The short answer: No, not completely. ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and other AI assistants can explain German tax questions and help you get organised. But they cannot submit a tax return to the tax office. For that you need a program connected to the tax office. The tax authorities‘ own service, Mein ELSTER, works with the official forms in official German and gives you no tax-saving tips. Tax software such as SteuerGo,
on the other hand, guides you through your return with easy-to-understand questions, gives you personal tax tips and submits your return electronically. You always remain responsible for the accuracy of your details.
What AI assistants are good at
- Explaining terms: What are income-related expenses (Werbungskosten)? What does this line on my annual payslip (Lohnsteuerbescheinigung) mean? AI assistants answer questions like these quickly and clearly.
- Giving an overview: Which expenses can employees typically deduct? An AI helps you not to forget anything important.
- Organising documents: You can ask for a checklist of the receipts you should collect.
- Drafting texts: for example a letter to the tax office or an objection, as a draft.
Where the limits are
- No submission to the tax office: A chat cannot submit a return electronically. For that you need a program connected to the tax office, for example tax software such as SteuerGo.
- Answers can be wrong or out of date: AI assistants sometimes quote amounts from previous years or invent rules that do not exist. Always double-check important figures.
- Not tax advice: ChatGPT only knows your situation as far as you describe it, and takes no responsibility for the result.
- Your data: Think about what you type into a general-purpose chat. Personal identifiers such as your tax ID (Steuer-ID), your IBAN or complete tax documents do not belong in a conversation when you do not know where it is stored.
How to combine AI and tax software
The best approach is to use AI where you actually do your tax return. You enter your details in the tax software, where AI-based receipt recognition can read your receipts for you and an AI assistant answers your questions right where you are. The tax software asks you step by step for everything relevant to your return, recalculates your expected refund after every entry, flags missing or implausible information and gives you suitable tax tips. At the end, it submits your return electronically to the tax office.
How SteuerGo uses AI
SteuerGo also uses AI where it saves you work:
- IntelliScan reads receipts from a photo with AI support and assigns them to the right place in your return.
- Kira, the AI tax assistant in SteuerGo, answers your questions right inside your tax return. You ask in your own words, and Kira knows which tax year and which section you are in. For current topics such as deadlines or new laws, she links to verified SteuerGo guides. You still check important details yourself. More about Kira
- Checks: SteuerGo checks your entries for gaps and inconsistencies and suggests tax-saving tips.
- Tax assessment check: SteuerGo also checks your tax assessment notice with AI support. If something is wrong, SteuerGo helps you file an objection with a sample letter.
SteuerGo helps you fill in your return and gives you valuable, personal tax tips: you enter your details yourself, SteuerGo explains, checks and calculates. Your return is submitted electronically via the ELSTER interface, even without your own ELSTER account. Trying it out and calculating your refund are free; you only pay when you submit: €34.95 per tax return. SteuerGo is available in your browser in English, German, Polish, Romanian and Russian.
Quick questions
Conclusion
AI assistants are a good help for understanding German tax questions. The tax return itself is easiest with tax software that guides you through every entry, calculates, checks, gives you personal tax tips and submits your return electronically.