This page sets out the rules that govern what gets published on Canadian Money Help, how calculator results are produced, and how any commercial relationship affects editorial decisions. It’s a companion to the methodology page, which covers sourcing and math. This one covers the editorial operation.
Editorial independence
No person or company pays to influence what this site publishes, how calculators are framed, or what is recommended. That includes banks, insurers, lenders, tax software companies, fintech startups, and government agencies. It also includes the site’s own parent company, Kernel Media.
If an advertiser, sponsor, or partner ever objects to a page and asks for a change, the change is only made if the complaint identifies a specific factual error backed by a primary source. The advertiser’s displeasure is not a reason to change a page.
What gets published
Pages fall into one of four categories:
- Calculators. Tools that take user input and compute a number against a primary-source rule. Calculators are the core product. Every calculator cites its source and shows the date it was last verified.
- Benefit explainers. Plain-language pages about CRA and provincial programs (CCB, OAS, GIS, EI, GST credit, provincial credits). Each page links to the administering agency and the canonical eligibility tool.
- Guides. Longer articles tying calculators together around a life event (first home, new baby, retirement, divorce, newcomer tax filing). Guides are written in plain language with the source material cited inline.
- Reference. Province-specific rate pages, glossary entries, and data tables used by calculators.
The site does not publish: stock picks, crypto coverage, credit card review listicles ranked by affiliate commission, “best of” product tables whose ranking is a negotiable editorial line, news takes on political events, or anything outside Canadian personal finance.
Monetization and disclosure
The site’s revenue model is intentionally narrow and intentionally separated from the calculator output.
- Never inside calculator results. Calculator output never contains an ad, affiliate link, product recommendation, or lead-capture form. The tool is the product.
- Never on benefit pages. Pages explaining CRA and provincial benefits (CCB, OAS, GIS, EI, etc.) never carry affiliate links or lead-capture forms. These pages serve people navigating government programs; commercializing that navigation is the wrong line.
- Disclosed in guides only. Where an affiliate link appears in a guide article, it is disclosed at the top of the article and the recommendation is made on editorial grounds alone. If a better-for-the-reader option exists that doesn’t pay a commission, it is still recommended.
- No sponsored content without a visible label. Sponsored content, if ever accepted, is labelled with a persistent banner at the top of the page, credited to the sponsor, and still fact-checked by the editor. No “in partnership with” framing that hides the commercial arrangement.
The current commercial arrangements on the site are listed in the current disclosures section below. If the list is empty, there are no active affiliate relationships.
Use of AI tools
Artificial intelligence is used on this site as a research and drafting aid. It is not used as a final authoring system. Specifically:
- AI tools may be used to scrape and structure data from CRA, CMHC, Revenu Québec, and provincial finance ministry pages so that calculator data files reflect current official figures.
- AI tools may be used to produce first drafts of benefit explainers and guide articles.
- Every page that is published — calculator, explainer, guide — is read, edited, and fact-checked by a human editor before it goes live.
- No page on this site is AI-generated-and-published. The “Reviewed by” and “Updated” dates reflect actual editorial review, not a model run.
- Pages about medical decisions, legal decisions, or clinical circumstances are not published on this site at all, because the risk of AI-assisted drafting on those topics is not worth the content.
Accuracy, corrections, and changelogs
Every page is verified against a primary source before publication. When the underlying source changes (new tax year, indexed benefit threshold, rate update), the calculator is updated and the last-verified date is bumped.
When a reader reports an error, the correction is prioritized over all other work. Corrections to material figures produce a dated note on the page explaining what was wrong, what was changed, and when. The correction is not quietly edited out of the page history.
Reporting errors: see the corrections page.
Bylines and reviewer credentials
Every page shows who maintains it and when it was last reviewed. Where a specialist reviewer (CPA, CFP, accountant, lawyer) has reviewed a page, the reviewer’s name, credential, and jurisdiction are shown. If a page does not have a named specialist reviewer, it is reviewed by the site editor, who is not a licensed financial professional, and the page says so.
The site does not invent credentials. “Reviewed by our editorial team” is only used where a named editor has actually performed the review.
Reader privacy
Calculators run entirely in your browser. Inputs — your income, mortgage amount, age, location, dependents — are not transmitted to this site’s server and are not logged. Nothing you type into a calculator leaves your device unless you explicitly submit it through a form (e.g., the contact form or a future optional feature that says so in writing).
Full details are in the privacy policy.
Current disclosures
There are no active affiliate relationships on this site at the time of this page’s last update. When that changes, this section will list the advertiser, the pages affected, and the date the arrangement began. It will also list the editorial tests a new advertiser had to pass before the arrangement was approved.
Last reviewed: April 2026.