a different base. Here the owner is a wage earner of their own company, and the SEP contribution is figured on that W-2 compensation, not on net self-employment earnings. The retirement calculator suite keeps the two cases separate, so an owner who has made an S-corp election does not accidentally size a contribution as if they were still a sole proprietor.

Seeing the contribution on current 2026 limits matters because the caps move. A SEP figure is bounded by the annual limit, and running last year’s number risks either leaving room on the table or overfunding. Because the suite is built on current limits, the contribution it sizes reflects this year’s ceiling rather than a stale one a free site may not have updated.

The distinction between the sole-prop and S-corp SEP is worth restating because it is the single most common error the tool prevents. A sole proprietor’s contribution is capped by net earnings after two interacting deductions, while an S-corp owner’s is figured on W-2 wages, and treating one as the other can overstate or understate the allowable amount badly. Because the suite keeps the two calculations separate and asks for the right inputs for each, an owner who is unsure which case applies to them is far less likely to fund the account on the wrong basis and have to unwind it later.

The suite does not open the account or file anything, and it does not replace an advisor’s judgment on whether a SEP is the right vehicle. What it does is size the contribution correctly for the sole-prop or S-corp case on current figures, which is the number the planning turns on. You can see how it works on the product page, or look at the rest of the SortTax tools on the accounting and tax page. For a self-employed saver, the SEP contribution is the figure to get right, and the retirement calculator suite is built to get it right.

Yes, and the reason is structural, not a promise. The Retirement Calculator Suite runs offline on your own machine, on current 2026 limits, with nothing transmitted off the computer. The balances, ages, and contribution figures you enter are computed locally, and no cloud copy is required, so a client’s account detail stays where you run the tool.

That is a real contrast with free web calculators and brokerage tools, which run in a browser or on a provider’s server and can capture what you type. The suite does neither, because it does not run in a browser and does not phone home. For the kind of balances and ages that go into retirement planning, keeping the figures off an outside server is the point.

For an advisor or accountant, keeping client figures local also fits a legal duty. Under the FTC Safeguards Rule, a practice handling customer financial information has to keep a written security program with administrative, technical, and physical safeguards. A tool that keeps the numbers on your own machine sits inside that kind of program cleanly, rather than adding another outside service you would have to account for in it.

The IRS makes the same point for anyone touching taxpayer data. Its Publication 4557, Safeguarding Taxpayer Data, states that protecting taxpayer data is the law for professional preparers and lists the safeguards expected. Running the retirement calculator suite locally supports that duty by keeping the figures inside the environment you already control, under your existing access rules and backups.

Being blunt about the limits is fair. Local-first means backups and machine security are on you, the same as any file on your drive. The suite does not encrypt your disk or manage who logs into the computer. What it avoids is creating a second copy of sensitive account figures in a place you would then have to secure and watch, which is the part a small firm is least equipped to handle on its own.

The offline design also fits the sensitivity of what goes into retirement planning. Account balances, ages, and beneficiary details are among the more personal figures a client shares, and many people are uneasy typing them into a brokerage site or a free web tool that may keep them. Because the suite computes everything on your own machine, an advisor can run a real balance and a real age without wondering where those numbers land afterward. That comfort matters for the quality of the work as much as for privacy. A projection built on the client’s actual figures is worth more than one built on rounded guesses, and keeping the math local is what makes running the real numbers feel safe enough to do.

For someone weighing where to enter a real client balance, the offline design is the conservative choice. The figures stay where your other client files already live, and the tool hands back the projection without sending the inputs anywhere. You can read how it fits a practice on the product page, or see the wider SortTax approach on the accounting and tax page. The safe answer is the structural one. Numbers that never leave the machine are numbers you do not have to protect anywhere else.

The honest framing is that free web calculators and brokerage tools each solve part of the problem and leave part open. Free sites are convenient but ad-supported and often behind on the current limits. Brokerage tools are polished but tied to selling you their products. The Retirement Calculator Suite is a one-time desktop tool that keeps eight calculators current, private, and neutral.

Currency is the first real difference. Contribution limits, RMD ages, and SECURE Act rules change, and a free site may run on last year’s figures without telling you. The suite is built on current 2026 limits across all eight calculators, so a 401(k) projection or a SEP contribution reflects this year rather than whatever a site last got around to updating.

Neutrality is the second. A brokerage calculator is attached to a firm that would like to hold the account, and its defaults can nudge toward that. The retirement calculator suite is not selling an account, so a Roth-versus-Traditional comparison or a withdrawal-tax estimate is just the math, which is what an advisor or accountant modeling a client’s options actually needs.

Coverage is the third. A single free calculator answers one question, and you bounce between sites for the next. The suite keeps the 401(k), SEP, RMD and inherited-RMD, Roth and Traditional, the comparison, and the withdrawal-tax calculators together, including the penalty math for a missed RMD that most free tools skip entirely. That breadth in one place is the point.

There is a recordkeeping angle too. The IRS expects the figures behind a return to be supported and kept, and its guidance on how long to keep records sets the periods for doing so, including records that establish basis in an account. A calculator that shows how it reached a figure gives you something coherent to keep, where a throwaway web result leaves no trace of the math behind the number.

It also helps to be honest about where the free and brokerage tools are genuinely good. A brokerage’s own calculator is often fine for projecting an account you already hold with them, and a free site is fine for a one-off gut check. The case for the suite is the advisor or accountant who models these questions across many clients and needs the same current rules, the same neutral math, and the same private handling every time. A comparison that is not nudging toward a particular product, run on this year’s limits and kept on your own machine, is what professional modeling calls for. For someone doing this occasionally for themselves a free tool may be enough, but for a practice it rarely is, and the difference compounds over a full client list.

The plain summary is that free and brokerage tools are convenient and conflicted, and the suite is current, neutral, and yours. It costs once, keeps client figures local, tracks this year’s limits, and covers the eight retirement questions a CPA meets most, each with the math shown. For anyone who runs these more than once, that trade is easy. You can compare it against how you model today on the product page, or see the rest of the SortTax lineup on the accounting and tax page.

Required minimum distributions are where the Retirement Calculator Suite earns its place for anyone advising older clients, because the rules are unforgiving and the penalty for missing them is real. The suite computes both the ordinary RMD and the inherited-IRA RMD under SECURE Act rules, and it includes the penalty math for a distribution that was not taken on time.

An RMD is the required minimum distribution the tax code makes an account holder take once they reach the qualifying age. The amount is figured from the account balance and a life-expectancy factor, and it changes every year. The retirement calculator suite runs that calculation on current figures, so the distribution it produces reflects this year’s rules rather than an outdated age or factor a free site may not have refreshed.

Inherited IRAs are the harder case, and the one the SECURE Act reshaped most. Depending on who inherited the account and when, the beneficiary may face a ten-year drawdown or annual distributions, and the rules differ from an owner’s own RMD. The suite handles the inherited-IRA RMD separately, so a beneficiary’s obligation is not estimated as if it were a standard account holder’s.

The missed-distribution penalty is the part that makes precision matter. When an RMD is not taken, the tax code charges an excise penalty on the shortfall, and the suite shows that math so a client can see the cost of a missed or short distribution. Seeing the penalty alongside the required amount is what turns an abstract deadline into a number worth acting on before year-end.

Keeping the figures is part of the obligation. The IRS guidance on how long to keep records sets the periods a taxpayer holds the records behind a return, and distributions and the basis behind them are exactly the kind of figures that need to be retained. Because the retirement calculator suite shows how each distribution was computed, the estimate leaves a coherent record rather than a lone number with no explanation.

The penalty math deserves a little more attention because the rules around missed distributions have changed and remain easy to misjudge. The excise charge on a shortfall is steep, though it can be reduced if the miss is corrected promptly, and the exact treatment depends on when the distribution should have been taken. Showing the penalty on current figures gives an advisor a concrete number to put in front of a client who is behind, which is far more persuasive than a general warning. Seeing what a missed required distribution actually costs is usually what prompts someone to take it before the year closes and the charge is locked in.

The suite does not take the distribution or file anything, and it does not replace an advisor’s read on a complicated inheritance. What it does is compute the RMD, the inherited-IRA case, and the penalty on current figures, so the judgment is what is left to you. You can see these calculators in more detail on the product page, or look at the rest of the SortTax tools on the accounting and tax page. For an older client, the RMD is the number you cannot get wrong, and the suite is built to keep it right.