Working professionals across India are embracing artificial intelligence as an alternative to traditional tax accountants for filing income tax returns, with a viral trend emerging on social media platforms like LinkedIn. According to reports from Mint, Akhil Sood, a senior Amazon executive living in Washington, shared in a viral LinkedIn post that he successfully filed his Indian Income Tax Return (ITR) using AI assistance, noting that as an NRI, tax filing has traditionally felt more complicated than necessary. However, as tax season begins, four experts warn that AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude AI may not be as reliable as professionals think. As Mint reports, general AI is designed to mimic human conversation, not to process rigid financial regulations, creating significant reliability concerns for tax filing.
Indian professionals are increasingly using Anthropic's Claude to assist with filing their income tax returns, marking a significant shift in tax compliance technology. As reported by Mint, Bengaluru-based information security specialist Uddeshya Kumar detailed his experience using Claude's desktop app, claiming the tool didn't just guide him but actually executed parts of the filing process. Kumar shared that Claude analyzed his Form 16, cross-checked income against the Annual Information Statement (AIS), flagged discrepancies, managed mid-year employer changes, fixed portal errors and session timeouts, and completed the return end-to-end. Kumar described the AI's performance as 'running like a CA sitting next to me' and emphasized that the process felt seamless and largely autonomous.
Archit Gupta, CEO of Cleartax, highlighted a major concern that general AI is designed to mimic human conversation, not to process rigid financial regulations. As reported by Mint, Gupta noted that 'because there is no structured compliance engine running in the background, the logic can shift. It is very common to input the exact same document twice and get different calculation results'. Alay Razvi, Managing Partner at Accord Juris, emphasized that AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude are not built for Indian tax laws, putting taxpayers' personal data at risk and potentially generating content based on outdated data. Pallav Pradyumn Narang, Partner at CNK, acknowledged that while AI tools are good at capturing data, tax filing still needs proper context and historical understanding.
Professionals using AI for tax filing face significant legal risks, as no legal protection exists for relying on AI-generated tax returns. According to Mint, Raheel Patel, Partner at Gandhi Law Associates, confirmed that 'reliance on AI is unlikely to be a defence against a tax demand, penalty, or scrutiny, though it may sometimes support a claim of a bona fide mistake'. Archit Gupta emphasized that 'you cannot use inaccurate advice from an automated chatbot to get penalties or interest waived. The responsibility to check and verify that every single detail is correct always rests entirely on the individual'. The due date to file ITR for most individual taxpayers who do not require a tax audit is July 31, 2026.
The trend has generated significant discussion about data privacy and AI accuracy in tax filing, with experts now warning of enhanced privacy and security risks. As reported by Mint, taxpayers must be cautious about uploading PAN, salary slips, bank statements, and other sensitive documents to AI platforms. Raheel Patel advised that 'such data may be stored or processed by third parties, creating privacy and data-security risks. Redacting personal information wherever possible is advisable'. Archit Gupta noted that 'beyond personal risk, it is also a way to violate your own employer's data security policies'. Despite these concerns, Kumar defended his approach, arguing that sharing documents within his own browser session was safer than common practices like sending Form 16 over WhatsApp to a CA.
