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AI tax tools can be handy for summarizing dense tax language and can give people a general idea about how to approach their tax filings. But local accountants warn: Speed doesn’t always equal accuracy.
CHAMPAIGN — Artificial Intelligence tools for tax preparation abound. While AI tax tools can be handy for summarizing dense tax language and can give people a general idea about how to approach their tax filings, speed doesn’t always equal accuracy, so people should be careful, said Jason Shaw, an accountant and partner at Kemper CPA Group in Champaign. Tax rules change year to year, and individual tax situations vary. So he advises people to verify what they learn from AI with a professional. “AI can generate data, but there’s a certain point you need someone with some knowledge and experience to be able to interpret ‘yes, this is good data,’ or ‘this is bad data,’” Shaw said. AI is fast and convenient, but tax filers will be on the hook for any errors, such as incorrect deductions of credits, said Monica Beasley, president and owner of Monica’s Accounting & Tax Services. “A tax professional can look at a return and say, ‘That just isn’t looking right.’ That’s why humans need to stay in these positions,” she said. Still, Beasley affirms that AI can play a helpful role, especially for research, if people use it carefully. “I might go to AI and say, ‘Can you look up IRS federal compliance, but give me credible sources and provide a link to that source?’” Beasley said. “Use it as a research tool, but don’t have it doing your work for you.”
It’s not that AI tools are all bad. In fact, Shaw said he uses an AI software developed for professionals, called CoCounsel, that can answer specific tax questions in a reliable way. “It’s getting so powerful that it can analyze schedules, or almost anything you give it, which is exciting from a standpoint of accountants,” he said. “A lot of our work is constricted into a few months… and if they are going to say, ‘well, we can get rid of 10 to 20% of what’s taking your time and have that automated,’ that’s a good thing.” The challenge comes when people are dealing with unique circumstances that might lead to certain deductions. Shaw notes that tax laws can change year to year, so even specialized AI tools need a human filter. AI tools for public use — like ChatGPT and CoPilot — are based on algorithms, pulling information from unvetted sources. “It’s from whatever source is out there,” Shaw said. “I wouldn’t rely on it to do a tax return because your circumstances may be different… It may be telling you something true in 2018 that’s no longer true in 2025.”
The IRS program Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) offers free tax assistance to low-to-moderate income, senior citizens, non-English speakers and people with disabilities. The local VITA program – based out of Salt and Light in Urbana – offers services run from early February through early April. Mandi Alt, an accountancy senior instructor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, oversees the Urbana-based VITA program. She said she built a custom Illinois Chatbot for VITA volunteers and students to use when helping clients. Alt said the chatbot relies on vetted tax materials, reinforcing that professional expertise remains essential when working with AI. Alt previously used a Box folder, but now uploads these trainings and documents to Illinois Chat. “Rather than going out and using ChatGPT where you don’t know where it’s pulling from, I know they are pulling from the resources,” she said.
Shaw also noted that not all AI assistance is safe, warning that scammers may use the same tools to steal personal information. The Internal Revenue Service advises tax filers to use online tools to find answers to “several tax questions specific to individual circumstances,” according to the IRS website. The agency also advises people to use the IRS Directory of Federal Tax Return Preparers with Credentials and Select Qualifications to “find a preparer who is skilled in tax preparation and accurately files income tax returns.” Alt adds that privacy risks increase when private data – like social security numbers and bank details — are uploaded to AI tools. “Whatever you feed in there can just be kind of out there… so we have to be very careful about what we are putting into the system, she said.” “AI can be a really effective tool, but just like any tool, you have to be knowledgeable and trained to know the output you are getting is accurate,” Alt said.