Editorial Policy

A page is published here only if it answers a real question better than what already exists. Page count is not a goal, and we do not create content to fill a gap in a keyword list.

• It answers a question a reader actually has, stated plainly enough that we could write it in one sentence before starting.
• Every factual claim is traceable to a primary source — an Act, a rule, a regulator circular, or an official government portal.
• Sources are linked on the page, not merely referred to.
• Assumptions and limitations are stated, not buried.
• The date it was last updated, and for government pages the date the source was last verified, are shown.
• It says what we do not know, where we do not know it.

1. The rule is read at source — the section of the Act, the regulator circular, or the published convention.
2. The calculation is written as a pure function in a shared library, separate from any user interface.
3. Unit tests are written covering normal cases and the edge cases that break naive implementations: zero, negatives, very large numbers, decimals, invalid dates, slab boundaries, leap years.
4. The output is cross-checked against a worked example computed independently, and against the official calculator where one exists.
5. The page is written around the function: the formula, a worked example with the arithmetic shown, the assumptions, the limits, and the source.

1. The official source is identified — the ministry, department or statutory body responsible.
2. Every claim is read on that source, not on a secondary site.
3. The page is written, with the official portal linked and the verification date recorded.
4. Exclusions and conditions are given the same prominence as benefits, because they are the most common reason an application fails.
5. Where the official source is unclear or has not been updated, the page states that rather than resolving the ambiguity with a guess.

• Primary and preferred: Acts and rules, official gov.in and nic.in portals, regulator circulars from RBI, SEBI, PFRDA, IRDAI and CBIC, and statutory bodies such as EPFO and UIDAI.
• Acceptable for context: official statistical publications, and Reserve Bank of India and ministry publications.
• Not used as a basis for factual claims: other calculator sites, aggregator sites, news reports about rules rather than the rules themselves, and unattributed content.
• Where a news report is the only available source for something recent, the page says so and treats it as provisional until an official source confirms it.

Language tools are used in drafting, in the same way an editor uses a spellchecker or an outline. They are not used as a source of facts, and no page is published without a human checking every factual claim against the primary source it cites.

Content that reads as generated filler — generic introductions, restated paragraphs, padding to reach a length — is not published. If a page can be shorter and still answer the question, it should be.

• Tax content is reviewed after every Union Budget and whenever the Finance Act changes a rate or a threshold.
• Small savings rates are re-checked at the start of every quarter, because they are notified quarterly.
• Government pages are re-verified on a schedule, and the verification date on the page tells you when that last happened.
• Pages that are no longer accurate and cannot be made accurate are removed and redirected, not left up.
• URLs are not changed after indexing unless there is a genuine reason. Where a URL must change, a permanent redirect is put in place.

Tools To India does not accept payment for coverage, for inclusion, for a link, or for a favourable description. No advertiser, institution or government body has any influence over what is published or how it is described.

Advertising is separated from editorial by design: advertisements never appear above or inside a calculator, are always labelled, and never affect which official source a page links to.