Editorial standards

PaySlipCheck publishes UK salary, payroll and tax content. This page explains who's behind the content, where the figures come from, how often we review them, and what to do if we get something wrong.

Who writes our content

PaySlipCheck content is written by the PaySlipCheck Editorial team — a small UK-based group with backgrounds in payroll software, personal finance journalism and accountancy support. We don't currently publish individual contributor names because we treat tax content as a single consistent voice, and we'd rather hold ourselves accountable as an organisation than have any individual claim authority they may not have in every topic. When that changes — when we engage a named subject-matter reviewer under contract — we'll publish their credentials clearly.

Where our figures come from

Every tax rate, threshold, allowance, NI band and student loan figure on this site is taken from official UK government sources. We never use secondary commentary or other calculator sites as a source. Our primary references:

• GOV.UK — Income Tax: rates and allowances
• HMRC — National Insurance rates and categories
• gov.scot — Scottish Income Tax rates and bands
• HMRC — Rates and thresholds for employers (annual)
• GOV.UK — Student loans terms and conditions (annual)
• ONS — Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (for earnings percentile data)

How content is reviewed

1. Source from official channels. Every figure is cross-checked against the relevant GOV.UK or gov.scot publication before it goes live. Where Scotland differs from rUK, we treat both as separate sources of truth.
2. Implement transparently. The calculator logic is open in tax-engine.js — viewable from any browser, deliberately unminified so it can be audited. The Python engine that generates our static pages reads from the same configuration.
3. Verify with golden-value tests. Before any rate change ships, we run our calculators against published HMRC examples and against worked scenarios at multiple salary bands. Each tax year, the golden test set is updated to the new rates.
4. Date-stamp every page. Every calculator and editorial page carries a "Last reviewed" date. Editorial articles also list "Next review due" — typically six months from review, or three months for rapidly-changing topics.
5. Update on the Budget. We refresh the site after each UK Budget and Spring Statement, after each Scottish Budget, and again on 6 April when new tax-year figures take effect.

Our financial-advice policy

PaySlipCheck publishes information, not advice. We model what UK tax rules do under different scenarios — we don't tell you what decision to make. When a topic genuinely benefits from professional advice (complex IR35 situations, pension planning at large balances, redundancy negotiations), we say so on the page and signpost towards qualified accountants or HMRC directly.

We're not authorised to give regulated financial advice and don't claim to. Calculator outputs are guidance based on published HMRC and gov.scot figures; they aren't a substitute for personal advice from a qualified accountant or financial adviser.

Corrections and updates

If we get something wrong, we want to know. Email corrections to our contact page. We treat every correction as a priority — substantive errors trigger a same-day fix and a rebuild of any pages affected. The "Last reviewed" date is bumped on every page that's been re-checked, and where the correction is material we add a "Recent changes" note to the page.

How the site is funded

PaySlipCheck runs unobtrusive display advertising (via Google AdSense) to cover hosting and development. We may, in future, include affiliate links to products we'd genuinely recommend (accounting software, business bank accounts), with the relationship clearly disclosed on each link. We do not take paid sponsorship from financial product providers, and we do not write content in exchange for payment. We never sell or share the figures you enter into our calculators — they don't leave your device.

Conflicts of interest

Where we recommend a third-party product or service, we'll disclose any commercial relationship (affiliate link, advertising client) on the page itself. We don't accept gifts, paid trips, or other benefits from financial product companies. We're not editorially associated with HMRC, gov.scot, or any other government body — we cite them as sources, but we don't represent them.

Methodology

For the technical detail on how figures are calculated — the band stack, NI rounding conventions, default-scenario assumptions — see our methodology page.