Support

Questions about Fern: Self-Employed Taxes, or something not working right? Email us — a real person reads it.

Common questions

How does Fern know which deposits are taxable?

It doesn't decide — you do. Fern watches for incoming deposits and surfaces them for review, but nothing is set aside until you confirm a deposit is taxable income. Self-employed accounts mix business and personal money, and automatic categorization gets it wrong often enough that guessing would be worse than asking.

How is the suggested reserve rate calculated?

From published tax figures, not a rule of thumb. Fern combines self-employment tax (Social Security up to the annual wage base, Medicare, and the additional Medicare tax), federal income tax brackets for your filing status after the standard deduction, the qualified business income deduction, and your state's income tax. You see each component broken out — self-employment, federal, state — and you always control the final percentage.

Is Fern tax advice?

No. Fern is a savings and budgeting tool. It does not file returns, submit quarterly payments, or access any real tax record, and it is not a substitute for an accountant. The reserve rate is an estimate to help you set money aside. For advice about your specific situation, talk to a tax professional.

Does Fern move my money?

No. Your tax set-aside is tracked inside the app — the money never leaves your own bank account, and Fern never holds, transfers, or has access to your funds.

How is my bank data handled?

Bank connections go through Plaid, which handles the login directly —Fern never sees or stores your bank username, password, or card details. Access is read-only: Fern can read balances and transactions to detect income and compute safe-to-spend, and cannot move money. Your data is scoped to your account at the database level. See the Privacy Policy for the full detail.

Do I have to connect a bank to try it?

No. Without a bank connection Fern runs on clearly-labeled sample data, so you can walk through the whole app — income review, the tax set-aside, safe-to-spend, goals — before connecting anything real.

Which states does the tax estimate cover?

All 50 states plus D.C., using each state's published income tax rates and brackets. Two honest limits: local income taxes are mostly not modeled — New York City and Yonkers resident tax, Ohio municipal (RITA/city) tax, and Pennsylvania local EIT are not included, so if you live in one of those places your real bill will be somewhat higher than the estimate. Maryland's county tax is included. Fern is built for U.S. federal and state taxes only.

What does Fern cost?

Fern is free to download and use — confirming income, your tax reserve, safe-to-spend, and goals are all included. Fern Pro is an optional auto-renewing subscription that adds automatic transfers to your tax account, the deduction finder, and the in-app assistant. It is $12.99 per month or $89.99 per year, each starting with a 7-day free trial. On iPhone and iPad, payment is charged to your Apple Account when the trial ends, and the subscription renews automatically until you cancel. Full details are in our Terms of Service.

How do I cancel Fern Pro?

On iPhone or iPad, open Settings → your name → Subscriptions → Fern and choose Cancel Subscription — you can also reach that screen from Profile in the app. Cancel at least 24 hours before the current period ends to avoid the next charge; Pro stays active until the end of the period you have already paid for. Refunds for App Store purchases are handled by Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com.

How do I delete my account and data?

In the app, open Profile and scroll to Delete account. That permanently removes your account and the data associated with it. If you'd rather we do it, email us from the address on your account and we'll take care of it.

I found a bug, or the estimate looks wrong.

Please tell us — email jack.patterson@jpdigital.studio with what you expected and what you saw. For estimate questions, your filing status and home state help a lot. Don't send screenshots containing account numbers.

Still stuck? Email jack.patterson@jpdigital.studio and we'll help.