Why AI still can't crack the tax code

While artificial intelligence is making its mark across accounting, tax remains stubbornly difficult to automate. Two industry experts explain why the problem goes well beyond crunching numbers, and where the technology might actually make a difference. For full show notes visit: https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tech/accounting-software/why-ai-still-cant-crack-the-tax-code No Accounting for Tech was written and produced by Tom Herbert.

Matthew Ord and Tom Herbert discuss the Budget’s MTD and e-invoicing plans as well as the cyber risks facing an increasingly digital profession.

The Budget Unpacked: Complexity, compliance and the cost of change by AccountingWEBUK

With the Autumn Budget next week, the team weighs up what's likely, what's needed and what would catch them off guard.

AI-native ledgers are the latest arrivals on the accounting software catwalk, promising to rebuild the general ledger around artificial intelligence. But what’s actually different, and is the profession ready for another revolution? Damon Anderson, founder of the A to Z of AI Accounting Software, joins Tom Herbert to discuss whether the AI-native ledger is a genuinely interesting architectural change or another round of buzzword bingo. For full show notes visit: https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tech/accounting-software/never-mind-the-buzzwords-heres-the-ai-native-ledger

As registrations open for FAB 2027, Dhosjan Greenaway-Dalini joins the show to explore how AI is reshaping finance leadership, why technology should follow the business problem, and how the CFO’s role is continuing to expand.

Moving an old process onto software isn't innovation; changing the process itself is. Richard Sergeant of Principle Point tells the AccountingWEB podcast why e-invoicing could deliver what Making Tax Digital only promised.

Inspired by dramas such as Mr Bates vs The Post Office, the team put on their TV producer hats and pitch the accounting stories they think deserve their own TV series.

This week's episode looks at the first MTD quarterly deadline and what the numbers tell us. Special guest Robyn Milstead joins the podcast to discuss the pressure on accountants and concerns over what comes next.

AI may be changing the mechanics of accounting, but the firms best placed to benefit will be those that get the fundamentals right first. That was a central message from a panel at Zoho’s Connected Practice Summit in London, where Taj Accountants founder Abul Nurujjaman, Institute of Certified Bookkeepers (ICB) chief executive Ami Copeland and Zoho vice president Prashant Ganti joined AccountingWEB editor Tom Herbert to discuss how AI and automation are reshaping UK practices. Having seen the profession move through RTI, cloud accounting and Making Tax Digital (MTD), Nurujjaman argued that more bookkeeping work will increasingly be handled through AI and automation, leaving practitioners to review exceptions, investigate anomalies and use up-to-date information to support business decisions. But the panel pushed back against the idea that advisory is simply another service package to bolt onto a firm. Nurujjaman said useful advisory work starts with understanding the individual business: whether a client can afford new premises, for example, or what buying equipment might do to cashflow. Copeland made a similar point from the bookkeeping perspective, arguing that being deep in the business numbers is one thing, but understanding its context will allows firms to surface deeper insights. Automation, she said, should create an opportunity to deepen that relationship rather than create distance from the underlying data. That human oversight becomes important as firms adopt generative AI. Ganti warned against starting with a chatbot before fixing the data beneath it. His proposed hierarchy begins with accurate transactions and connected systems, followed by reporting and analysis, with advisory at the top. In finance, he said, a “99.95% answer” may still not be good enough. For full show notes, visit: https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/content/get-the-fundamentals-right-before-chasing-ai