About Tax Letters

Last reviewed 2 September 2026 · How Tax Letters checks its facts

Tax Letters is an independent service, not affiliated with HMRC. Tax Letters has no connection to HMRC or any government body, and nothing here is endorsed by them.

Tax Letters exists because the letters HMRC sends frighten people out of proportion to what they usually mean, and because HMRC's own instruction, check the figures against your records, is work most people never quite get around to. Tax Letters does the arithmetic and explains the letter, and Tax Letters Watch is being built to follow HMRC for you. It never advises: it explains rules generally, performs mechanical comparison, and when something needs judgment it says so and points at the right kind of person.

The service is run by its operating company rather than under individual bylines. We know some readers would prefer a name and a face; we have chosen to let the sourcing do the talking instead, and the standards below are written so you can hold us to them without knowing anyone's name.

How Tax Letters checks its facts

• Every figure and date on this site is recorded with its source and the date we last checked it, and each page shows both.
• Primary sources first: legislation.gov.uk, GOV.UK, and the professional bodies (CIOT, ICAEW). Every factual page carries a dated source list.
• Every page shows when it was last reviewed. Tax moves; undated tax pages mislead by default.
• Deadlines get the honest treatment: we say whether a date is set by the letter, by law, or by a facility's terms, and what ignoring it actually leads to. Both halves, every time; see the framework.
• The letter checker is AI and says so. It selects from sentences a qualified reviewer has checked; it does not freestyle. It can still make mistakes, it cannot verify a letter is genuine, and it is not advice. The Simple Assessment checker is mechanical: it compares the figures you type, on your device.
• What we will never do: scare copy, countdown pressure, calling any disclosure route an "amnesty", or promising outcomes. If we cannot help, we say so.

The founding review partner

Tax content on this site is reviewed with Vision Consulting, a UK accountancy practice registered with ICAEW and Tax Letters' founding review partner. Tax Letters and Vision Consulting are under common ownership; that is stated here plainly so you can weigh it for yourself. Vision reviews content and takes on matters that genuinely need a regulated firm. It does not operate this site, and no review changes the independence line above: Tax Letters remains an independent service, and the free routes on every page remain free.

Corrections

Spot an error? Send it through the get help form with the page and the source you believe is right. If you are correct we fix the page, update its review date, and note the correction. That promise is the point of a service like this.

How Tax Letters is funded

Plainly: the tools are free and show no adverts. Tax Letters plans paid services around the same checks, one-off pieces of work and an optional paid tier of Watch, and tests interest in them openly before they exist; nothing on this site takes payment today. If you ask for help and a specialist firm could genuinely be useful, Tax Letters may, with your permission and naming the firm, pass your enquiry on, and the firm may pay for that introduction. No fee changes what any page says, and most of this site exists to tell you when you do not need anyone at all: you can always deal with HMRC directly, free, and the tax charities help those who cannot pay.