Taxation and Taxes
Can ChatGPT handle my accounting and taxes? (and the real risk of law 25)
July 23, 2026
At a Glance. No, ChatGPT cannot handle your accounting or file your taxes in Quebec. It makes up tax rules (rates, limits, dates) and has no legal liability. Worse still: uploading files containing personal information (employees, clients) to it could raise a Law 25 issue. A verified human validates and responds to them.
We get it: ChatGPT responds in three seconds, it’s free, and it talks about taxes with disarming confidence. So the question really does arise: can it keep your books and file your tax return in Quebec? The honest answer is no, and not for reasons of principle. There are two concrete reasons: it gets specific tax rules wrong, and the simple act of entering your numbers into it creates a confidentiality risk under Law 25. Here’s why, with examples to back it up.
Yes, and that’s the catch: it sounds confident even when it’s making things up. A “hallucination” is a false answer stated with confidence. In Quebec tax law, this translates to outdated or outright incorrect figures.
Two examples that come up repeatedly. First, meal and entertainment expenses: a business owner asks how much they can deduct, and the AI responds, “100%.” In reality, the general rule limits the deduction to 50%, but the two levels of government calculate it differently. At the federal level (CRA, Section 67.1 of the Income Tax Act), it’s 50% of the lesser of the amount actually paid or a reasonable amount under the circumstances, with no cap based on revenue. Under Revenu Québec’s rules, the deduction is also 50%, but with an additional cap based on the business’s revenue. Deducting 100% in good faith, or applying the Quebec cap to the federal deduction, exposes you to a tax adjustment.
Second, indexed amounts. RRSP contribution limits, progressive tax rates, the capital cost allowance limit for a vehicle, tax credits, all of these change every year. A generative model often responds with a value from a previous year because it “remembers” what it’s seen, without knowing which year applies to you. Apply a 2022 rate to your 2025 tax return, and the calculation is wrong. AI will never tell you, “I’m not sure which year it is”, it just gives you an answer, period.
The crux of the problem: a generative tool produces the most likely sentence, not the legally accurate answer for YOUR situation. It doesn’t know your business structure (self-employed, corporation, NPO), your province of residence, or your tax instalments. Accounting isn’t about general knowledge, it’s about applying rules to specific facts.
This is where the Quebec angle gets serious, and it’s the point that most articles overlook. When you paste your bank statements, general ledger, or business number into a public AI, you’re transferring potentially confidential information to a third-party service, often hosted abroad, over which you have no control regarding data retention or how it’s used for training.
Since September 2023, Law 25 (Act to Modernize Legislative Provisions Regarding the Protection of Personal Information) has regulated the collection, disclosure, and transfer of personal information outside the province in Quebec. If you’re self-employed or if your files contain information about employees, clients, or suppliers (names, salaries, Social Insurance numbers), uploading them to a public tool raises a real compliance issue. The Quebec Access to Information Commission is the authority responsible for enforcing these obligations. We are not citing a specific section here so as not to mislead you, but the principle is clear: your sensitive data should not end up in a consumer-facing AI system without proper oversight.
A professional accountant, on the other hand, is bound by confidentiality and uses tools designed for secure data storage. Pasting your financial statements into a public chat window is the exact opposite.
Not at all, and it’s important not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. AI is excellent at repetitive and verifiable tasks. This is what a true division of roles looks like.
AI excels at: entering and categorizing invoices, bank reconciliation, detecting anomalies in transaction flows, generating drafts, and performing basic searches, all around the clock, without getting tired. Tools like Dext or Hubdoc digitize and read your receipts; QuickBooks, Xero, Sage, or Pennylane automate journal entries; TurboTax guides you through a standard tax return. These are specialized software programs, trained and designed specifically for accounting, which is a far cry from a general-purpose ChatGPT.
Only a verified human professional can: professional judgment, a tax strategy tailored to your situation, the responsibility to sign off on and stand behind their work, represent you before the CRA and Revenu Québec in the event of a tax audit, a long-term relationship built on trust, and correct any errors made by the AI. That’s the crux of the matter: who is liable for any errors?
You. And no one else on the machine’s side. AI has no legal liability: it doesn’t sign anything, it doesn’t represent you before the CRA, and it doesn’t pay the penalties.
Professional associations are very clear on this point. The Ordre des CPA du Québec, in its Guide to Best Practices in AI, points out that the artificial intelligence tool assumes no liability: it is the professional who remains responsible for the work and liable for any errors. CPA Ontario echoes this sentiment in its publication Accountabilities for CPAs in the Age of Artificial Intelligence : Professional liability cannot be transferred to an algorithm, and CPA members are accountable for their work to their professional association. In other words, AI can generate results, but a human must validate and endorse them. That’s exactly where Bankeo comes in.
Bankeo is neither software nor an accounting firm. We’re a Quebec-based marketplace that connects you, for free, with a vetted accountant from our network. This neutral third-party position is what allows us to tell you the truth: use AI for what it does best, and keep a human to validate and take responsibility for it.
Our position is simple: AI enhances accounting; a vetted accountant reviews everything and is accountable to the CRA and Revenu Québec. Every accountant in our network goes through the Bankeo Trust Index, with over 20 verification criteria. Want to know what it really costs? The median is about $3,000 per year, ranging from $500 to $6,000 depending on your profile, according to the Bankeo Fee Barometer. It’s free for you: you never pay Bankeo, accountants pay a fee per file.
Our network includes more than 1,500 registered accounting firms, and Bankeo has a rating of 4.7/5 based on over 180 Google reviews. So before you entrust your financial data to a public AI, Find your ideal accountant for free with Bankeo. We’re here to support you, always. To learn more about AI in accounting, check out our complete series in the AI and Accounting Hub.
No. It can explain general concepts, but it doesn’t know the current year’s parameters or your specific situation, and it confidently produces outdated or incorrect figures. A tax return must be validated and endorsed by a responsible human.
It’s not “illegal” per se, but if your files contain personal information (employees, customers, SINs), uploading them to a public AI system poses a real risk under Quebec’s Law 25, which is overseen by the Commission d’accès à l’information.
Specialized software like Dext, Hubdoc, QuickBooks, Xero, Sage, and Pennylane automate data entry, receipt scanning, and reconciliation. They are designed and tailored for accounting, unlike a general-purpose tool like ChatGPT.
You. AI has no legal liability. The CPA associations (in Quebec and Ontario) confirm that professional liability cannot be transferred to an algorithm: it is the professional who validates the work and is responsible for it.
Bankeo’s matching service is free for entrepreneurs; you never pay Bankeo. According to the Bankeo Fee Barometer, the median annual fee for an accountant is about $3,000 (ranging from $500 to $6,000).
General information provided for informational purposes only, based on known 2026 tax rules. It is not a substitute for the advice of a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA): always consult a professional regarding your specific situation.
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