Home · Personal · Money & Tax · Tax returns & HMRC

NO

As of 11 August 2026, AI cannot file your Self Assessment tax return.

This still needs a person who signs their name to it.

Can you do it?

15 minutesto a draft.

n/ait cannot be self-verified.

Cost, all in£0

Skill neededchat-fluent

Who has to check ita professional

What the alternative costsAn accountant files a straightforward Self Assessment for £150–£300.

If this goes wrong: you file a return claiming a relief you were not entitled to, and you find out when HMRC opens an enquiry eighteen months later, with penalties accruing from the filing date.

What to actually do

  1. Hand it to a person

    The route this page recommends

    Someone with a licence or accountable authority has to sign this before it counts.

    Where to find a person today

    • ICAEW Find a Chartered Accountant

      The ICAEW’s public directory of regulated chartered accountancy firms, searchable by location and specialism.

      Where your return is not straightforward, a chartered firm carries judgement a flat-fee service does not cover, and the register is the vetted way to find one.

  2. Use a tool built for this

    Second choice

    Purpose-built software does the mechanical share of this.

    • TaxScouts

      £169 (Tax return, one-off)

      A flat-fee accredited accountant who files for you: the "human" door priced as a product rather than an hourly unknown.

    • HMRC Online Services

      Free

      Filing directly with HMRC is free and official; the work is gathering the figures, which is where the risk lives, not the form.

  3. Do it yourself

    The distant third

    A chat interface gets you a draft, but you cannot verify it yourself. That is the catch.

    Prompt

    List the documents and figures I need to gather before filing a UK Self Assessment return as a sole trader, and the deadlines that apply this tax year. Do not estimate any figure and do not tell me which reliefs apply to me.

    Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.

What it gets wrong

  • States reliefs and allowances with confidence for tax years it has not seen. The numbers drift yearly and the model’s are stale.
  • Cannot be verified by the person asking: if you could check the answer, you would not need to ask.
  • The signature on the return is yours; the liability never transfers to the tool.

What makes this a NO: legal accountability and regulated advice.

How we scored this

Five axes, each scored nought to two by hand: ten means AI carries the task cleanly, and the thresholds that turn a total into YES, PARTLY or NO are published in the methodology. Each axis name links to its definition.

AxisScore (0–2)
Output1
Inputs1
Verification0
Liability0
Effort delta1
Total3 / 10

The methodology and its thresholds are published in full.

FAQ

Can ChatGPT file my Self Assessment tax return?
No. The answer here is NO. Filing needs you or an accountable professional: the signature on the return is yours, the liability never transfers to a tool, and a model states reliefs with confidence for tax years it has not seen.
Is it safe to use AI for my UK tax return?
Not for the return itself. The failure is quiet: you claim a relief you were not entitled to and find out when HMRC opens an enquiry, with penalties accruing from the filing date. You also cannot verify the answer yourself; if you could, you would not need to ask.
What can AI safely do for Self Assessment?
The gathering, not the filing. Ask it to list the documents, figures and deadlines that apply to your situation, and tell it explicitly not to estimate figures or advise on reliefs. A document list is checkable against GOV.UK; relief advice is not.
How much does an accountant charge for a Self Assessment return?
A straightforward return costs £150 to £300. TaxScouts charges a flat £169 (Tax return, one-off), accredited and filed on your behalf, which is why it is the recommended route on this NO answer.

Nearby answers

All Tax returns & HMRC rulings

The newsletter

AI news, new answers and product picks, straight to your inbox.