What the site is trying to do
The site exists to make UK tax, payroll, family-threshold, property and investing questions easier to understand without hiding the useful part behind a paywall. The goal is practical clarity, not volume for its own sake.
How pages are researched
- Calculators are based on published UK thresholds, allowances and rule summaries from official sources wherever possible.
- Guide pages are written to connect the public rule to the next practical user decision.
- Update pages are meant to be revisited and are treated differently from evergreen explainers.
How review works
- Pages are labelled with a visible review date and tax-year scope.
- High-change pages should be reviewed around fiscal events, the start of the tax year and key filing deadlines.
- Long-form guides, hubs and FAQ pages are reviewed when linked calculators or source rules change.
What the site does not do
- It does not provide regulated personal financial advice.
- It does not pretend a first-pass calculator captures every edge case.
- It does not use affiliate links as the main design constraint for content choices.
Corrections and updates
If a rule, rate or explanation is wrong, the priority is to correct the live page quickly and then review the linked pages that depend on it. When a tax-year change affects an existing page, the update should be reflected in the visible review information and linked update hubs. Reader corrections are welcomed via the contact route on the about page; substantive corrections are noted on the changelog with the date of correction so the editorial trail is auditable.
Sources we rely on
UK Tax Drag uses public, primary, and authoritative sources for every rule, rate, and threshold we cite. The standard hierarchy:
- HMRC and gov.uk for income tax bands, National Insurance rates, ISA allowances, pension annual allowances, dividend rates, capital gains rates, stamp duty bands, IHT thresholds, and most other tax rules.
- HM Treasury publications, including Budget documents and the Autumn Statement, for forward-looking tax-year changes.
- Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) for forecasts and fiscal-context references.
- Bank of England for base rate, monetary policy, and inflation references.
- FCA, MoneyHelper, and the Pensions Regulator for consumer-protection and regulated-advice context.
- ETF and fund factsheets directly from issuers (Vanguard, BlackRock/iShares, Invesco, etc.) for ongoing charges, distribution policy, and constituent data.
- Official statistics from the Office for National Statistics for cost-of-living, household income, and demographic context.
Where a third-party source (such as a financial-press article) is cited as supporting evidence, the underlying official source is also linked. We do not paraphrase rules without citing the primary text.
How facts are checked
Every numerical claim that affects a calculator or a guide is cross-checked against at least one primary source before publication. For tax rates and thresholds, the cross-check is the relevant gov.uk page or HMRC manual. For ETF metrics, the cross-check is the latest issuer factsheet. Where a number is illustrative (for example, a sample rate of return in a long-term projection), the figure is flagged in the page text as illustrative and a typical range is given to avoid implying a forecast.
Calculators are tested with a series of edge-case inputs as part of the calculator QA lab process: zero income, exactly-on-threshold income, very-high income, multiple-source income, Scottish vs rest-of-UK rates where applicable, and the previous tax year's rules for backward compatibility. The test outputs are compared against worked examples in HMRC manuals and against independent calculators where available.
Conflicts of interest
UK Tax Drag is an independently-run educational site. Funding currently comes from display advertising delivered by Google AdSense (see advertising policy). The editorial team has no commercial relationships with HMRC, with any specific tax-software provider, with any specific pension or investment platform, or with any specific ETF issuer. Where a calculator or guide compares specific products (for example, two ETFs side-by-side), the comparison is made on observable, public metrics only.
If a contributor has a personal financial interest in a topic being covered (for example, holding shares in a company being discussed), that interest is disclosed at the foot of the relevant page. The site does not currently accept paid placement, paid links, or sponsored content. If that ever changes, the change will be announced on the changelog and the relevant pages will be clearly labelled.
Editorial responsibility
The site is run by a UK-based founder/editor whose contact route is on the about page. All published content is reviewed by the editor before publication. Where contributors are involved (for example, on the kids' lesson packs or the teacher resources), their contribution is reviewed against the relevant subject-matter standard before going live. Anonymous content is not published.
Use of generative AI
Generative AI tools may be used as drafting and editing aids during content preparation. Every page is reviewed and verified by a human editor before publication; AI output is never published as the primary source of a tax rule, threshold, or numerical claim. Where AI-assisted research has surfaced a citation, the citation is verified against the primary source listed above before being included.
Related policies
See the privacy and consent policy, the advertising policy, the methodology page for how the calculators are built, the independence note for the broader funding context, and the content disclaimer for the limits of what the site can do.
How UK Tax Drag holds itself to account
Every page is reviewed against the editorial standards, written from primary sources, sourced openly, and corrected publicly. No affiliate revenue. No sponsored content. No paid placements.