Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-07-05

This site (the "Calculator") is operated by @loglux as a self-hosted UK tax calculator.

We take privacy seriously and collect only the minimum needed to operate the service.

1. Who we are

2. What we collect

2.1 Calculator inputs

When you submit a tax calculation, the values you enter (gross income, day rate, salary / dividend split, expenses, tax code, pension scheme, student-loan plan, etc.) are processed to compute the result. We do log these inputs into UsageEvent rows for analytics — to see which modes are used, which optimisation features land, and whether the calculator behaves correctly across realistic inputs.

We are explicit about this so the policy matches the code. There is no marketing or third-party use of these values, and they age out automatically (see §4).

2.2 Usage events

Every page view, calculator submission and API call is logged as a UsageEvent row. Default capture (with USAGE_TRACKING flags all True — see §2.4) includes:

We do not collect: name, postal address, email, phone number, payment data, employer or pension-provider names, NI number, UTR, or anything outside what the calculator forms themselves ask for.

2.3 Operator-configurable capture

The capture above is the default. Each item below is controlled by a single flag in the project's USAGE_TRACKING settings dict, and the operator can disable any of them per deployment without touching code:

Flag Controls
capture_amounts Income / day rate / salary / dividend / revenue / expenses
capture_tax_codes Tax codes (e.g. 1257L, SK, D0)
capture_referer Referer hostname
capture_user_agent Raw User-Agent string (derived flags always kept)
capture_ip_plain Plain IP address (SHA-256 hash always kept)

This section will be updated if the deployed default changes.

2.4 Cookies

The Calculator uses two cookies:

Both are first-party, HttpOnly, and Secure (only sent over HTTPS). We do not use third-party tracking, advertising, or analytics cookies (no Google Analytics, no Facebook Pixel, etc.).

2.5 Local browser storage

To save you re-entering the same details when you switch between calculators (PAYE, Dividend, Self Assessment, Sole Trader, IR35, Umbrella) or come back on a later visit, the site stores a small "shared profile" of your most recent inputs in your browser's localStorage, under the key taxscope_profile_v1.

This stays on your device. It is never sent to our server, never appears in a request we receive, and never appears in the UsageEvent logging described in §2.2 — it's pure browser storage we cannot see or access. As with the rest of the calculator (see §2.2), none of it is a name, address, email, phone number, or National Insurance / UTR number — it's only the calculator-input values below, taken from whichever calculator you last used:

Field What it stores
Tax code Your PAYE tax code (e.g. 1257L)
Scottish taxpayer flag Whether you pay Scottish Income Tax
Blind Person's Allowance flag Whether you claim this allowance
Marriage Allowance choice None / Receiving / Giving
Salary Your annual salary / employment income
Dividend income Your annual dividend income
Workplace pension scheme + % Scheme type and contribution percentage
Student loan plan + postgraduate flag Undergraduate plan (1/2/4/5) and whether you also repay a Postgraduate Loan

It's used only to pre-fill form fields the next time you open one of our calculators in the same browser, and stays until you clear it (see below) or clear your browser's site data. We don't read or write it anywhere except the calculator pages listed above, and it isn't shared with, or accessible to, any other website.

To clear it: clear "Cookies and site data" for taxscope.uk in your browser settings, or remove the taxscope_profile_v1 key via your browser's developer tools (Application/Storage tab).

This is functional storage that makes the multi-calculator workflow more convenient — not advertising, marketing, or tracking. Consistent with §3, we don't rely on your consent for it.

3. Why we collect it (lawful basis)

We do not rely on consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) for any of the above, because none of the processing is for marketing purposes.

4. How long we keep it

Data Retention
UsageEvent rows (everything in §2.2 — calculator inputs, mode, payload_summary, IP, referer, etc.) 90 days from the event. Older rows are deleted automatically by the scheduled prune_usage_events job.
Contact form submissions (ContactRequest) 24 months from the date of the message, or sooner if you ask us to delete it.
Web server logs (gunicorn) 30 days, then rotated.
Django sessions 14 days from last activity.

We do not sell, share, or transfer your data to third parties.

5. Your rights under UK GDPR

You have the right to:

To exercise any right, email the contact address above.

6. Security

7. Children

The Calculator is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect data from children. If you believe a child has submitted information, contact us and we will delete it.

8. Changes

If this policy changes, we'll update the "Last updated" date above. Material changes (e.g. new categories of data collected) will be flagged with a notice on the site for at least 30 days.

9. Disclaimer

This Calculator is not financial or tax advice. See /terms/ for the full disclaimer.

10. Mobile app (TaxScope UK, Android)

Everything above (§1–9) describes the web calculator at taxscope.uk. The TaxScope UK mobile app works differently and is covered separately here.

10.1 What the app does NOT do

The app performs all tax calculations on your device — the income, tax code, and other figures you enter are never sent to any server. There is no account system and no calculator-input logging of the kind described in §2.1–2.2 for the website.

10.2 What the app does send over the network

10.3 Pro subscription and analytics

An optional Pro subscription (removes ads, unlocks the Limited Co, Self Assessment, Sole Trader, Dividend, Umbrella and IR35 calculators) is available via Google Play Billing — payment details are handled entirely by Google; we never see or store them.

The app also uses Firebase Analytics (Google) to understand which calculators people actually use, so we know where to focus development. This collects screen views (which calculator screens you open), basic app-usage events (app opens, sessions), and device/app info (device model, OS version, app version, country, language) — under Google's own privacy policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy), similar to the AdMob arrangement in §10.2. No calculator inputs (income, tax code, salary figures, etc.) are ever included in this data — Firebase Analytics only sees which screens you navigate to, not what you type into them. There is no Crashlytics or crash reporting in the app at this time.

An iOS release is not currently planned; this section will be extended to cover Apple's In-App Purchase system if that changes.

10.4 Your rights

Since the app itself sends us no personal data, most of §5 doesn't apply to app use specifically — any data-subject request about Google's advertising data should go to Google (https://myaccount.google.com/data-and-privacy). Requests about taxscope.uk's own data practices (§1–9) still go through the contact form as normal.