How we write the
answers we publish

Primary sources only

Every claim about UK tax law is cited against its primary source. We link directly to the relevant Acts on legislation.gov.uk (Employment Rights Act 1996, Pensions Act 2008, Income Tax (Trading and Other Income) Act 2005, VAT Regulations 1995), HMRC guidance and rate tables on gov.uk, and employer duties at The Pensions Regulator.

We do not paraphrase secondary sources without verifying against the original. Every answer ends with a “Primary sources” block listing the statutes, regulations, or HMRC notices it relies on.

Dated and reviewed

Every answer shows two dates: when it was first published, and when it was last reviewed. We update the last-reviewed date when we re-check the answer against current statute or current HMRC guidance. That happens after each Spring Budget and Autumn Statement, and whenever legislation, rates, or thresholds change mid-year.

Where rates, thresholds, or band amounts depend on the tax year, we name the year explicitly (e.g. “2025/26”) rather than writing in the present tense. This protects readers from acting on stale figures, and it lets an AI assistant citing the answer quote a year-stamped fact.

Conservative claims

We write what the law says, not what we wish it said. Where a question genuinely has no clean answer (for example, how to apportion utilities between a Rent-a-Room lodger and the rest of the household), we say so and point readers to a chartered accountant or HMRC for case-by-case advice.

We do not provide individual tax advice. Our answers describe the rules; a chartered accountant, tax adviser, or HMRC is the right party to apply those rules to a specific situation.

Editorial team

The payslipmaker.uk editorial team writes and reviews every answer. It is a small UK group focused on payroll, PAYE, pensions, VAT, and Self Assessment. Our editorial decisions are independent of the documents users generate on the site, and we receive no payment from any third party for what we publish.

Contributing writers:

• Eleanor Whitfield — UK payroll, PAYE, National Insurance, the Employment Rights Act 1996
• Marcus Holloway — VAT, HMRC compliance, VAT Regulations 1995, reverse charge for construction
• Charlotte Ashworth — workplace pensions, auto-enrolment, the Pensions Act 2008, qualifying earnings
• Gareth Llewellyn — Self Assessment, landlord taxation, Rent-a-Room Relief, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
• James Forrester — student loan plans (Plan 1 / 2 / 4 / 5 / Postgraduate), Student Loans Company processes
• Catriona MacGregor — Scottish Income Tax, regional payroll variations, Holyrood-set bands and rates

What we do not do

• We do not retain user document data. Every PDF is generated entirely in your browser; nothing is transmitted to our servers.
• We do not run advertising, retargeting, or affiliate links. We do not push third-party paid products or referral codes inside our answers. (We do sell our own first-party document generators; that is the whole business, and it is kept separate from the editorial work.)
• We do not use AI-generated content without editorial review. People write the answers, fact-check them against primary sources, and a second reviewer checks each one before it goes live.
• We do not silently edit answers after publication. A material correction bumps the last-reviewed date so you can see when a stated fact (a rate, a threshold, a section number) last changed.

Errata + corrections

Found a factual error? A wrong threshold, an outdated rate, a misquoted section, or a stale band: email hello@payslipmaker.uk with the URL and the issue. We acknowledge corrections within 48 hours and update the answer (with the last-reviewed date bumped) as soon as the correction is verified against primary sources.