Filing taxes is painful enough that many people would happily hand the job to a robot. In the age of generative AI, where chatbots can crank out a decent-sounding school essay in under a minute, it’s tempting to think your tax return could be next.
There’s just one small problem. The Internal Revenue Service expects financial data to be accurate, not just “close enough.”
I asked some tax experts whether you should have a general-purpose AI chatbot like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Perplexity do your taxes for you. The answer was clear.
“I don’t recommend that at all,” said Travis Thompson, a tax attorney and director in the business and finance group at the firm Fennemore.
“My advice would be no,” said Sterling Raskie, senior lecturer of finance at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Tax season makes everyone look for shortcuts. Federal income tax returns are nightmarish and complicated — and that’s exactly what makes them unsuited for a chatbot. AI is very good at sounding right even when it’s wrong.
Still, if you can’t afford to hire a trusted, trained human to help with your taxes, there are some things generative AI can be useful for during tax season.
You can’t trust AI to be accurate
The capabilities of a generative AI model are impressive. But let’s remember that, at their core, these educated-guess machines are simply finding patterns and offering plausible results. They can’t distinguish approximation from the truth.
The numbers on your tax forms are expected to be correct, not simply ballpark. That’s why doing your taxes is such a pain, and also why we’re not supposed to take shortcuts. Mistakes can be costly to your refund, or you could face expensive repayments and fines, or worse.
“It’s important to keep in mind that if an AI chatbot provides incorrect guidance and a person uses it to file an incorrect tax return, they (the person) are responsible for infractions or violations, which could include penalties, interest, and lost refunds,” said Chris Linderwell, vice president of consumer tax products at H&R Block.
Some tax-specific AI tools are trained on and rely specifically on information about the tax code. But the generic one you use for menu planning or travel research is not one of those.
Read more: Tax Season 2026: Which Documents and Info Do You Need to File Income Taxes?
You can’t trust AI with sensitive documents
Highly personal information, such as your Social Security number and financial statements, should be kept safe — or at least as safe as possible in today’s digital world, where data collection through email and social media is ubiquitous, and data breaches are common.
Chatbots manage data in the cloud, which is just a computer owned by a private company. They have “memory” features that can regurgitate information in unexpected ways. You may find yourself asking a totally unrelated question down the line and get a response that pulls from data in your tax documents. You probably don’t want that.
Internet privacy risks already run deep, but chatbots are especially known to compromise and leak sensitive information. Grok, the chatbot created by Elon Musk’s xAI, was recently found to be revealing people’s personal information to other users.
Be very careful about giving AI anything you want to keep private, like your tax information.
“You don’t want those numbers floating around the internet,” Thompson said.
How AI can help you with your taxes
Though you shouldn’t trust a large language model to fill out your tax forms, you can still use one as a beefed-up search engine for finding information, i.e., for educational purposes. Just make sure you verify its accuracy before relying on it.
I asked a representative from OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, whether the chatbot is something taxpayers should use for filing. ChatGPT can’t access bank accounts, nor can it act as a licensed financial professional, lawyer, or accountant. “You should always review the ChatGPT output since it is not a replacement for a licensed professional,” the OpenAI rep said.
But it can help with a basic gut-check or can point you in the right direction, like translating tax terms, preparing checklists or providing questions to ask your accountant. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
For example, AI can help you decide what to discuss with a tax pro, which documents you’ll need to process or even identify tax situations you might not have realized. What should you know if you made money from crypto? What’s the difference between married filing jointly and head of household?
Also, keep in mind that the quality of an AI answer doesn’t depend solely on the model, but also on how you ask the question. And repeating the same question multiple times may generate different answers, especially if you express an opinion or a tilt in how you ask (AI sycophancy is real). If outside links are provided in the results from AI, fact-check the findings against the original source, and make sure that the source is reputable.
Remember: You don’t know what you don’t know.
“The less and less expertise you have in that field, the less and less you can trust those programs,” Thompson said. “It doesn’t just depend on what the program is saying; it depends on what the user is asking the program to say.”
Use a human when doing your taxes
Experts underline the importance of having a “human in the loop” for AI systems, whether they’re writing LinkedIn posts or handling critical personal information. Mistakes are the fault of the person who decided to go with the AI’s work, not the technology itself. Don’t blame the calculator if you did the math wrong.
Someone with judgment and accountability should make the final call. When it comes to a simple tax return, you could be that person.
Raskie said if you have a basic return and you trust yourself to be thorough and double-check the numbers, you should be able to file on your own. “Basic return” generally means you only earn W-2 income and take the standard deduction — no complex investments, itemized deductions or freelance work. You could fill out the forms yourself, following step-by-step instructions through the IRS’s free fillable online forms, or by using a free file software option.
H&R Block online uses AI to help automate your filing by reviewing receipts and uploaded documents to prefill fields on your behalf. AI, in this sense, is a time-saver. But ultimately, you have to make sure the information is accurate.
If you need help from a tax professional, most DIY tax software, including H&R Block and TurboTax, offer the option to have a human professional review and file on your behalf for a fee or an upgrade.
Many at-home tax software programs offer defense services in the event of an audit or audit risk assessments before you file — but for an extra cost. H&R Block says it will give audit representation and even financial reimbursement (if they made the error).
“If you have any anxiety whatsoever, it’s worth its weight in gold to hire a licensed tax preparer professional to do your returns, primarily a CPA or what’s called an enrolled agent,” Thompson said.
If you solicit the help of a trusted licensed professional, you might be able to turn to them if there’s a mistake on your return. You’ll still be responsible for paying the government what you owe, but you may be able to hold a tax preparer accountable in cases of fraud or some serious mistakes.
If you decide to trust a chatbot to do your tax return, be ready for an IRS audit. And don’t expect to blame AI.
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