More than eighty percent of the mechanical work on a return can be automated today. The positions, the elections and the signature cannot — and should not be.
Schedule a Tax ConversationThe Split
Tax preparation divides more cleanly than almost any other engagement: there is mechanical work, and there is judgment. They should be priced and handled differently.
Industry analysis puts more than eighty percent of the mechanical work on an individual return within reach of automation today — document intake, classification, extraction and cross-checking. That is the part of the process that generates the paperwork chase and the hourly bill without generating any actual tax value for you.
Automating it does not make your return riskier. It makes the transcription more consistent than a human doing it at eleven at night in March, and it frees the CPA's time for the part where the money actually is.
What we automate:
Where a Person Takes Over
These are the decisions that determine what you actually pay, and none of them are safe to hand to a model.
Whether to take a position, how aggressive it is, and whether it is supportable on examination. An election made for the wrong year cannot be undone by better software.
Where authority is unsettled or the facts do not fit the pattern, a large language model will produce a confident answer — sometimes with a citation that does not exist. A CPA reads the actual authority.
A paid preparer signs the return and carries the responsibility for it under Circular 230. If the return is examined, a person represents you — the software does not appear.
Real tax savings usually come from a decision made months before the return, not from how the return was typed. That conversation is the point of the relationship.
What This Changes For You
The practical difference shows up in the experience, not in the signature block.
Returns move faster because the transcription is not the bottleneck. The document chase shortens because the system knows what is missing as soon as what arrived has been read. And review time goes toward the items that differ from last year rather than confirming the ones that do not.
None of that changes who is accountable. The return is prepared under the supervision of a CPA, reviewed by a person, and signed by a person.
We handle individual and business returns, multi-state filings, nonprofit Form 990 and related filings, and planning engagements for clients who would rather not be surprised in April.