How we research, write and maintain our guides

All factual claims on UK Startup — tax rates, registration thresholds, legal obligations, deadlines — are sourced from primary official publications. Our primary sources are:

• GOV.UK — the official UK government information service
• HMRC — for all tax, National Insurance and Making Tax Digital guidance
• Companies House — for company registration, filing and dissolution rules
• Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) — for financial services regulation
• Health and Safety Executive (HSE) — for workplace health and safety obligations
• Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) — for data protection and GDPR
• British Business Bank — for Start Up Loans and SME finance programmes

We link directly to the relevant official page within each article so readers can verify the source and access the most current version. Where official guidance is ambiguous or subject to interpretation, we say so and recommend professional advice.

Each article is drafted by the UK Startup editorial team with reference to the official sources listed above. Before publication, every article goes through an internal review that checks:

• Factual accuracy against the current official source
• Correct tax year and rate references (e.g. 2025/26 vs 2026/27)
• Clear disclosure of any commercial relationships relevant to the page
• Appropriate caveats where professional advice is recommended
• Accessible language — no unexplained jargon

For tax and legal content, we apply additional scrutiny because errors can have material financial consequences for readers. Where a topic is outside our editorial competence, we commission specialist review or decline to cover it.

UK tax rates, thresholds and compliance requirements change regularly. Our update schedule is:

Each long-form article displays a last-reviewed date in the article header. This date reflects the most recent substantive review, not a cosmetic edit.

We take factual accuracy seriously. If you believe a page contains an error, please contact us with the specific claim you believe is incorrect and the source you are relying on.

We will review the correction within 5 working days. If the claim is wrong, we will correct it and, where the error was material, add a correction note to the article. We do not silently delete incorrect content — we correct it in place so readers who bookmarked the page can see what changed.

UK Startup earns revenue through referral partnerships. At present, we have referral relationships with Tide (business banking) and Capital on Tap (business credit cards). These relationships are disclosed on every page that mentions these products and on our advertising and referral disclosure page.

Commercial relationships do not influence editorial decisions. Partners are not permitted to review, approve or request changes to editorial content. Comparison and review pages are produced using the same methodology regardless of whether a product has a referral relationship with UK Startup.

If we are ever unable to maintain this independence — for example, if a partner relationship would require editorial compromise — we will end the commercial relationship rather than compromise the content.

UK Startup provides information, not advice. Nothing on this site constitutes legal, tax or financial advice. Readers should not rely solely on this site for decisions with material financial or legal consequences — they should verify with GOV.UK, HMRC, or a qualified professional.

Our coverage is limited to the United Kingdom. We do not cover international tax, cross-border trading rules or non-UK business structures except where directly relevant to a UK founder's decision.

We do not cover highly specialised regulated sectors — financial services firms, medical practices, legal practices — in depth, because the regulatory requirements for those sectors go beyond our editorial competence.