This article explores the growing trend of using AI tools, eg ChatGPT, for international tax advice and highlights the risks and misconceptions associated with a DIY approach to doing your taxes. The article underscores the importance of working with qualified advisors for accurate, insured, and compliant tax support, especially in complex, cross-border tax situations.
The recent explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT, has transformed how people search and interpret information.
From planning holidays to drafting contracts and even working out how to do online dating, many people now heavily rely on generative AI tools to help shortcut time, effort and ultimately cost.
The temptation to use these relatively new resources for all aspects of our lives is incredibly high – after all they use the information on the Internet, therefore they must be able to interpret highly complex subjects and transpose them onto our own situations, and in a fraction of the time.
This is fine when your requirement is to work out which restaurants to visit, get a summary of historical things to see in different locations or even summarise a report that someone has painstakingly written for you. The potential impact is minimal in the grand scheme of things.
However, when it comes to financial decision making and international tax advice, using generative AI as a substitute for human expertise is an incredibly risky approach, and will very likely turn out to be a false economy.
At Experts for Expats, over the past 12 months we’ve seen am increasing number of people requesting introductions and turning up for their initial discovery calls with pre-written summaries, AI-generated answers and conclusions formed from “extensive” self-research.
It’s important to remember that the discovery calls and initial consultations are not designed to confirm any formal advice or receive a second opinion.
We’ve written this article in conjunction with a podcast recorded with Laura Sant, a UK and international tax specialist at LSR Partners, where we discussed the purpose of discovery calls and why relying on AI for tax matters can do more harm than good, and what you should actually expect from your first conversation with a specialist.
You can watch the full conversation on our Expats Unpacked YouTube channel or below:
When we originally set up Experts for Expats back in 2012, the initial service was to offer a free initial consultation. However, over the years we have evolved this to become a “Free Discovery Call”. The reason for this is that we wanted to stop people seeing the call as a free advisory session, which it was never intended to be.
While many professionals will offer something similar to our discovery call, there will also be a limitation of what can actually be advised upon as a result to due diligence requirements imposed by regulatory bodies: ultimately the risk of providing bad advice without a thorough investigation is too high.
It’s a short, a free discovery call or free consultation is a structured conversation intended to:
Essentially a free discovery call is not designed or offered to provide personalised tax advice or to confirm conclusions drawn from AI tools or online forums.
They are also not the place to “just check” if your interpretation of someone else’s work is correct, especially if it involves technical or jurisdiction-specific tax matters.
AI definitely has strengths and opportunities, but at this time (and maybe never) international tax and financial advice is certainly not one of them.
While tools like ChatGPT can create confidence and appear coherent, the information presented back to you is based on patterns from public data, and freely available information online (including opinions, incorrect information, and anything out of date) - not verified legislation, not current tax laws, and not your individual circumstances.
Much like search engines, an AI tool will have hierarchy of certain sites and information sources, even this does not mean that the information gathered is vetted or trustworthy.
It’s vital to remember that international tax rules are complex, highly nuanced, and frequently updated. AI will often misinterpret legal phrasing, provides outdated guidance, oversimplify issues that require technical context, or simply misses key exceptions that trained professionals are looking out for. AI also won’t necessarily provide you with references of where the information came from.
The absolute base risk is that AI tools won’t ever carry responsibility if their output leads to errors or financial penalties, but you will. When you pay for formal advice, you are protected by their insurance and also their contract. If the mistake is as a result of negligence, you will have recourse for corrective action.
One of the most common misconceptions is that doing most of the work yourself and then approaching a professional “just to confirm” your findings will save time and money.
The reality is very different for reasons mentioned above: if anything you’ve done is incorrect, they take the risk. This means that a tax advisor will need to start from the beginning to verify your conclusions, independent of any information you have researched yourself or any work you’ve done yourself.
If you consider doing DIY in your home – if you decided to rewire your house and then ask an electrician to certify the electrics based on one or two lights working, you’d be told exactly where to go.
It’s the same with professional services: they need to review everything from scratch, identify gaps, and ensure that their advice is based on facts they can verify themselves, never assumptions made by the client.
This will neither be quicker or cheaper than starting from the beginning, and if your self-diagnosis is incorrect, it can create further delays and confusion.
Most cross-border tax issues will involve at least two different jurisdictions or countries, each with its own laws, tax treaties, and timelines.
Even the most experienced tax advisors tend to specialise in only one system and collaborate with counterparts elsewhere.
Believing that a single advisor, or a tool, can provide a full solution across multiple tax systems is, at best, unrealistic. Accurate and trustworthy international tax support typically requires advisors who understand how taxes work in each jurisdiction and have clear communication between each other, while spending time ensuring consistency and compliance.
While it may sound more complicated (and maybe expensive), this collaborative approach is actually what protects you from mistakes and oversights. This is ultimately going to give you the confidence that your tax affairs are in order, reduce your stress and even reduce your costs in the medium to long term.
The real value of seeking formal tax advice isn’t just in the answers to questions in the quickest and most cost effective manner, it’s in experienced interpretation, risk assessment, and technical guidance based on your own personal circumstances.
A qualified and experienced advisor will know which questions to ask, what issues to look out for, and how to adapt their advice using a combination of current legislation and your specific goals. This simply cannot be replicated by an AI tool, forum post or free consultation.
More importantly, professional advice is backed by insurance, regulatory compliance, and accountability, all designed to protect you, not just inform you and get your tax return done on time for the cheapest price.
If you're considering using AI or your own research to handle your international tax affairs, you must fully understand and consider the risks, and work out whether it’s going to save you time or money (it probably isn’t going to save you either).
Here are a few key points you should remember:
If you need help with international tax matters and want clarity, peace of mind, and tailored support, start with our free introduction to and discovery call with one of our trusted partners.
