Table of contents
These guidelines explain how every page on Tax Residency Guide is made. They apply to every writer, editor and reviewer, and they are the standard you can hold us to.
Our standard
Tax guidance is “your money or your life” content: acting on a wrong answer can cost a reader money, their residence status or their family’s inheritance. So a page is finished only when a reader can answer three questions: does this rule apply to me, what will it cost me, and what do I do next. If it can’t do that, or if any figure on it can’t be traced to a source, it isn’t ready to publish.
Who writes and reviews
- Writers and editors research and draft each page from primary sources. They are named on the page, with a profile.
- Expert reviewers are qualified professionals, such as chartered tax advisers and lawyers, who practise in the country the page covers. Each reviewer’s credentials, registration details and jurisdictions are on their profile so you can verify them.
- Nobody is invented. We never publish a fictional author, a made-up credential or a quotation a real person did not give us.
How a page is made
- Research briefWe define the reader, their question and the rules involved, and list the primary sources to check.
- Draft from primary sourcesThe writer drafts the page from legislation, tax authority manuals and official guidance, citing each figure as it goes.
- Fact-checkAn editor checks every rate, threshold, day count and deadline against its source and records the date it was checked.
- Expert reviewA qualified adviser who practises in that country reviews the rules, figures and examples, and adds a first-hand note where it helps.
- Publish with datesThe page goes live with its sources, a "rules as of" date, a change log and the names of its writer and reviewer.
- Recheck and updateWe recheck the page on a fixed schedule and after every relevant budget, and log every material change.
Sources
We use the highest source available, in this order:
- Primary sources: legislation and finance acts, tax authority manuals and official guidance (for example HMRC manuals and gov.uk), double tax treaties and the OECD Model Convention.
- Professional sources: guidance from professional bodies and the qualified advisers who review our pages.
- Reputable secondary sources: professional-firm briefings and established news outlets, used for context and to flag proposed changes, never as the only source for a rate, threshold, day count or deadline.
We don’t use forums, social media or other blogs as evidence for a rule. Proposed changes that are not yet law are labelled as proposals, with the date and stage they have reached. Where official guidance is unclear or we could not confirm a point, we say so on the page rather than guess.
Expert review
Every content page is reviewed before publication by a qualified professional, such as a chartered tax adviser or a lawyer, who practises in the country the page covers. Reviewers check that rules, figures and examples are accurate and that nothing a reader in that position needs is missing. The reviewer’s name, credentials and review date appear on the page.
Reviewers are not paid per positive review and cannot change a page to promote their own services.
Keeping pages current
Tax rules change at every budget. We:
- show a “rules as of” date and a visible change log on every rules, regime and form page;
- recheck those pages at least every six months, and straight after a UK Budget, a Finance Act or a destination country’s budget law that affects them;
- update a page within five working days when we learn that a rate, threshold or deadline has changed;
- mark regimes that have closed to new entrants clearly, and keep the page for people already inside them.
Labels you’ll see on our pages
| Label | What it means |
|---|---|
| Expert reviewed | A named, qualified adviser has checked the page. The date shows when. |
| Rules as of | The date we last checked the rules on the page against primary sources. |
| What changed | The change log: every material update, with its date and source. |
| Proposed | A change announced but not yet law. We give its stage and date. |
| Adviser’s note | A first-hand observation written by the page’s reviewer, in their own words. |
Worked examples
Examples use round, clearly hypothetical figures to show how a rule works. They are illustrations, not predictions of anyone’s tax bill.
Avoidance, evasion and our position
We explain lawful choices that tax systems offer, such as changing residence or using a regime a country has legislated for new residents. We do not publish content that helps anyone conceal income or assets, misreport residence or evade tax, and we point out the anti-avoidance rules, such as temporary non-residence, that can claw back a planned saving.
Rankings and comparisons
Ranking pages explain their criteria before the ranking. Commercial relationships never affect a country’s position.
Use of AI tools
We may use AI tools for research planning, outlines and first drafts. Every page is then rewritten and fact-checked by a human editor against the primary sources it cites, and reviewed by a qualified adviser before publication. Images made with AI are labelled “AI-generated image” and never used to depict real people, documents or places as evidence.
Independence and conflicts of interest
Writers and reviewers must declare any financial interest in a firm, programme or product they write about. Links to partners that may pay us are labelled. See how we make money.
Accessibility
We write in plain English, explain technical terms the first time we use them, and build pages to meet WCAG 2.2 AA: readable contrast, keyboard navigation and text alternatives for images and tables.
Corrections
If you find an error, tell us through the contact page. We investigate every report, correct confirmed errors quickly, and record significant corrections in the page’s change log with the date.