AI for Accountants: Tax Research That Finds Answers Faster

By Jordan Taylor

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You're staring at a client question about whether that $50,000 non-compete payment their S-Corp made is deductible or needs to be amortized. You know it's somewhere in Section 197, but the regulations are 40 pages long. An hour later, you've found your answer—but you've got three more research questions waiting.

Here's what nobody warns you about: ChatGPT will happily fabricate IRC sections, Tax Court cases, and revenue rulings that don't exist. I've seen it invent "§199B" (there is no §199B) and cite Tax Court decisions with realistic-sounding names and holdings that never happened. General AI hallucinates tax authority at an alarming rate.