Case Study: B2B AI Tax Platform
- Priank Ravichandar
- Mar 3, 2025
- 20 min read
Updated: Nov 1, 2025
Building an AI-driven B2B SaaS application to revolutionize tax preparation for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses in the US.
Context
Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (SMBs) in the United States face significant challenges when preparing and filing taxes without dedicated in-house expertise. Relying on existing solutions and external accountants can still often be time-consuming, complex, and expensive. Mistakes can lead to overpayment, underpayment, or IRS penalties. This project explores the opportunity to simplify tax preparation by leveraging AI to help businesses understand their tax responsibilities, extract relevant financial data, and streamline tax filing.
Solution Overview
Target Customer
The target customer is small businesses across the United States
The Problem
Tax preparation is a tedious, time-consuming, but necessary process for small businesses.
Filing taxes accurately and on time is essential to remain compliant with tax regulations.
Errors in the process can result in overpaying or underpaying taxes.
Overpaying results in losing out on money that could be reinvested in the business or retained as profits.
Underpaying results in penalties from the IRS and even audits in some cases.
While larger businesses have sizable accounting teams to manage their tax filing, smaller businesses must often rely on external solutions such as tax filing software or individual tax/accounting experts, which represents a cost to the business.
However, tax filing can still be complex depending on how the business is structured and how its financial information is organized, which creates challenges during tax filing.
The lack of in-house expertise means that the process is not always straightforward, even with external solutions. Therefore, businesses still need to commit time, energy, and resources to manage the process.
The Opportunity
Simplifying the tax filing process for businesses by
1. Helping them understand their tax responsibilities.
2. Extracting the relevant financial information.
3. Completing and filing the relevant tax forms.
The Solution
An AI-driven tax filing application can minimize (and ideally eliminate) the need for human intervention.
Tax Filing Process
Identify and prioritize user problems based on thorough research. Justify the prioritization of features and functionalities, outlining a strategic roadmap divided into product phases.
What does the tax filing process look like?
Based on research, we have established that the tax filing process has
Step 1: Determine Tax Classification (C-Corp, S-Corp, LLC, etc.) |
Step 2: Gather Financial Records |
Step 3: Evaluate Finances And Taxable Earnings |
Step 4: Identify Tax Credits and Deductions (Maximizing Tax Savings) |
Step 5: File Federal Taxes |
Step 6: File State And Local Taxes |
Sources: LegalZoom, Thomson Reuters Tax & Accounting
What does the tax filing process look like from the user’s perspective?
Let us consider the user’s experience when going through the tax filing process.
The steps highlighted in orange are areas where businesses may potentially need external expertise.
What are the user questions, needs, and problems at each step?
User Flow Step 1-2
| Step 1: Determine Tax Classification (C-Corp, S-Corp, LLC, etc.) | Step 2: Gather Financial Records |
What questions do users have? | · What is the business's tax classification? What taxes does the business need to file? · What is the federal, state, and local tax responsibility for this tax classification? | · What financial and tax information is needed to file tax returns? · Where can necessary financial information be obtained? · Has all relevant information been gathered? |
What are the user’s needs? | · Identifying the right tax classification.Determining the federal, state, and local tax responsibility for this tax classification. | · Determining financial and tax information is needed to file tax returns. · Locating the necessary business information to calculate taxes, make estimated payments, and file returns. |
What are the user’s problems? | · Interpreting complex tax requirements and determining the business’s tax responsibility can be a challenge. · Understanding how federal, state, and local tax responsibility might change with changes in business structure, financial performance, and the tax/legal regulations. | · Determining the relevant financial information for tax calculations can be difficult without accounting/tax expertise. · Finding the relevant financial information across the business’s systems (accounting, payroll, etc.) can be tricky depending on how the business data is organized. |
What are the potential opportunities? | · Simplifying tax requirements for users to help them determine their business’ federal, state, and local tax responsibilities · Keeping users updated on their tax responsibilities based on business structure, financial performance, and the tax/legal regulations changes. · Identifying complex tax scenarios where users require accounting/tax expertise. | · Combining financial information across the user’s business systems.Extracting relevant financial information for the user’s tax calculations. · Verifying the completeness and accuracy of financial information so users can proceed with tax filing. |
Notes:
Data Sources: Financial and tax information can be sourced from previous years' tax returns, bank accounts, income statements, balance sheets, payroll records, etc.
Data Accuracy: Accounting data needs to be accurate and complete because missing records or errors can delay filing and lead to penalties.
User Flow Step 3-4
| Step 3: Evaluate Finances And Taxable Earnings | Step 4: Identify Tax Credits and Deductions (Maximizing Tax Savings) |
What questions do users have? | · What is the business’s current financial state (assets, liabilities, and equity)? · How much of business earnings can be taxed? | · What federal, state, and local tax credits and deductions does the business qualify for? · What expenses can be deducted (salaries, bonuses, interest payments, etc.)? · What credits can be applied (based on industry, business type, etc.)? |
What are the user’s needs? | · Identifying total taxable earnings | · Identifying relevant federal, state, and local tax credits. · Identifying relevant federal, state, and local tax deductions. |
What are the user’s problems? | · Calculating taxable earnings and determining what can/cannot be included is a challenge without accounting/tax expertise. · Establishing taxable earnings can be complex if the business generates income from a variety of sources because different tax regulations might be involved. | · Determining the credits and deductions the business qualifies for (based on IRS guidelines) requires a deep understanding of federal, state, and local tax requirements and regulations. · Filing the applicable credits and deductions can be complex if the business operates in multiple states and regions with different tax rules. |
What are the potential opportunities? | · Calculating taxable earnings for users based on their tax classification and applicable tax requirements and regulations. · Identifying complex tax scenarios where users require accounting/tax expertise. | · Identifying credits and deductions the user qualifies for based on their tax classification and applicable tax requirements and regulations. · Calculating credits and deductions amounts and applying them to taxable earnings to determine the user's total tax responsibility. · Identifying complex tax scenarios where users require accounting/tax expertise. |
User Flow Step 5-6
| Step 5: File Federal Taxes | Step 6: File State And Local Taxes |
What questions do users have? | · What forms need to be filed for federal corporate tax returns? · What forms need to be filed for credits and deductions? · What are the deadlines for filing each form? · How much return is expected? | · What forms need to be filed for state and local corporate tax returns? · What forms need to be filed for credits and deductions? · What are the deadlines for filing each form? · How much return is expected? |
What are the user’s needs? | · Filing the relevant federal tax forms (corporate taxes, credits, deductions, etc.). · Filing the relevant federal tax forms by the deadline. · Calculating the expected return. | · Filing the relevant state and local tax forms (corporate taxes, credits, deductions, etc.). · Filing the relevant state and local tax forms by the deadline.Calculating the expected return. |
What are the user’s problems? | · Filling out the relevant tax forms can be complex, tedious, and time-consuming, with multiple schedules for specific income/expense types, credits, deductions, etc. · Completing some forms by the deadline might be challenging if the necessary information is not available, which means filing extensions need to be requested. | · Filling out the relevant tax forms can be complex, with multiple schedules for specific income/expense types, credits, deductions, etc. · Completing some forms by the deadline might be challenging if the necessary information is not available, which means filing extensions need to be requested. |
What are the potential opportunities? | · Identifying and filing the relevant tax forms using information from the user’s financial information. · Flagging missing information from tax forms for users to enter. · Requesting extensions for users to file taxes (if needed). · Calculating the user’s expected return. | · Identifying and filing the relevant tax forms using information from the user’s financial information. · Flagging missing information from tax forms for users to enter. · Requesting extensions for users to file taxes (if needed). · Calculating the user’s expected return. |
Note:
For federal, state, and local tax filing, the underlying questions, needs, problems, and opportunities are similar. However, the main difference is in applicable forms and regulations.
C corporations file a federal corporate tax return using Form 1120.
User Problems, Prioritization & High-level Roadmap
The problems users experience during the tax filing process can be summarized as follows.
Step | Problems Identified | Business Implications/Concerns |
Step 1: Determine Tax Classification | Interpreting complex tax requirements and determining the business’s tax responsibility can be a challenge. | An inaccurate understanding of tax responsibility might result in the business paying too much or too little tax. It can potentially lead to penalties and audits, too. - Overpaying/Underpaying Taxes |
Understanding how federal, state, and local tax responsibility might change with changes in business structure, financial performance, and the tax/legal regulations. | Failing to stay updated on changes in tax responsibility might result in complications during tax filings. While major business and regulatory changes happen less often, it is still important to recognize the resulting tax implications. - Tax Increase, Penalty Costs | |
Step 2: Gather Financial Records | Determining the relevant financial information for tax calculations can be difficult without accounting/tax expertise. | Failing to identify the right relevant financial information might result in inaccuracies in tax filings, which might require the process to be redone, which increases the costs involved (time, effort, and resources). - Tax Prep Cost Increase |
Finding the relevant financial information across a business’s systems (accounting, payroll, etc.) can be tricky, depending on how the business data is organized. | When systems are not connected or organized efficiently, compiling the necessary data can be tedious and time-consuming, which increases the costs involved. - Tax Prep Cost Increase | |
Step 3: Evaluate Finances And Taxable Earnings | Calculating taxable earnings and determining what can/cannot be included is a challenge without accounting/tax expertise. | Inaccurate tax calculations can result in the business paying too much or too little tax. - Overpaying/Underpaying Taxes, Maximizing Tax Savings |
Establishing taxable earnings can be complex if the business generates income from a variety of sources because different tax regulations might be involved. | Accounting for multiple revenue sources can complicate the tax filing process, which means more time needs to be spent evaluating tax documentation, which increases the costs involved. Only applicable for certain types of businesses. - Tax Prep Cost Increase | |
Step 4: Identify Tax Credits and Deductions | Determining the credits and deductions the business qualifies for requires a deep understanding of federal, state, and local tax requirements and regulations. | Applying all qualified credits and deductions is critical for maximizing tax savings. - Overpaying/Underpaying Taxes, Maximizing Tax Savings |
Filing the applicable credits and deductions can be complex if the business operates in multiple states and regions with different tax rules. | Applying all qualified credits and deductions is critical for maximizing tax savings. Only applicable for businesses operating across multiple states. - Tax Prep Cost Increase, Maximizing Tax Savings | |
Step 5: File Federal Taxes/ Step 6: File State And Local Taxes | Filling out the relevant tax forms can be complex, tedious, and time-consuming, with multiple schedules for specific income/expense types, credits, deductions, etc. | Inaccurate filing of taxes might result in the business paying too much or too little tax. It can potentially lead to penalties and audits, too. - Overpaying/Underpaying Taxes, Maximizing Tax Savings |
Completing some forms by the deadline might be challenging if the necessary information is not available, which means filing extensions need to be requested. | Late filing can potentially lead to penalties and audits, too. - Penalty Costs |
Note: For federal, state, and local tax filing, the underlying problems are similar. However, the main difference is in applicable forms and regulations.
Prioritizing Problems
We can look at the problems in three dimensions:
Cost: How much does solving this problem cost the business in terms of time, money, and resources? (1 - Cheap -> 5 - Expensive)
Value: How valuable is solving this problem to the business? ( 1 - Low Value -> 5 - High Value)
Scope: How many businesses does this affect? (1 - Very Few -> Almost All)
By assigning a score, we can calculate a total score to prioritize problems.
Problems Identified | Cost | Value | Scope | Score | Priority |
Form Filing & Completion: Filling out the relevant tax forms can be complex, with multiple schedules for specific income/expense types, credits, deductions, etc. | 5 | 5 | 5 | 15 | 1 |
Taxable Earnings Calculation: Calculating taxable earnings and determining what can/cannot be included is a challenge without accounting/tax expertise. | 5 | 4 | 5 | 14 | 2 |
Credit/Deduction Qualification: Determining credits and deductions the business qualifies for requires a deep understanding of federal, state, and local tax requirements and regulations. | 5 | 4 | 4 | 13 | 3 |
Data Identification: Determining the relevant financial information for tax calculations can be difficult without accounting/tax expertise. | 4 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 4 |
Information Extraction: Finding the relevant financial information across a business’s systems (accounting, payroll, etc.) can be tricky, depending on how the business data is organized. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 12 | 5 |
Deadline Extension: Completing some forms by the deadline might be challenging if the necessary information is not available, which means filing extensions need to be requested. | 5 | 4 | 3 | 12 | 6 |
Tax Interpretation: Interpreting complex tax requirements and determining the business’s tax responsibility can be a challenge. | 4 | 4 | 3 | 11 | 7 |
Multi-State Filing: Filing the applicable credits and deductions can be complex if the business operates in multiple states and regions with different tax rules. | 4 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 8 |
Tax Responsibility Updates: Understanding how federal, state, and local tax responsibility might change with changes in business structure, financial performance, and the tax/legal regulations. | 3 | 4 | 2 | 9 | 9 |
Multiple Revenue Streams: Establishing taxable earnings can be complex if the business generates income from a variety of sources because different tax regulations might be involved. | 4 | 3 | 2 | 9 | 10 |
Note: These problems have been prioritized based on my personal evaluation. It would be necessary to conduct user research (interviews, surveys, observations, etc.) to understand which problems are most important to users. We would prioritize these problems based on the user feedback.
How can we visualize these problems?
What are the top 3 problems?
The top 3 problems identified are as follows.
Problem 1 - Form Filing & Completion: Filling out the relevant tax forms can be complex, with multiple schedules for specific income/expense types, credits, deductions, etc.
Problem 2 - Taxable Earnings Calculation: Calculating taxable earnings and determining what can/cannot be included is a challenge without accounting/tax expertise.
Problem 3 - Credit/Deduction Qualification: Determining credits and deductions the business qualifies for requires a deep understanding of federal, state, and local tax requirements and regulations.
What opportunities do these problems represent?
Earlier, we identified some opportunities related to the tax filing process. Each opportunity represents a feature we can build. The main outcome we are trying to create is automating tax filing with AI. We can group and organize these opportunities to determine how they are related to each other and how they relate to our target outcome.
Here we see how the opportunities are connected:
Now that we understand the underlying opportunities, we can address these opportunities with different features. But let us focus on the opportunities related to our top three problems.
Here we see the opportunities connected to these problems.
We can see that several opportunities are connected directly and indirectly to our problems. Therefore, to adequately solve these problems, we might need to look back further in the tax preparation process. For example, creating a feature to extract relevant financial information can have a downstream impact on tax returns filed because these returns use the information collected at the beginning.
Prioritizing Solutions
Where should we focus feature development?
By considering the relevant opportunities in the context of our top problems, we can establish the following areas for feature development.
Smart Tax Data Collection
Creating a feature to identify, extract, and validate relevant information from the user’s business systems.
It would ensure the right information is used to calculate taxable income, identify credits/ deductions, and fill out the tax forms.
It would maximize data quality used in the tax preparation and filing process
Impacts: Problems 1,2, and 3
Pros | Cons |
· Reduced User Effort: It automates data entry, saving users significant time, effort, and frustration. They will not need to manually input data from various business systems. · Improved Accuracy: It improves accuracy by eliminating manual errors, leading to more accurate tax calculations and filings. · Streamlined Workflow: It allows users to focus on reviewing and finalizing their tax return. · Data Insights: It can enable financial information to be visualized in future features to generate reports and visualizations, providing valuable insights into the business's financial health. · Form Completion: It extracts and stores information that will be necessary later during tax form completion and filing. | · Security Concerns: It will require robust security to ensure users’ financial data remains private and secure. · Integration Challenges: It can be challenging to build integrations with users’ business systems because of variations in data structures, formats, security protocols, etc. · Data Accuracy: It will require a robust data extraction, cleaning, and preparation process to ensure data accuracy and quality. Depending on complexity, manual validation might be necessary.
|
Considerations: It will be necessary to implement tools to help users categorize income and expenses correctly (if necessary) to minimize potential errors.
Credit And Deductions Identifier
Creating a feature to identify and calculate applicable credits and deductions.
It would ensure users file all applicable credits/deductions, which would maximize savings.
It would allow users to see the direct impact on estimated taxes and tax returns.
Impacts: Problems 1 and 3
Pros | Cons |
· Increased Tax Savings: It can directly help businesses increase their tax savings by reducing their taxable income and increasing their returns. · Improved Tax Compliance: It can help businesses take advantage of all qualified tax advantages, which ensures both compliance and tax savings. · Enhanced Expertise: It can give users a better understanding of available tax credits/deductions, which might help them to make better financial decisions throughout the year. · Direct ROI: It would give users immediate feedback on tax savings before and after applying applicable credits/deductions, which might promote immediate user validation. | · Complexity of Tax Rules: It might be hard to handle variations in state tax regulations, leading to user frustration and potential tax mistakes. · Data Input Errors: Its accuracy will rely on the quality of financial information ingested by the app. Inaccurate data can lead to misleading credits/deductions being applied. · Regular Updates: It will be important to keep the AI model trained on the lasted updates to tax regulations to maintain the feature's accuracy. · Development Costs: It will require the creation and maintenance of an up-to-date database of credits and deductions across all states, which is an ongoing cost factor. |
Taxable Earnings Calculator
Creating a feature to calculate net taxable income based on income, expenses, and tax classification.
It would improve the accuracy of the net taxable income by helping users include the relevant income and expenses based on their tax classification.
It would also provide users with insight into how their finances are impacting their taxes.
Impacts: Problems 1 and 2
Pros | Cons |
· Increased User Value: It simplifies a core financial calculation for small businesses. It saves them time and reduces the risk of errors in manual calculations. · Financial Awareness: It gives users a clearer picture of their financial health, which allows them to make informed business decisions. · Data Categorization: It can categorize income and expenses based on user tax classification and business details. It could provide valuable data for future features like tax forecasting. | · Complexity of Tax Rules: It might be hard to handle variations in state tax regulations, leading to user frustration and potential tax mistakes. · Data Input Errors: Its accuracy will rely on the quality of financial information ingested by the app. Inaccurate data can lead to misleading net income calculations. · Regular Updates: It will be important to keep the AI model trained on the lasted updates to tax regulations to maintain the feature's accuracy. |
Considerations: It will be necessary to implement tools to help users categorize income and expenses correctly (if necessary) to minimize potential errors.
Pre-Built Tax Templates
Creating a feature to adapt pre-built tax templates to individual businesses based on business type, industry, and tax classification.
It would take the user’s basic business information and automatically tailor tax calculations.
It would apply standard income/expense categorizations (based on data from similar businesses).
Impacts: Problem 1
Pros | Cons |
· Reduced Training Effort: It would reduce the complexity of AI training since the model would just have to match the businesses to the right template and adjust. · Improved Accuracy: It would reduce errors from variations in tax scenarios by identifying commonalities between businesses and only focusing on adapting to the differences. · Standardization: It would create a standardized tax filing process across businesses. | · Template Creation: It would require extensive tax/accounting expertise to develop these templates, which might translate to higher development costs. · Unique Situations: It might be unable to handle complex tax scenarios, leading to missed deductions or inaccurate calculations. · Development Cost: It will require the creation and maintenance of a comprehensive library of templates for various business types and tax classifications, which requires ongoing investment. |
Considerations: It might take substantial effort to develop templates to cover a wide range of businesses, but it might be a good solution for businesses within specific industries.
Feature Prioritization
We can look at the features in three dimensions:
Value: How valuable is solving this problem to the business? ( 1 - Low Value -> 5 - High Value)
Cost: How much development effort does the feature involve in terms of time, money, and resources? (1 - Cheap -> 5 - Expensive)
Feature | Cost | Value |
Smart Tax Data Collection - Creating a feature to identify, extract, and validate relevant information from the user’s business systems. | 3 | 5 |
Credit And Deductions Identifier - Creating a feature to identify and calculate applicable credits and deductions. | 4 | 5 |
Taxable Earnings Calculator - Creating a feature to calculate net taxable income based on income, expenses, and tax classification. | 4 | 4 |
Pre-Built Tax Templates - Creating a feature to adapt pre-built tax templates to individual businesses based on business type, industry, and tax classification. | 5 | 3 |
Note: These problems have been prioritized based on my personal evaluation. It would be necessary to consult engineering teams and tax/accounting experts to accurately evaluate feasibility.
Should we focus on federal or state, and local tax filing first?
Federal Tax Filing | State And Local Tax Filing |
Scope: All US businesses file federal taxes.
Value: Represents a larger portion of taxes.
Complexity: · The federal tax filing process is well established. · An AI solution would have to interpret a relatively straightforward process. | Scope: While all US businesses also file state and local taxes, these tax filings can differ significantly.
Value: Represents a smaller portion of taxes.
Complexity: · The state and local tax process varies significantly. · An AI solution would have to interpret subtle differences between regions. · Training an AI solution would be more complicated. |
Since we are training an AI to automate the tax filing process, it would be better to prioritize federal tax filing over state and local tax filing based on scope, value, and complexity.
User Experience
To-Be User Journey
Mockups
Mobile: User Journey
Mobile: Key Screens
Web: User Journey
Web: Dashboard
High-Level Application Architecture
Product Requirements
Features
Feature 1: Smart Tax Data Collection
Description: Creating a feature to identify, extract, and validate relevant information from the user’s business systems.
User Story: As a small business owner, I want the application to automatically identify, extract, and validate relevant tax data from my existing business accounting system, so I can complete my tax filing quickly and accurately.
Acceptance Criteria:
It should integrate with the user’s banking and accounting systems (e.g., QuickBooks, Xero, FreshBooks) through secure APIs.
It should allow users to authorize access to their financial data on their business systems.
It should identify the relevant financial information based on the user’s tax classification.
It should extract information necessary for tax forms (income, expenses, etc.).
It should be able to identify transactions and determine if they need to be included in tax calculations.
It should validate the extracted data for accuracy and completeness and highlight any inconsistencies or missing information.
It should allow users to review and adjust (if required) before proceeding with tax calculations.
Success Metrics:
Completeness - At least 80% of users have the information necessary to proceed with tax filing
Performance Metrics:
User Adoption - At least 20% of users use the feature to import their financial data
Overall App Usage – At least a 10% increase in users filing taxes on the app
Import Time – Users spend less than 5 mins connecting and importing their financial data
Accuracy Rate – At least 80% of financial information needed for tax calculations and filing tax forms is correctly identified
User Satisfaction - CSAT score of over 60% from feature users.
Engineering Requirements:
Train an AI model on tax regulations, business types, and historical tax filings.
Train an AI model to compare the user’s financial information against the tax form requirements.
Implement a data extraction, cleaning, and preparation process to format data for tax form completion during later stages of the tax filing process (calculation, filing forms, etc.).
Develop a validation process to verify accuracy and completeness and flag errors, inconsistencies, or missing information.
Develop secure API integrations with supported accounting systems.
Build a secure authorization and management system for connected accounts.
Implement strong security measures to protect access to users’ financial data.
Feature 2: Credit And Deductions Identifier
Description: Creating a feature to identify and calculate applicable credits and deductions.
User Story: As a small business owner, I want the application to automatically identify all potential credits/deductions my business is qualified for based on my tax classification, income, and expenses, so I can maximize my tax savings.
Acceptance Criteria
It identifies relevant credits/deductions based on the business’s tax classification.
It outputs the credit/deduction amount.
It should output the updated taxable earnings and tax return.
It should not identify any incorrect credits/deductions.
It should check if all relevant financial information has been included to determine credit/deductions.
It should allow users to click on each credit/deduction for detailed explanations and IRS references.
Success Metrics:
Total Credit Amount - It increases the tax return by at least 15%
Total Deduction Amount (Tax Savings) - It reduces taxable earnings by at least 5%.
Note: It would be necessary to consult a tax/accounting expert to determine if these values are realistic.
Performance Metrics
Feature Adoption - At least 20% of users use the feature to find credits/deductions
Match Rate - It identifies at least 60% of applicable credits/deductions.
Error Rate - It identifies incorrect credits/deductions less than 5% of the time.
User Satisfaction - CSAT score of over 60% from feature users.
Engineering Requirements
Train an AI model on tax regulations, business types, and historical tax filings.
Train the AI model to compare the user’s financial information against the qualifying requirements.
Access a list of credits/deductions for each tax classification.
Calculate accurate credit/deduction amounts based on the user’s financial information.
Calculate updated taxable earnings and tax returns after applying credits/deductions.
Securely store data related to credits/deductions applied to each user.
Integration with third-party tax data sources (if applicable) for enhanced analysis.
Implement a feedback mechanism for users to report inaccuracies in credits/deductions
Feature 3: Taxable Earnings Calculator
Description: Create a feature to calculate net taxable earnings based on income, expenses, and tax classification.
User Story: As a small business owner, I want the application to automatically calculate my net income based on my income and expenses, so I can understand my total tax responsibility (estimated payments and tax returns).
Acceptance Criteria:
It should output the taxable income based on the user’s financial information.
It should output income/expenses based on the user’s tax classification.
It should allow users to click on each income/expense for detailed explanations and IRS references.
It should allow users to review and update calculations (if necessary).
It should allow users to export calculation data and results for review with a tax/accounting expert (if desired).
Success Metrics:
Total Taxable Earnings - It reduces the taxable earnings by at least 5%.
Performance Metrics
Feature Adoption - At least 20% of users use the feature to calculate taxable earnings.
Overall App Usage – At least a 10% increase in users filing taxes on the app.
Calculation Time – Users spend less than 5 mins calculating their taxable income.
Accuracy Rate – It calculates the accurate taxable earnings 80% of the time.
User Satisfaction - CSAT score of over 60% from feature users.
Engineering Requirements:
Train an AI model on tax regulations, business types, and historical tax filings.
Train an AI model to calculate taxable earnings based on income, expenses, and tax classification.
Train an AI model applying accounting principles to examine financial information (statements, transactions, etc.)
Access a list of standard applicable income/expense categories for each tax classification.
Categorize income and expenses from the user’s financial information based on the tax classification standards.
Calculate the accurate taxable income based on the user’s financial information.
Securely store users’ financial data for reference during tax form completion.
Implement a feedback mechanism for users to report inaccuracies in income/expenses.
Timeline
Feature | Duration |
Feature 1: Tax Data Collection | 4 Weeks |
Feature 2: Credit And Deductions Identifier | 4 Weeks |
Feature 3: Taxable Earnings Calculator | 2 Weeks |
Features 1 and 2 have relatively higher complexity than Feature 3; therefore, they are expected to take longer in terms of development time.
Note: These are rough estimations. It would be necessary to get feedback from engineering teams regarding actual timelines.
Roadmap
These features are designed to address problems with the current tax filing experience. In our analysis, we identified the 10 problems that need to be addressed. Here, there are in order of priority:
Form Filing & Completion
Taxable Earnings Calculation
Credit/Deduction Qualification
Data Identification
Information Extraction
Deadline Extension
Tax Interpretation
Multi-State Filing
Tax Responsibility Updates
Multiple Revenue Streams
We discovered that addressing a problem might require us to first fix an issue earlier during the tax filing process. For example, creating a feature to extract relevant financial information can have a downstream impact on tax returns filed because these returns use the information collected at the beginning.
The next major feature to complete would be the AI-Powered Tax Form Completion.
Currently, we are assuming that we have the basic ability to populate forms with the information gathered (using some rule-based system).
The features we are building improve the quality of information available for tax filing.
The final stage, which is also the most valuable, is the tax form completion. However, we need to address the previous steps in the tax filing process before we can build out this feature.
After building the Tax Form Completion feature, we can begin addressing the other problems in order of priority.
