For many Americans, a tax refund is the biggest check they’ll see all year. It’s the money that knocks down credit-card balances, covers the “oops” bills, or refills savings that inflation quietly siphoned off.
This tax season, artificial intelligence (AI) plays a much bigger role than most people realize, adding real convenience and new worries to one of the most stressful tasks many of us deal with all year.
The IRS reports it now relies on AI to help narrow the “tax gap” — the difference between what Americans owe and what each person actually pays. The agency uses machine learning to flag higher-risk returns, from unreported side income to crypto activity, and complex, high-income filings.
In theory, that’s progress: the IRS is finally dragging its systems into the modern economy. But it also means less margin for error in a world where many people earn money in messier, harder-to-track ways than the tax code was designed for.
“When the IRS uses AI to help figure out what to flag, taxpayers need better tools on their side, too,” says Lisa Green-Lewis, a CPA and tax expert with TurboTax based in Orange County, California. “The goal is to avoid mistakes that are harder to fix later.”
