How can we help?

It doesn't decide — you do. Once you connect a bank, Fern flags incoming deposits that look like income for your 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.

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.

No. Fern is a savings and budgeting tool. It does not file returns, pay the IRS or your state, 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.

No. Your tax set-aside is a figure tracked inside the app — the money stays in your own bank account, and Fern never holds or transfers your funds and cannot move money in your accounts.

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 reads account details, balances, and transactions (and investment holdings, if your bank provides them) to detect income and compute safe-to-spend, and cannot move money. Your data is isolated to your account at the database level. You can disconnect a bank any time in the app; that revokes access at Plaid and removes that bank's data from Fern. See the Privacy Policy and Plaid's End User Privacy Policy for the full detail.

No. You can set up your tax profile, choose a reserve percentage, and create savings goals without a bank. Income review, the tax set-aside, and safe-to-spend need a connected bank account, and Fern does not make up data in the meantime.

The tax math is rule-based, not AI. The optional Ask Fern assistant (Fern Pro, iPhones with Apple Intelligence on iOS 26 or later) runs on Apple's on-device model, so your question and figures stay on your phone. It can be wrong and is not tax advice. Older app versions (before 1.0.2) send a summary of your figures to our AI provider to answer, so please update. The Privacy Policy lists every service that handles your data.

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.

Fern is free to download and use — confirming income, tracking your tax reserve at a percentage you choose, safe-to-spend, goals, and one linked bank account are all included. Fern Pro is an optional auto-renewing subscription that adds a suggested reserve rate for your filing status and state, the deduction finder, more than one linked bank, and the in-app assistant, Ask Fern. It is $12.99 per month or $89.99 per year. New subscribers who are eligible for the introductory offer get a 7-day free trial first (the app only shows it if you are eligible). Payment is charged to your Apple Account (iPhone and iPad) or your Google Play account (Android) when the trial ends, and the subscription renews automatically until you cancel. Full details are in our Terms of Service.

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. On Android, open the Google Play Store → your profile → Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions → Fern and choose Cancel subscription. 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, and for Google Play purchases by Google Play.

In the app, open Profile and scroll to Delete account. That revokes Fern's access to your connected banks and permanently deletes your account and the data tied to it (if you signed in with Apple, you'll be asked to confirm with Apple). It does not cancel an App Store or Google Play subscription, so cancel that first (see above). If you'd rather we do it, email us from the address on your account. See the Privacy Policy for what is kept.

Please tell us — email support@getfernapp.com 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.