Can Claude or ChatGPT prepare tax returns?

Can Claude or ChatGPT prepare tax returns?

Not on their own. General AI assistants have no access to your client documents, your tax software, or a professional prep workflow, so the best they can do unaided is talk about tax. Connected to Filed over MCP, the picture changes: the assistant becomes the interface, and Filed's intelligence layer does the actual work, preparing returns, checking every number against source documents, and producing review items a named human signs off on.

That distinction, interface versus intelligence, is the whole story. Here is how it works and what an assistant can actually do once it is connected.

What is MCP, and why does it matter for tax firms?

MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is an open standard that lets AI assistants connect to real software, the same mechanism behind the connectors many teams already use to reach Slack or HubSpot from a chat window. Filed ships an MCP server, which means Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, or an agent your firm builds can hold one secure, permissioned line into your Filed workspace. No custom integration work, no copy-paste between windows.

For a tax firm the significance is scope. Most tax-adjacent AI integrations expose a lookup or a calculator: useful, narrow, and nowhere near the work. The Filed MCP exposes the workflow itself.

What can a connected assistant actually do?

Six capabilities are live in the connector today. Filed publishes each one as an MCP tool, and every action respects the permissions your firm already set.

1. Check the binder. List files, search documents, and read the missing-items checklist for any client.
2. Run tax prep. Start a prep run, track it to completion, and read the review items it produces.
3. Trace every number. Read leadsheets where each field drills down to the source document behind it.
4. Support review. Annotate documents, flag items, thread replies, and log reviewer sign-offs.
5. Run planning. Start an advisor run, read the plan, and update strategy status.
6. Build workpapers. Generate bundled workpaper downloads and save edited workbooks.

In practice that sounds like questions your team already asks an assistant, now checked against the work: "Which clients still have missing documents? Draft the request emails." "Summarize the open review items on this return." "Where are we on the Chen return?"

How is this different from a tax chatbot?

A chatbot answers questions about tax. A connected assistant participates in tax work. The difference is what sits on the other end of the conversation: with the Filed MCP, that is the prep engine that reads source documents, the review logic that checks every number, the planning engine, and the protocols your firm has taught it. Your assistant holds the conversation. MCP carries it. Filed does the tax work.

Prep and review still run inside the tax software your firm already uses: CCH Axcess, UltraTax, Lacerte, Drake, and ProConnect, across 1040, 1065, 1120, 1120-S, 1041, and 990 returns.

What stops an agent from making a mess?

Three design decisions, and none of them are optional. Every prep run produces review items, so an agent cannot skip the review stage; the review items are the output, not a formality. Everything an agent reads or reports carries field-level trace back to a source document, so nothing arrives as an unsupported number. And approvals come from named reviewers on your team, through the same surface they already use. Agents do the legwork. Judgment stays with your firm.

That is not a new trust model built for the connector. It is the architecture Filed has always had, now reachable by agents.

How do you connect Claude or ChatGPT to Filed?

Add Filed as a custom connector in your assistant's settings and sign in to your Filed workspace; the whole thing takes about two minutes, and the step-by-step walkthrough lives in the setup guide. The MCP works for Filed customers only, because it needs your firm's workspace, permissions, and protocols behind it.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Filed MCP cost extra?

No. The Filed MCP is included with every Filed workspace, not an add-on or a separate fee. If your firm uses Filed, your assistant can connect today.

Which AI assistants work with Filed?

Claude, ChatGPT, and Claude Code connect as custom connectors, and because MCP is an open standard, any MCP-compatible agent your firm builds can connect the same way.

Can a connected agent file a return or sign off on work?

No. Every prep run ends in review items, and sign-offs come from named reviewers on your team. The agent prepares, surfaces, and organizes; a person approves.

Is client data safe with an agent connected?

Access is permissioned through your Filed workspace, everything traces to source documents, and the environment is SOC 2 Type II certified with ISO 27001 certification in progress. Client data is never used to train shared models.

Where to start

If your firm runs on Filed, connect your assistant and ask it something you would normally dig for: open review items, missing documents, the status of a return. If you are not on Filed yet, the Filed MCP page shows the whole connected workflow, and a demo walks it end to end on your own returns. Related reading: how to automate tax workpapers with AI.

‍