What we will not do.

Collides with Cost Ledger and the chat harvest ledger. Homing is creytix-tax-engine.

Creytix already uses “ledger” for two real products: Cost Ledger in finance, and the chat harvest ledger. Naming this tax OS Ledger would collide in docs, npm scripts, and operator language.The Connect catalog id is creytix-tax-engine. The public site is /tax, Books T1–T4 stay Creytix Books, and entity procedures stay Creytix Entity. Those names are the map — a fourth Ledger is a fork, not completeness.

Instead: Creytix Tax + Creytix Entity + Creytix Books. Never a ledger/ monorepo.

Models invent wage bases and elections. Math is only @creytix/tax-rules.

Language models compress training text. They will happily emit last year’s Social Security wage base, a made-up Form 2553 deadline, or a statute that does not exist. That is not a prompt-engineering problem; it is a product-law problem.Eligibility and rates are pure functions in @creytix/tax-rules with effective dates and SourceRef rows. Wave 4 AI may explain a result the engine already computed. It may never invent the result.

Instead: Pure functions with sources. AI may explain a result in Wave 4 after §7216 consent.

A 22% / 24% / 32% table is not a tax return. It omits filing status, standard vs itemized, QBI, NIIT, additional Medicare, self-employment tax, credits, and every state.Creytix Tax ships a directional payroll-tax delta: self-employment tax versus FICA on a salary you type, using the SSA wage base. That is one slice. A CPA still files the return.

Instead: Directional payroll-tax delta on a salary you type. CPA does the return.

QBI, NIIT, PTET, and QSBS each need a full return: taxable income, specified-service tests, W-2 wages, UBIA, holding periods, original issuance. A slider that prints “you save $X” is invented math.Wave 0 ships learn articles. Dated PTET tables are Wave 2–3. A CPA models dollars. Creytix will not ship a PTET-savings engine.

Instead: Learn articles now, dated PTET tables in Wave 2–3, and a CPA to model the dollars.

Economic-nexus thresholds, marketplace-facilitator rules, and local rate tables change constantly. A guessed ZIP rate is worse than telling the operator to keep a seller’s-permit calendar.Wave 0 educates three-nexus (physical, economic, marketplace) and lists sales-tax permit tasks. Rate calculation is not this product.

Instead: Three-nexus education. Sales-tax calendar reminders from Books later.

Receipt scanners that emit a dollar deduction are practicing tax advice under someone else’s brand. Creytix is decision support. We are not a CPA, enrolled agent, or return preparer.Wave 0 ships sourced DEDUCTION_TOPICS: ordinary/necessary, home office, vehicle, meals, startup vs capital, accountable plans, retirement/health, S-corp wages, depreciation education, QBI education, and never-deductible lists. A CPA maps your books onto the return.

Instead: Sourced write-off education. CPA maps receipts onto the return.

Vehicle, boat, and aircraft costs sit under listed-property and luxury-auto rules. Whether any dollar is deductible depends on business use, substantiation, and the year of the tables — not the brand on the hood.Pub 463 and Topic 510 are the education. Creytix will not recommend a product to buy, because that is advertising dressed as tax.

Instead: Pub 463 / Topic 510 education. No product recommendation.

Paying a child for real work can be ordinary in some trades. Treating that as a kit to zero household tax is a scheme: reasonable wage, child-labor rules, kiddie tax, and payroll all apply.The education is ordinary/necessary plus reasonable compensation, and a CPA decides whether a wage is real. Creytix will not productize the loophole.

Instead: Ordinary/necessary + reasonable compensation education. CPA.

Internet S-corp content often says “pay yourself $80k” or “pay 40% of profit.” Those numbers are not in the Code. Reasonable compensation is a facts-and-circumstances test: duties, hours, comparables, and what a similar business would pay.Creytix Tax ships eligibility gates and a directional FICA delta on a salary you type. A CPA memo — optionally naming a comps vendor we do not embed — is the next step.

Instead: Eligibility gates + directional FICA delta + CPA memo.

We are not CorpNet / Harbor / LegalZoom. State portals and authorized transmitters exist.

Every state SOS has its own portal, fees, and account. Standing up a first-party transmitter for fifty secretaries of state is a bureau, not a tax OS. That is CorpNet / Harbor / LegalZoom work.Wave 0 lists the calendar and official URLs. Wave 5 may route through a confirmation-gated partner. Creytix is never the SOS.

Instead: Calendars and official URLs now; a confirmation-gated partner in Wave 5.

IRS Direct File is not the Filing Season 2026 free path. Cloning a program that is not available is a marketing lie.When a user qualifies, IRS Free File is the official free option. Partner MeF (finance T3) comes later, behind a confirmation. Creytix Tax does not file.

Instead: Free File when the user qualifies. Partner MeF later.

Unreviewed HTML scrape is how stale BOI and wrong wage bases ship.

IRS.gov HTML changes without a changelog we control. A “live ticker” that scrapes it will ship last year’s BOI rule or last year’s wage base the next time the page moves.Wave 3 uses the official Federal Register API (operator fetch plus a daily cadence poller) plus IRB artifacts, then a human publish queue. That is slower on purpose.

Instead: Wave 3 official FR API cadence poller + IRB + human publish queue.

Some states publish less on a business search than others. That is a public-record rank, not a cloak. Nominee kits, straw owners, and “hide from the IRS or creditors” copy are concealment — out of product.The structuring tree ranks privacy vs liability vs tax vs estate. An attorney handles estate and charging-order design, and Creytix will not sell a hide kit.

Instead: State public-record ranks + estate/attorney path.

Shipping “file your beneficial ownership report” to a domestic U.S. company after the 2026-08-14 final rule is a stale-statute defect. FinCEN ended that duty for U.S. companies and U.S. persons.Foreign reporting companies can still have duties. That path is counsel-scoped, not a Wave 0 checkbox. Ending BOI is not permission to conceal ownership from tax authorities, banks, or remaining state filings.

Instead: Foreign reporting companies stay separately scoped. Do not conceal ownership.

Limited liability is a state-law shield that courts can disregard for undercapitalization, commingling, or skipped formalities. A checkbox that “your veil is guaranteed” is a lie.Creytix Tax educates on minutes, separate accounts, and insurance. An attorney memo addresses piercing and charging-order risk; the product does not insure the outcome.

Instead: Minutes + separate accounts + insurance education. Attorney memo.

A living trust that holds an LLC membership interest is a common estate design. Productizing “instant charging-order shield” or a one-click asset-protection kit is a mill: grantor vs non-grantor tax, fraudulent-transfer facts, and state charging-order statutes all differ.Wave 0 educates trust-owns-LLC. Foundry documents come after counsel. Creytix will not sell the dodge.

Instead: Trust-owns-LLC education. Foundry documents after counsel.

Payroll is in-suite (creytix-payroll), phased by state complexity. Providers are import fallbacks.

Creytix Payroll is a named in-suite product, phased by state complexity (Wyoming-first, then data packs). Human-approved deposits. Gusto or ADP may be an import fallback — they are not the home.Selling “switch to Gusto to run payroll” as the Creytix answer would fork the suite and strand later Books/Tax packs.

Instead: Creytix Payroll (PR1), then data packs. Human-approved deposits.

Minutes, consents, and later CPA packets need a signature. Creytix already has Creytix Sign (document.sign.platform). A per-product DocuSign clone is the white-label defect the fleet already banned.Wave 0 worksheets are drafts. Attorney review, then Sign. Not a PDF download as the product.

Instead: Attorney review, then Creytix Sign; the minutes worksheets stay drafts until then.

Filling a questionnaire into locked legal fragments is not the practice of law. Telling a court you are represented is, and so is signing a return as a preparer. Waves 0–4 stay decision support.Finance T2 form-fill for the tenant’s own entities still carries disclaimers. Operating model (who may sign) stays an open bible decision — not a silent Circular 230 shop.

Instead: Decision support + professional handoff. Not a CPA or attorney.

Stock ledger for formalities ≠ priced rounds, SAFEs, and 409A.

Keeping who owns what, when it was issued, and what was paid is a corporate-formality task. That belongs on the maintenance checklist.Priced rounds, SAFEs, option pools, and 409A valuations are a different product. Creytix will point fundraising to a cap-table tool rather than clone Carta.

Instead: Keep a ledger current. Point fundraising to a cap-table tool.