As India gears up for a major overhaul of its tax framework under the Income-tax Rules, 2026, there is a very surprising thing happening on the Internet – people are using artificial intelligence to file their income tax returns. What began as an experiment for a few professionals has now sparked a wider debate across LinkedIn and Reddit, with some users describing AI as a virtual chartered accountant and others warning against trusting sensitive financial information to large language models.
One of the most talked-about examples came from Bengaluru-based information security specialist Uddeshya Kumar, who claimed he used Anthropic’s Claude desktop app to handle almost every stage of his tax filing process.
According to Kumar, the AI assistant
analysed his Form 16, cross-checked income details against the Annual Information Statement (AIS), identified discrepancies, managed complications arising from a mid-year employer change, resolved portal issues and session timeouts, and ultimately completed the filing process.
“The whole thing ran like a CA sitting next to me,” Kumar said, describing the experience as largely seamless.
“We are genuinely at a point where AI can navigate government portals, read tax documents, spot errors, and file on your behalf,” he added.
Kumar even shared the detailed prompt he used to guide Claude through the process, outlining everything from document requirements and verification steps to handling portal pop-ups and login interruptions.
Kumar’s prompt to file Income Tax on Claude:
Role: Expert CA via Chrome MCP
Task: ITR-1 Filing
Parameters: [AY] | [Regime] | [City] | [Employment Type]
Prerequisites:
Form 16 (Part A & B) for all FY employers
Final settlement slips for mid-year job switches
Primary bank IFSC and account number
[City] for verification and [Secondary Address Y/N]
Filing Workflow:
1. Dashboard -> Resume Filing (Never click “File Now” to preserve draft). Dismiss advisories.
2. Confirm strictly in order: Personal Info -> GTI -> Deductions -> Tax Paid -> Tax Liability.
3. Personal Info: Nature of Employment = [Employment Type] | Sec Address = [Y/N] | Opt-out of New Regime = [Y/N].
4. GTI: Accept AIS pre-filled salary completely. Do not manually reduce.
5. Enter verified Deductions, Tax Paid, and confirm auto-calculated Tax Liability.
6. Proceed To Verification -> Preview -> Check declaration -> Place = [City].
7. Proceed To Validation -> Fix errors -> Proceed To Verification.
8. Select Aadhaar OTP e-verify -> Enter OTP -> Submit.
Strict Session Rules:
UI Navigation Only: Never use URL navigation to avoid automatic logouts.
Dual Login Popup: Click “Login Here”.
Logout Popup: Click “No”.
Timeout Protocol: Re-login -> Resume Filing.
His post quickly attracted attention, but not everyone was convinced.
When one LinkedIn user questioned whether filing income tax returns through Claude was risky, Kumar defended the approach.
“Fair question, but consider what most people actually do: Share PAN + Form 16 on WhatsApp with their CA, upload salary slips to ClearTax/TaxBuddy/Quicko, give login credentials to a CA portal they’ve never audited. I did none of that. Claude ran inside my own browser. I was in control the entire time — I reviewed the tax summary before anything was submitted.”
He further clarified that the process was not fully autonomous. “Also this workflow was running completely with Human In Loop,” he said. Yet concerns around privacy and security continued to dominate the discussion.
One user pointed out that while documents were not shared with a chartered accountant, they were still being shared with an AI company that possesses the technical capability to access and process that data. Another argued that information provided to AI platforms could potentially be used for model training, raising questions about whether users fully understand where their personal data ultimately ends up. Others stressed that AI should remain a support tool rather than a substitute for professional expertise.
“AI is a great tool for reference and accelerating research, but the accuracy… can sometimes be questionable. Any content generated by AI should be reviewed and validated by a qualified professional before final submission. Blindly trusting LLM-generated output can lead to errors or incorrect conclusions,” one user commented.
For Amazon senior executive Akhil Sood, the biggest advantage was not automation but understanding.
Living in Washington, US, Sood said he used an AI assistant to file his Indian ITR for the first time as a non-resident Indian and found the experience surprisingly educational.
“As an NRI, tax filing has always felt more complicated than it should be. In the past, I would spend time searching for a CA, coordinating documents, waiting for responses, and trying to understand terminology that wasn’t always familiar,” he shared on LinkedIn.
What impressed him most, he said, was that the AI did not simply provide answers. Instead, it explained why specific fields existed, what information was required, how various income categories worked and what needed to be verified before filing.
The experience, according to Sood, reduced dependence on intermediaries while improving his understanding of tax compliance. He also noted that AI could identify issues on the income tax portal and suggest ways to raise grievances, tasks that often slow down the filing process.
The timing of these experiments is significant. India’s tax ecosystem is undergoing a structural transformation through the Income-tax Rules, 2026, which will introduce changes to form numbering, disclosures and compliance workflows with the aim of simplifying the filing process.
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