Methodology: How VetCalc Sources & Verifies Its Numbers

VetCalc is built and maintained by Henry and Skyla — a married Air National Guard couple. Henry, a Senior NCO with 14 years of service, writes and maintains the calculators and the math; Skyla co-owns the business. Every figure on this site comes from an official government source, not an estimate. This page is the full accounting: where each number comes from, how often it's updated, the legal formulas behind the calculators, and the verification pipeline that blocks a deploy if anything drifts.

Last reviewed: June 2026 · Maintained by Henry & Skyla.

Data Sources

Update Frequency

• Military Base Pay — January 1 each year (or when NDAA is signed)
• BAH Rates — January 1 each year
• BAS Rates — January 1 each year
• VA Disability Rates — Effective December 1, based on COLA
• GI Bill MHA Rates — August 1 each year
• TSP Returns — Reflected in real-time fund prices
• Federal Tax Brackets — Updated annually by IRS

Formulas & Legal References

• VA Combined Rating (38 CFR § 4.25) — Start at 100% health. For each rating, take that percentage of remaining health. Final result rounded to nearest 10%.
• Bilateral Factor (38 CFR § 4.26) — When conditions affect both sides of the body, combine bilateral conditions first, then add 10% of that combined value.
• Military Retirement — High-36 (10 USC § 1409) — Average of highest 36 months of base pay × (years of service × 2.5%).
• BRS Retirement (10 USC § 1409 as amended) — Average of highest 36 months × (years of service × 2.0%), plus TSP matching up to 5%.
• Drill Pay (37 USC § 206) — 1/30th of monthly base pay per drill period. A standard drill weekend = 4 drill periods.
• CRDP (10 USC § 1414) — Full concurrent receipt for retirees with 20+ years and 50%+ VA rating.
• CRSC (10 USC § 1413a) — Combat-related disability restoration, lesser of combat VA compensation or retired pay waived.

Verification Process

Accuracy is the entire point of the site, so the verification pipeline is mechanical:

• Single source of truth. Every public-facing rate is read from a tracked file (data/rates-2026.json and the per-domain tables it references). Marketing copy, FAQ schema, and intro examples all flow from the same place.
• Automated drift detection. A linter (scripts/sync-rates.js) scans every HTML and calculator JS file for known-stale rate literals before each deploy. CI fails the build if any drift is detected. Run history is logged in CHANGELOG-RATES.md.
• End-to-end smoke tests. A Playwright suite asserts the audit-critical paths on every change: BAH search returns the right base, 70%+50% VA Math computes to the correct dollar amount, BAS shows the current rate. If any of those break, deploy is blocked.
• Cross-reference against published PDFs. All rate tables are checked against the official PDF publications (DFAS pay tables, VA compensation tables, DoD BAH rates).
• Author verification. The site is built and maintained by Henry and Skyla — an Air National Guard couple. Henry, a serving Senior NCO, uses the same tables in his own pay every month.
• Last reviewed: June 2026

If you find a discrepancy between our calculators and official sources, please let us know. Reports are prioritized over feature work.

Limitations & Disclaimers

• Estimates only — official determinations are made by the VA, DFAS, and other agencies
• Individual results may vary based on specific service records, tax situations, and state laws
• State tax calculations use simplified brackets and may not reflect all credits/deductions
• TSP projections assume consistent returns — actual results will vary
• We are not affiliated with any government agency
• This site does not provide legal, financial, or tax advice