Editorial policy

Source hierarchy

When two documents disagree, the highest source in this list wins, and the loser is removed from the page:

• Primary: GOV.UK guidance, HMRC manuals and policy papers, and legislation.gov.uk. A rate, threshold or rule exists on this site only if it can be traced to one of these. Every published rate carries its source URL — see the source registry.
• Secondary: professional bodies (CIOT, ATT, ICAEW) for context and interpretation only — never as the authority for a rate.
• Competitors: used for UX and coverage analysis only. We never lift figures from other calculator or claims sites; a competitor is never cited as the authority for a rate.
• Forums and social media: read only to learn the language people actually use to describe their problem. Never a source of fact.

Fact-check process

• Every guide and calculator states its primary source next to the figures it uses.
• Worked examples are hand-checked against the official manual before release (see methodology).
• Claims that cannot be sourced are removed rather than softened.
• A qualified UK tax reviewer is listed on content they have personally reviewed. Until our named reviewer is in place, pages ship without a review claim — and the build logs a warning so that cannot happen silently.

Update schedule

• Every April — full re-verification of all rates against the new tax year.
• Budgets and Spring/Autumn Statements — same-day review of any announced changes; provisional labels applied until figures are final.
• Quarterly — link-out route checks (the GOV.UK pages we send you to) and guide freshness passes.
• We never change a "last checked" date without actually re-checking the content. Date freshness is earned, not cosmetic.

Independence

Editorial decisions — what we cover, what results we show, and the links we give you — are made without reference to current or potential commercial partners. The separation is contractual as well as cultural; see how we make money for the specifics.