Conflicts of interest

This site is published by Swanson Reed. Swanson Reed is an R&D tax advisory firm. It prepares R&D tax claims for businesses, and it competes with other advisers for that work.

That is a real conflict of interest. A firm that sells a service has a commercial reason to shape how buyers judge that service, and to make its competitors look worse. You should read this site knowing that.

The conflict cannot be removed, so the site follows rules that limit what it can do with it.

• The site recommends no adviser. That includes Swanson Reed. There is no list of advisers, no ratings and no referral service.
• No firm is named. No adviser, person or product is named on this site other than the publisher, and no page describes one closely enough to identify it. The site cannot be used to criticise a competitor.
• Every red flag is balanced. Each red flag page says when the practice is a problem and when it is not. A red flag is a reason to ask more questions. It is not a claim that anyone has done wrong.
• No fee model is presented as the right one. Each fee model has its own page setting out who it can suit and what to watch. Comparisons use the same claim and the same assumptions for every model, and the assumptions are shown on the page.
• Figures are illustrative. No statistic appears without a source, and every worked figure is labelled as illustrative beside it.
• Claims are sourced. Statements about tax rules and practice are checked against official sources, and those sources are listed on the page. The editorial standards page explains how.
• The tools store nothing. The calculator, the fee test and the health check run in your browser. What you enter is not sent to us, so it cannot be used to contact you.
• No email address is needed. You can read every page and download every file without telling us who you are.

The publisher is named in the footer of every page and inside every download, so you never have to look for it.

The contact page and the home page each carry one link to Swanson Reed's own booking page. It is labelled as the publisher's page and opens in a new tab. It is there for readers who want to speak to Swanson Reed directly. It is not a recommendation, and nothing else on this site links to a Swanson Reed service.

Swanson Reed also publishes a sister site, ResearchCreditIntegrity.org. It is labelled as a Swanson Reed site wherever this site links to it, and the related sites page explains what it is for.

The site takes no money from anyone but its publisher. It carries no advertising and no sponsored content, and no adviser pays to appear on it. The funding and governance page says more.

If a page reads as unfair, as favouring the publisher, or as aimed at a firm you recognise, tell us. The corrections page explains how to report an error or ask for a right of reply, and lists every correction we have published.