Skip To Main Content
A human face that looks digitized with lines over the features.
Tax

CPA Canada has your AI solutions for tax covered

Exclusive deal only for CPAs who are a part of CPA Canada offers huge discount on a cutting edge tax tool that utilizes AI

Like so many technologies, AI is bringing disruption to the tax profession. But will AI result in increased efficiency and productivity or will it result in errors and loss of critical knowledge? The answer depends on how we decide to use this new technology. Too much reliance on any tool, including AI, tends to increase the chance of errors and reduce our critical knowledge. But if we consider AI as a tool to enhance our skills instead of replacing them, then we can use this new technology to create efficiencies and improve productivity.   

Read More 

Our colleagues in the U.S. are also considering the role of A. I. in providing tax services. The American Institute of Chartered Professional Accountants (AICPA) recently updated its Statement on Standards for Tax Services (SSTS) to include new section 1.4 “Reliance on Tools”, which can be applied to AI technology and its advancement in tax research, as the following excerpts show: 

  • 1.4.3 A member should exercise appropriate professional judgement and professional care when relying on a tool. 
  • 1.4.7 A member who employs tools in providing tax services remains responsible for the completed work product in accordance with the various other standards contained in the SSTSs. Accordingly, members should take reasonable steps to determine that the tools used are appropriate for the intended purpose. 
  • 1.4.8 Tools should be used to enhance or improve the member’s understanding of a tax issue, not to supplant the member’s professional judgment. For example, when preparing Form 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, a member must still attest under penalties of perjury that, to the best of the preparer’s knowledge and belief, the return and accompanying schedules are true, correct, and complete. That responsibility cannot be transferred entirely to reliance on a tool [emphasis added]. 

Keeping these cautions in mind, how helpful are current AI tools in doing tax research? Blue J, a leading AI tax research company, has created a generative AI tax research tool called – simply enough, “Blue J”, which has a user interface similar to Chat GPT but with a tax-focused output. With all the talk around the future of AI and tax research, I wanted to test the functionality of Blue J, so I asked it the following specific tax-related questions: 

  • Can an employee deduct professional dues that are not required by provincial or federal law? 
  • What are the exceptions to subsection 15(2)? 
  • Does my vehicle in class 10.1 qualify as accelerated investment incentive property if available for use in 2021?
  • When do I have to repay my shareholder loan if I am the sole shareholder of the private company and I borrowed the funds on April 28, 2023 and the year-end of the company is December 31? 
  • What is Canada Revenue Agency's position regarding assessment of proposed legislation? 

I was very pleased with the quality of the responses, which included relevant sources allowing me to validate and do additional research if necessary. 

The old expression “garbage in – garbage out” is very true with generative AI High-quality answers require high-quality questions, and high-quality questions require sufficient knowledge of tax and understanding of the issues at hand. The questions I asked were very specific with sufficient details to derive appropriate responses. 

But we have to remain vigilant, so we don’t become complacent with our AI generated answer. We are CPAs with two of the best skills a profession could have: critical thinking and professional skepticism. These two fundamental skills are why CPAs can work all around the world. We must use these skills to validate, and sometimes correct, the AI’s answers. This review and approval process is the cornerstone of any high-quality advice provided by CPAs, which AI should not change. As the AICPA stated, “tools should be used to enhance or improve the member’s understanding of a tax issue, not to supplant the member’s professional judgment.” 

History is filled with advancements in technology that have bolstered our profession: Internet, email, spreadsheets, tax preparation software and smart phones, to name a few. AI is here to stay, and it is advancing at a rapid pace. We can choose to fear it and ignore it, or we can embrace it and find ways to let it help us – like so much great technology before it. My old research habits are hard to break, but the more I test Blue J, the more efficiency I seem to find in my tax research.  The answers to my test questions, provided by Blue J, significantly reduced my research time, and with my existing tax knowledge and the cited sources, I was able to quickly validate the accuracy. 

If you are like me, you realize that the best way to learn is through hands-on training. That’s why CPA Canada and Blue J have negotiated a deal to offer those who are part of CPA Canada a 50 per cent discount towards an annual licence to Blue J. 

AI and tax is here now, and where we go with it is up to us. I encourage you to try this new tool in your professional practice and decide for yourself.