THE ‘GAMIFICATION’ OF TAX RETURN PREPARATION HAS ARRIVED:
Caitlin Mullaney, TaxNotes, April 11, 2023
Note from the Editor: this article is being provided as a Public Service Announcement to provide a “heads up” for the direction of tax preparation. While there are still many traditionalists out there, and this software is only beneficial for those with a basic tax return, the AI culture will continue to expand and mature.
A free anime dating video game that taxpayers can use to prepare their returns may seem strange, but it could be engaging with an untapped market that traditional tax prep providers aren’t reaching.
Tax Heaven 3000 is a free dating simulator that will prepare a taxpayer’s federal tax return as they play the game. The motivation behind the game appears to be countering major tax preparation services such as TurboTax, which the game’s manifesto describes as “predatory, parasitic bottlenecks that deliberately complicate the tax filing process in order to make it unnavigable by ordinary people.”
The game has yet to see much reaction from the tax professional community, but TikTok is filled with users claiming to have successfully prepared their federal tax returns through the game, and Joe Kristan of Eide Bailly LLP told Tax Notes he thinks “the designers are on to something.”
“The tax software industry is overdue for a shake-up. At the high end, the software I use at work seems like a fragile tangle of patches and kludges. At the low end, taxpayers need help,” Kristan said. “Good human tax help is expensive and getting harder to find. There is an untapped market crying out for better solutions.”
Tim Owens of NAT20 Tax Services said he wouldn’t mind seeing a new program that dismantles TurboTax and similar services, but he doesn’t think Tax Heaven 3000 is the answer.
“At best, this is a worse version of other Free File sites given the go-ahead by the IRS. At worst, it’s a scheme to collect personal information from people,” Owens said.
Owens highlighted his security concerns regarding taxpayer information that is provided while playing the game, pointing to the promotional images for the game that used a valid Social Security number.
In keeping with the dating simulation, the program only works for individual income tax returns for single filers without dependents.
During the game, users take part in a date that leads them through several tax-related questions by “Iris,” the game’s main character. In the game’s description, Iris tells the user: “Join me, and we’ll search for deductions while searching for love!”
Kristan noted that based on user responses, it appears that gig economy participants are one group that the game is unable to assist. He added that taxes for those workers can be “nightmarishly complex for the uninitiated.”
“With the emergence of tools like ChatGPT, I can imagine a new generation of software that helps with taxes in ways that adapt to the users. Turning the drudgery of doing taxes into some kind of game might be the ticket for some people,” Kristan said. “Maybe some other role-playing games will work for others. In any case, it can’t make the compliance experience significantly worse.”
