this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2026

62 points (95.6% liked)

Technology

83695 readers

3413 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related news or articles.
Be excellent to each other!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

L3s@lemmy.world

enu@lemmy.world

technopagan@lemmy.world

L4s@lemmy.world

L3s@hackingne.ws

1 in 5 Americans to use AI to help file taxes (www.kxan.com)

submitted 1 day ago by return2ozma@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

28 comments fedilink hide all child comments

all 33 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] Jaegeras@piefed.social 9 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

And another on a list of things you should not use AI for...

AI is not for:

Therapy
Tax Filing
Planning Revenge
Trying to make you win online arguments
Trying to make it see things your way, like specific worldviews
Trying to make it orchestrate protests
Erotic Roleplay (Grok doesn't care about it though)
Stalk people

[–] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Rest make sense but Why not the role play?

[–] MrQuallzin@pie.eyeofthestorm.place 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Don't let computers steal your imagination and creativity

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 2 points 9 hours ago

I don't know if cashapp uses AI or not to file their "free" tax returns. I know that prior to using it I had to agree to let them use any and all information for marketing and advertising. Nope!

Then I got an offer from someone to use TurboTax for state and federal for "free" but they spend plenty to lobby the government not to have free filing. Also nope, doubling down, because of the comment here by @prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 8 points 13 hours ago

I wonder if I counted...

So I did the tax prep using a free offer from TurboTax. Everything seemed traditional.

Then, at the end it generated an AI summary of my return. I didn't have a choice, it just did it. I have the "unhelpful" feedback because:

Despite saying it was "explaining" the numbers and why, all it did was just list the numbers from the fairly straightforward table right above the AI response in a more awkward form, not explaining anything.
Further, despite the seemingly easy task of "Take a table of figures and repeat them in prose", it still screwed up and messed up and of the figures that all our had to do was repeat verbatim.

So AI was forced into my tax prep and did nothing substantive (thank goodness) and flubbed the cosmetic role it tried to play.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

So if we do this, and the AI fucks up, can we just blame the AI and not get in trouble? Isn't that why it exists?

[–] CanIFishHere@lemmy.ca 1 points 28 minutes ago

You can't even blame your human accountant.

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 6 points 13 hours ago

Hey LLM. I'm thinking of deducting my Corvette as a business expense for my landscaping business, is that a good idea?

What a creative way to lower your tax burden! This totally makes sense and you can be confident that your decision will be well received.

(Others can take the LLM tone better than me, and I don't have the patience for LLM verbosity).

[–] lemmyng@lemmy.world 16 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Use FreeTaxUSA or OnLine Taxes. Much more affordable online tax tools.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

its free under certain AGI, or if you make alot money, might want to consider other alternatives,.

[–] xthexder@l.sw0.com 2 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

FreeFillableForms works regardless of your income or if you have other unconventional things to claim. It's just a bit more manual than some of the other apps, but does support e-File. I find the instructions are pretty easy to follow though, especially if you can reference your previous year's return.

[–] ellen.kimble@piefed.social 16 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Why are we filing and paying taxes anymore? They’ve stripped most things that help the common citizen including things like the SEC that allow the president to pump a stock ticker

[–] GooseFinger@sh.itjust.works 16 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Because my employer garnished my wages to pay taxes, and if I dont file my taxes, the federal will keep my refund.

[–] marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today -1 points 2 hours ago

Why did you incorrectly fill out your W4?

No American should be getting a tax refund if they've properly filled out their W4 using the instructions on the form.

[–] bibbasa@piefed.social 13 points 22 hours ago

yikes

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 points 18 hours ago

i saw on a sub someone used it, and it gave wrong info back.

[–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 1 points 19 hours ago

Last year I asked the HR block ai chat bot thing a question and it got it wrong.

[–] blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 14 hours ago

Over 50% of Americans can barely read

[–] luthis@lemmy.nz -1 points 22 hours ago

Good to see only 5 Americans are paying tax. That's a great way to protest misuse of tax dollars

[+] MyBrainHurts@piefed.ca -8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I mean, a lot of tax stuff is automated. Mine are pretty straightforward so turboTax handles a huge chunk of the work...

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Most people take the standard deduction, and for us, it's usually as easy as copying a few numbers from the boxes on a W-2 form into a website.

However, for some people/jobs it makes more sense to do itemized deductions, in which case, it gets more complicated.

That said, using an LLM for it is fucking stupid

[–] MyBrainHurts@piefed.ca 0 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I take it you've never helped someone who struggles with bureaucracy and government forms.

I've helped folks with tenancy, tax and applications. Usually, the issue behind the given issues is that everything feels very intimidating and the forms/support document are written in "government-ese".

If there's a tool that can help explain this stuff, without a multi hour phone wait, I'm all for it. Not everyone has a resource like myself that they feel comfortable asking. Especially when, there's a sense of shame in being an adult who cannot navigate these things, yeah, I fully understand and can appreciate why 1/5 would want to ask an LLM for help.

You'd be surprised with the stumbling blocks people face. Just because you know how your deductions etc are supposed to work does not mean most people do. I find it's really useful to consider things not from my perspective but from the least fortunate.

[–] athatet@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 hours ago

They still won’t know after asking an llm either.

[–] imsufferableninja@sh.itjust.works 37 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Purpose-built tax software is not the same as the random word generator.

[+] MyBrainHurts@piefed.ca -7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Neither the article, nor source make a distinction as to whether it's a general purpose LLM or purpose built software.

So it really depends on the question that the poll asked, which as far as I can tell, is not shared.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 12 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Judging by the source, they likely asked "do you plan to use AI".

But given that we're talking about the general public, I guarantee most people using AI for their taxes are just asking chatgpt.

[–] MyBrainHurts@piefed.ca -4 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

I don't know the organization so can't speak to the source or their methodology but they do note:

The top ways people plan to use AI is to help answer filing questions, find deductions or credits, and review returns for mistakes.

All of which seem pretty reasonable. If you don't have the money for a professional, at least checking with something that is right more often than not with some basic questions seems perfectly reasonable.

From the reactions above, it seems people are assuming they're just asking chatgpt to do all their taxes, which doesn't appear to be the case.

[–] Zen_Shinobi@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago

Both Turbotax and Taxact have sections for questions on every section while filing, you can even talk to an advisor while filing. Using AI to review or figure out deductions is just being lazy.