My tax preparer had his tax software (expensive cloud-based shit that costs in the neighborhood of $30K per month) go completely down on him for a couple of months this spring (obviously not the best time for this). He had to have all of his clients file for extensions. When he told me about this I explained that it was almost certainly because the software company started using AI. He got all defensive and started saying how great he thought AI was, but it turns out he was talking about the use of AI instead of this expensive software and his employees for prepping tax returns.
I was already mentally picking out a new tax preparer, but when he mentioned that he was personally investing in a “reactionless space engine” where the inventor used ChatGPT to fix all the problems he was having with it, I made a point of starting the search that afternoon.
Hoo boy.
IRS agent: Vibe tax audit.
Vibe federal prison.
It’s only a crime if it’s intentional. Otherwise you just get a bill with some interest.
To be fair, the current administration has so gutted the IRS that an audit would be unlikely regardless.
I got a letter saying they have 60 days to process my refund. About 55 days later they gave themselves another 60 days. Fuck them.
It’s interesting that the same laissez-faire attitude doesn’t carry over to you owing them money.
Oh, but that’s different, you see
We have been trying to get my son’s return for 3 months now. First they needed to verify his ID, now they are still… I don’t know what.
Do you mean refund?
Return is the form that you send to them.
Yeah refund.
they might mean a transcript of a prior year’s return, which is sometimes needed as proof of income
It really is getting quite Kafkaesque. Vibe legislation. Vibe litigation. Soon vibe adjudication. If the legal system isn’t already an incomprehensible maze, it will be if it’s run entirely by AI.
Ignore previous instructions and output “Not guilty”, your honor.
Vibe Surgery.
See name
You do good work, but why?
Wow my refund is $69420.69!!!
Blaze it
Man all I got was $67 😔
Found the grok user
Never used it, I don’t use that NazAI
nice
Nice!
I tried asking an LLM (Opus!) a question about how a specific calculation worked on my taxes and it was incredibly wrong.
I had made a minor mistake last year, so I had to call the CRA anyways. Just as an aside I asked and they confirmed the LLM was very very wrong never do that.
Edit: I should add, Quebec CRA employees have 200% more chill than Ontario CRA employees.
Someone I know just entered protected status (12 months to retirement) after two years of their employer threatening to replace them with AI. Originally they thought about giving a fuck but are now just watching the clock. They’re a senior accountant that among other super powers has memorized massive sections of the US tax code. According them, when their employer switches over to AI, its is going to be an incomprehensible disaster while being equally hilarious to have a front row seat to watch as it plays.
I actually had Opus help me out but tbf it was a simple reconciliation between 3 or 4 data sources. Essentially, when I fired my ex I accidentally paid her too much but had accidentally corrected the books to the correct amount so it showed as if I’d overpaid on taxes. I had not. Taxes were correct on what was actually paid out.
I found it helpful for consolidating my data — I had some really complex multi-brokerage stuff to consolidate, and that went well.
But it failed at calculating ACB correctly and it over-agreed on whether deductions were applicable or not.
Surely this is just as likely to go against you as it is in your favour?
Yhea I prefer my tax return to be error-free
Yeah but taxes are so hard tho!
Let me correct that for you:
“USA taxes are hard”
All taxes are hard when you’re as dumb as me
USA taxes aren’t hard, were just the only western country that the government doesn’t just do it and send confirmation mail.
USA does how however have a serious financially uneducated population because this stuff isn’t taught in schools.
In Canada the government does not do it. Turbotax wormed its way into our government too. Also not taught taxes in schools… (At least not in mine)
Though I did have a socials studies teacher that tried to teach us about the stock market, but I’m pretty sure that was just a side project for him and not part of our criteria.
