Everyone hates tax season. It’s stressful, confusing, and often expensive. So, when a tool like ChatGPT comes along—capable of writing poetry, coding websites, and passing the bar exam—it’s natural to wonder: “Can I just feed my W-2s into this thing and let it do the work?”
It’s a tempting idea. After all, we’re all looking for ways to save money on CPAs or expensive software.
But before you start copying and pasting your financial life into a chatbot, you need to hit the brakes. While artificial intelligence is changing the world, it isn’t ready to be your accountant just yet.
Here’s why relying on raw AI for your taxes is a risky gamble, and how you can actually use it to your advantage without triggering an audit.
The big problem: It makes things up
The most critical thing to understand about tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini is that they are “large language models.” They are designed to predict the next plausible word in a sentence, not to verify facts.
In the tech world, when an AI confidently states something that isn’t true, it’s called a “hallucination.” We’ve already seen lawyers get in trouble because they used AI to write legal briefs, only to find out the bot invented court cases that didn’t exist.
The same risk applies to tax code. An AI might tell you that you qualify for a specific deduction because it “sounds” right based on the millions of documents it has read, even if that deduction expired two years ago.
The IRS doesn’t care if a robot told you to do it; you’re the one on the hook for the penalty.
Math isn’t its strong suit
This sounds counter intuitive—computers are supposed to be good at math, right? But language models aren’t calculators. They process text.
If you ask a chatbot to calculate your adjusted gross income based on a messy list of expenses, it might get it right. But it also might confidentially give you an answer that is mathematically impossible.
There have been numerous reports of AI tools struggling with basic arithmetic when it’s embedded in complex word problems.
For your taxes, “close enough” isn’t good enough. You need precision. This is why using tested software is safer than trying to DIY with a chatbot.
Privacy risks are real
To get an AI to do your taxes, you’d have to give it data. A lot of data. We’re talking about your Social Security number, your address, your income, your medical expenses, and your bank account numbers.
Most public AI tools save your conversations to train future versions of their models. That means the sensitive data you type in could potentially be accessed by the company’s engineers or, in a worst-case scenario, regurgitated to other users.
Never, ever put your personally identifiable information (PII) into a public chatbot. It’s one of the biggest digital security mistakes you can make.
It often ignores state laws
Federal tax law is complicated enough, but state taxes are a whole other beast. Each state has its own quirks, exemptions, and filing requirements.
AI models are often trained heavily on general data, which means they might be great at explaining federal concepts but terrible at knowing that your specific state doesn’t tax Social Security benefits, or that you missed a local property tax credit.
A human tax pro or sophisticated software is programmed to catch these location-specific nuances.
What AI is actually good for
So, should you ignore AI completely this tax season? Not necessarily. It can be a brilliant tutor, as long as you don’t treat it as a preparer.
- Understanding the jargon: If you receive a form you don’t recognize or don’t understand the difference between a “standard deduction” and an “itemized deduction,” AI can give you a clear, plain-English explanation.
- Drafting letters: If you need to write a letter to the IRS (perhaps to request a penalty abatement), an AI can draft a professional-sounding letter for you in seconds. Just be sure to review it carefully.
- Excel wizardry: If you’re trying to organize your expenses in a spreadsheet but don’t know the formula to sum up your “business meals” column, ask the AI. It’s incredibly good at writing Excel formulas.
The bottom line
We’re seeing major tax companies like TurboTax and H&R Block integrate AI into their software. That’s a safer bet because those tools are “walled gardens”—the AI is checking your data against a verified rule set, not just guessing based on internet text.
See also: Complete Guide to Filing Taxes for reviews of the top software options.
If your taxes are simple, there are plenty of ways to file for free without resorting to a chatbot. And if your situation is complex—maybe you own a business or have multiple income streams—it’s usually worth paying a human to ensure you don’t miss anything.
Use AI to learn, but don’t let it file. When the IRS comes knocking, “the robot told me to” won’t be a valid defense.
