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Viral posts on LinkedIn reveal how professionals are using AI assistants to navigate income tax filings, while others warn of privacy and accuracy risks.
“Like a CA sitting next to me”: Professionals use AI to file income tax returns, Cloud Prompt goes viral
As India gears up for an overhaul of its tax framework under the 2026 Income Tax Rules, there is something very surprising happening on the internet – people are using artificial intelligence to file their income tax returns. What started as an experiment for a few professionals has now sparked a broader debate across LinkedIn and Reddit, with some users describing the 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 professional Udayshya Kumar, who claimed to have used Anthropic’s Claude desktop app to handle almost every stage of the tax filing process.
According to Kumar, the AI assistant analyzed his Form 16, income details verified against the Annual Information Statement (AIS), identified discrepancies, managed complications arising from a mid-year change of employer, resolved portal and hearing deadline issues, and finally completed the application process.
“The whole thing went as if the certifying officer was sitting next to me,” Kumar said, describing the experience as largely seamless.
“We’re really at a point where AI can navigate government portals, read tax documents, detect errors, and file for you,” he added.
Kumar also shared the step-by-step guide he used to guide Claude through the process, explaining everything from document requirements and verification steps to dealing with pop-ups and login interruptions.
Kumar’s demand to file income tax on Claude:
Role: CA Expert via Chrome MCP
Task: File ITR-1
Parameters: [AY] | [Regime] | [City] | [Employment Type]
Basic requirements:
Form 16 (Part A and B) for all employers in the financial year
Final settlement vouchers for mid-year job switches
Primary bank IFSC and account number
[City] To verify and [Secondary Address Y/N]
Deposit workflow:
1. Dashboard -> Resume Submission (Never click “File Now” to keep the draft). Reject advice.
2. Confirm carefully in the order: Personal Information -> GTI -> Deductions -> Taxes Paid -> Tax Liability.
3. Personal information: nature of employment = [Employment Type] | Second address = [Y/N] | Opting out of the new system = [Y/N].
4. GTI: Accept the entire pre-filled AIS stipend. Do not reduce manually.
5. Enter verified deductions, taxes paid, and confirm the automatically calculated tax liability.
6. Go to Verify -> Preview -> Verify Declaration -> Location = [City].
7. Continue checking -> Fix errors -> Continue checking.
8. Select Aadhaar OTP e-verification -> Enter OTP -> Submit.
Strict session rules:
UI navigation only: Never use URL navigation to avoid automatic logouts.
Dual sign-in pop-up: Click “Sign in here.”
Sign out pop-up window: Click No.
Timeout protocol: Re-login -> Resume recording.
His post quickly attracted attention, but not everyone was convinced.
When a LinkedIn user asked whether filing income tax returns through Cloud was too risky, Kumar defended the approach.
“Fair question, but consider what most people are actually doing: sharing PAN + Form 16 on WhatsApp with their CA, uploading payslips to ClearTax/TaxBuddy/Quicko, giving login credentials to a CA portal that they never audit. I did none of that. Claude was running inside my browser. I was in control the whole time – I even checked the tax summary before sending anything.”
He also explained that the process is not completely independent. “This workflow worked perfectly with Human In Loop,” he said. However, concerns about privacy and security continued to dominate the discussion.
One user pointed out that although the documents were not shared with a chartered accountant, they were still shared with an AI company that had the technical capacity to access and process that data. Another argued that information provided to AI platforms could 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 and not a substitute for professional expertise.
“AI is a great tool for cross-referencing and speeding up research, but 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 output can lead to errors or incorrect conclusions,” one user commented.
For Amazon’s senior executive, Akhil Sood, the biggest advantage was not automation but understanding.
Sood, who lives in Washington, US, said he used the AI assistant to file his international review application in India for the first time as a non-resident Indian and found the experience surprisingly educational.
“As an NRI, filing taxes has always been more complicated than it should be. In the past, I would spend time searching for CA, formatting documents, waiting for responses, and trying to understand terms that were not always familiar,” he shared on LinkedIn.
He said what impressed him most was that AI didn’t just provide answers. Instead, explain why there are specific areas, what information is required, how different income brackets work and what needs to be verified before applying.
This experience, according to Sood, has reduced reliance on intermediaries while improving his understanding of tax compliance. He also noted that AI can identify issues in the income tax portal and suggest ways to raise grievances, tasks that often slow down the complaints process.
The timing of these experiments is important. India’s tax ecosystem is witnessing a structural transformation with the Income Tax Rules 2026, which will bring changes to form numbering, disclosures and compliance workflows with an aim to simplify the filing process.
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