Can AI Do Your Taxes? We Found Out.

Ask an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot a question and you get an answer. Ask Perplexity Computer, and it completes the task.

The company’s new agent browses the web, fills out forms and works through multi-step tasks before handing back a finished result. Perplexity has begun rolling out specialized versions for specific workflows, with Computer for Taxes among the first.

PYMNTS took the tax version for a test drive to see how the technology handles a real return. The team ran the full workflow: uploaded a W-2, entered income types, identified applicable tax breaks and submitted all required forms.

Computer executed roughly 20 steps, each visible as it processed and produced a completed federal tax form. It asked for a Social Security number (SSN) mid-workflow. The team chose not to provide it. The agent continued the work without interruption. It completed the return, calculating a final tax balance that was $66 lower than the human-prepared version.

From Answers to Actions

Perplexity is drawing a structural distinction from its counterparts. Tools like ChatGPT or Gemini respond to tax questions based on training data with a fixed cutoff date and no direct connection to current IRS materials, as PYMNTS reported.

Computer is built differently. Tax knowledge is packaged as loadable modules built on the Agent Skills protocol, with guidance grounded in IRS materials and regulations. That keeps the system current with recent legislation. Another model trained through September would miss these updates.

In internal testing, Perplexity found that deductions under the 2025 No Tax on Overtime provisions were understated by 67% in one attorney-prepared return, leaving thousands of dollars unclaimed. Computer caught the error. The system can also review a professionally prepared return for accuracy and help filers confirm no money is left on the table, the company said. That makes it a check on the professionals who’ve held the market for decades, not only a self-filing tool.

Access requires a Pro subscription at $17 per month. The system doesn’t file on the user’s behalf. Perplexity noted that output is for reference only, not legal tax advice.

Shifting Consumer Behavior

The launch arrives as consumer behavior is shifting. About a quarter of U.S. workers plan to use AI to help file their taxes this year, more than double the 11% who said the same last year, according to PYMNTS Intelligence. Some 62% of Generation Z consumers are open to using AI for financial planning guidance.

Intuit isn’t standing still. The company announced a $100 million partnership with OpenAI in November to integrate TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks and Mailchimp directly into ChatGPT. In early February, it announced a separate agreement with Anthropic. Intuit has more than 100 million users on its platform and years of prior financial data on file. That’s a different competitive position than a $17-a-month subscription.

AI’s Limitations

Computer for Taxes drafts federal returns, but it doesn’t file them. State income tax rules vary significantly across the 41 states that have them, and state return support is limited or unavailable depending on the state, as Mindstudio noted.

The agent also can’t represent a user before the IRS or take legal responsibility for errors. Complex situations involving international income, partnership K-1s, or significant business transactions remain outside reliable scope.

Some early users have reported accuracy problems. Filers have flagged missed state deductions tied to recently updated thresholds, and context limitations that force the system to reload uploaded documents mid-session, running up token costs before a return is complete. Several ended up filing through traditional software instead.

The SSN request mid-workflow adds another dimension. When the agent asked for the user’s SSN, the user declined. Although Computer proceeded regardless, the interaction raises clear data privacy questions around how personal financial information is handled, stored and secured, especially as users begin to trust AI systems with end-to-end financial workflows traditionally managed by regulated professionals.

Computer for Taxes is built for filers already asking AI for guidance who are ready to hand it the forms, the company said. Whether they hand over other personal data depends on what the 2026 filing season delivers.

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