This page sets out the rules MTD Pick holds itself to. It exists so you can judge whether our rankings and reviews are fair — and so we can point to a written standard when we slip. If we ever change how we work, we update this page and date the change.
Our purpose
MTD Pick helps UK sole traders, freelancers, landlords, and tradespeople choose HMRC-recognised software for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax — and understand what MTD actually requires of them. Every article is written from that reader's point of view, not a vendor's.
What we review, and what we leave out
Three tests decide whether a product gets coverage:
- HMRC recognition first. A product must be on HMRC's official MTD software list before we'll recommend it for MTD compliance. This is a gate, not a scoring criterion.
- Relevant to our readers. We review what a UK small business owner is realistically choosing between — cloud accounting platforms, free tools, spreadsheet bridging software, and job-management companions.
- Displacement. We prefer reviewing a product a reader might actually buy over chasing every new name on the HMRC list. A long list is less useful than a well-tested shortlist.
Independence and funding
MTD Pick is funded through affiliate links. When you click an affiliate link and sign up for a product, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. That funding model comes with firm rules:
- No paid placements. We never accept money, favours, or free premium accounts in exchange for a rank, a mention, or a positive review.
- No vested reviews. No software vendor sees, edits, or approves a review before it is published.
- No sponsored content. Everything on this site is editorial. Nothing is published in exchange for payment.
- Commission never touches a score. Our scoring criteria are fixed and published on our methodology page, and several top-ranked products (FreeAgent, QuickFile, Pandle, Coconut) have no consumer affiliate programme at all.
Who writes it
Site content is written by our named author, Alex Quinn, who has a background in UK tax and small-business accounting. We use named authors so the reader always knows whose judgement they are reading. Anonymous or pseudonymous reviews would make this site harder to hold to account, so we don't publish them.
How articles are produced
Every article starts from a reader question, is researched against primary sources (provider websites, HMRC guidance, and hands-on testing where possible), and is verified against those sources before publication. Where automation or drafting tools have been used anywhere in our process, the work is fully reviewed and fact-checked by our named author before it goes live — we don't publish machine-generated copy without human editorial control, and we're happy to be asked about this.
We aim to make the boring stuff boring: prices checked from live pricing pages, deadlines checked against HMRC, and each page carrying a "last verified" date.
Accuracy, updates, and corrections
Prices and features are re-verified at least monthly. When a material fact changes we update the page, advance its "last verified" date, and note the change. We correct factual errors openly and promptly — see our dedicated corrections policy for exactly how, and how to report an error.
Legal and regulatory
Affiliate links are marked and disclosed in line with the UK ASA / CAP Code. Full details are on our affiliate disclosure. Nothing on this site is tax advice — for your own tax position, talk to a qualified accountant or tax adviser.
Questions
If you'd like to ask about how we work, get in touch via our contact page.