Tracepaper Terms of Use

1. What the Service is — and is not

The Service is a calculation tool. You add documents (payslips, P60s, P11Ds, broker and pension statements); it reads the figures, checks them against each other, applies UK tax rules for the tax year in question, and shows you the resulting Self Assessment box values and a pension contribution calculator, so that you can complete and file your own tax return.

The Service is not:

• Tax advice. It calculates figures from the documents and information you provide and confirm. It does not assess your personal circumstances, does not tell you what to claim, and does not substitute for advice from a qualified tax adviser or accountant.
• Financial or investment advice. The pension planner shows the arithmetic effect of a hypothetical extra pension contribution under the rules for the tax year shown. It is not a recommendation to contribute to any pension, to any scheme, or at all, and it does not check whether you are eligible to contribute or whether a scheme would accept a contribution. If you want advice, speak to a regulated financial adviser or use MoneyHelper (moneyhelper.org.uk), a free, government-backed guidance service.
• An authorised firm. We are not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Nothing in the Service is a personal recommendation, and nothing in it is an invitation or inducement to invest in, or contribute to, any financial product.
• A filing service or an agent. The Service produces figures for you to enter into HMRC’s own online Self Assessment service, or to give to your accountant. It does not submit anything to HMRC, does not act for you in dealings with HMRC, and is not connected to HMRC.
• Complete. It does not yet handle Scottish income tax, share schemes other than RSUs and ESPP, and several other situations. The full list is on the front page under “What it does not do yet”; if one of them applies to you, do not rely on the affected figures.

2. The beta

• It is free. There is no price, no card and no payment. If we ever charge, we will publish new terms first, and nothing will be charged to anyone without their express agreement at that time.
• A beta pass lets pages of your documents be read. It covers up to 200 documents and stops working after 31 December 2026. Everything else in the Service works without one.
• It is unfinished. We may change it, interrupt it or end it, and we do not promise that it will be available at any particular time.
• Your documents and figures are kept in your own browser, not by us. We cannot see them, and we cannot recover them if your browser’s storage is cleared or your device is lost. The backup file the Service makes is yours to keep safe. The Privacy Notice says exactly what does leave your device.

3. Your responsibility

You are responsible for checking the figures the Service produces before you rely on them — including before you file a tax return, make a pension contribution, or make any other financial decision.

• You review and confirm every figure that was read. The Service shows you the document, page and field each number came from so you can check it against the original. A figure you have not reviewed should not be treated as final.
• You are responsible for your tax return. Filing an accurate return, on time, and dealing with HMRC, remains your responsibility (or your accountant’s, if you use one).
• HMRC’s own calculation is the one that counts. If HMRC’s figure differs from the Service’s, HMRC’s figure prevails. The difference may point to a document the Service has not seen, a rule it does not apply, or a fault — please tell us either way.
• The Service can only work from what you give it. Income, contributions or gains from a source you have not added are not included.

4. What we are responsible for

• We will provide the Service with reasonable care and skill.
• Nothing in these terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else the law does not allow us to exclude or limit. Nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights as a consumer.
• If we fail to use reasonable care and skill, we are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of that failure. Loss is foreseeable if it is obvious that it will happen, or if both you and we knew it might happen when you started using the Service.
• We are not responsible for loss that you could have avoided by doing what §3 asks — above all, checking each figure against your own document before relying on it — or for loss arising from: a figure you did not review; income, gains or contributions in a document you did not add; an error in a document itself (for example a payroll provider’s own mistake); a tax rule that changed after the figures were worked out; or something these terms or the Service say the Service does not do.
• The Service is for your personal use. We are not liable for any business loss, such as loss of profit, loss of business or business interruption.
• If the Service damages your device or other digital content because we did not use reasonable care and skill, we will either repair the damage or pay you appropriate compensation.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use the Service, including its blackout tool, to alter, fabricate or misrepresent a payslip, P60, P45, P11D or any other document. The blackout tool only removes information from a document you already have, before a page is read, and every blacked-out copy is stamped “Redacted copy — not an original document”. Using the Service to produce something that looks like a genuine document but is not — for any purpose, including a mortgage or credit application — is a serious breach of these terms and may be a criminal offence.
• Use the Service on another person’s documents without their knowledge and permission.
• Attempt to circumvent, disable or interfere with the blackout tool, the beta pass, or the limits the Service places on what leaves your device.
• Use the Service in any way that breaches the law, infringes another person’s rights, or is intended to mislead HMRC or anyone else.

We may turn off the beta pass of anyone who breaches this section.

6. Changes

We may update the Service, including the tax rules it applies for a new tax year, and these terms. The date at the top of this page shows when they last changed. If we make a change that matters to you, we will say so on the front page and, if you signed up for the beta, by email, before it takes effect. If you do not agree with a change, you can stop using the Service at any time; there is nothing to cancel and nothing to pay.

7. Complaints, law and courts

If something has gone wrong, tell us first at to be completed before the beta opens and we will try to put it right. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and you can bring proceedings in the courts of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland you can also bring proceedings in the Scottish courts, and if you live in Northern Ireland you can also bring proceedings in the Northern Irish courts.

8. Who we are

to be completed before the beta opens, of to be completed before the beta opens. Contact: to be completed before the beta opens. See the Privacy Notice for how we handle your data.