Editorial Policy & Fact-Checking

James Wells is the editor and fact-checker of P800 Refund. He is not a tax adviser, accountant or HMRC employee. His role is to research official HMRC and GOV.UK guidance, rewrite it in plain British English and keep it accurate as policies change.

Every guide on this site is checked against the current GOV.UK page for the topic before publication and on each update. Where the site explains a process, it links back to the official GOV.UK route so readers can act directly with HMRC rather than through a third party.

If you need personal tax advice about your own situation, the right step is always the official GOV.UK service or a qualified tax adviser. This site supports understanding; it does not replace either.

James began this project after receiving his own P800 letter and finding the official wording difficult to follow. That experience shaped the editorial method: read the current GOV.UK guidance, compare it with what HMRC letters actually say, then rewrite the process in plain British English so the next reader can act sooner. He maintains every guide on the site and re-checks each one against the live GOV.UK page before publishing or updating.

Before a guide is published or updated, it goes through the same checks:

1. Start from the current GOV.UK guidance for the topic.
2. Compare it with the wording HMRC uses in letters and publications.
3. Rewrite it in plain British English, keeping the meaning exact.
4. Cite the official source on the page, with a short note on what it supports.
5. Update the page whenever HMRC or GOV.UK changes the route, timing or repayment guidance.

Every main guide links to the official .gov.uk pages it is based on. We prefer primary sources — GOV.UK and HMRC publications — over secondary summaries, and each citation says which part of the page it supports.

Links to official services are kept separate from the explanation: when a reader needs to act, they are sent to GOV.UK itself rather than a copied or intermediary page.

P800 Refund is operated as an individual project based in the UK. The site is not funded by HMRC, GOV.UK or any third-party organisation, and no sponsor or partner has input into what is published.

To cover hosting and maintenance costs, this site may display advertising through Google AdSense or similar services. Advertising does not influence editorial content. The topics we cover, the wording we use and the official routes we link to are decided solely by the editorial process described on this page, never by advertisers or commercial partners.

If a page ever carries sponsored content or affiliate links in the future, it will be labelled clearly and kept separate from editorial guides. Readers will always be able to tell what is independent guidance and what is commercially supported.

Each page carries a “Last updated” date and a “Reviewed by” line. Timing and route pages are re-checked whenever HMRC publishes a change, because P800 deadlines and repayment methods do shift between tax years.

If you want to see how a page is kept current, the P800 timing guide is the page most sensitive to HMRC date changes.

If something is wrong, outdated or unclear, tell us at [email protected]. Corrections are reviewed against official guidance and applied to the relevant page, and the “Last updated” date is refreshed when the wording changes.

We aim to review and respond to correction requests within 5 working days. If a change is needed, the page is updated and the “Last updated” date reflects when the wording was revised.

P800 Refund is not HMRC and not GOV.UK. It does not process claims, access tax records, or provide regulated tax advice. For the full position on independence and limits, read our Disclaimer and Privacy Policy.