5 ms·

> Financial advisors and tax accountants Financial advisors giving generic advice, sure. Tax accountants though? I'd be careful. I know the mistakes that llms

by mschild 2mo ago

> Financial advisors and tax accountants Financial advisors giving generic advice, sure. Tax accountants though? I'd be careful. I know the mistakes that llms make when complexity gets involved (especially tax codes and laws) and frankly I don't know enough about them to be able to verify whether what I'm getting out of it makes sense. I could probably verify it with enough research but then I just could so it myself anyway. Or I just pay an accountant a smallish fee and let them handle it.

mikeocool 2mo ago
Yeah, Claude told me what a great idea converting my LLC to an S Corp would be and how much I would save in taxes. When I asked my accountant about he told me it would actually cost me more, because of NYC taxes S Corps. I didn’t tell Claude I lived NYC, because it didn’t occur to me that it was relevant. I find tax stuff is full stuff like this (often more subtle than where you live).
- foxtrot8672 2mo ago
  [flagged]
- eks391 2mo ago
  This is exactly what I found when I was trying to get advice for some business decisions. My friends with businesses all live in different states/jurisdictions, and the biggest takeaway has been that any tax-affecting advice is useless unless it is tailored all the way down to your city.
- Cthulhu_ 2mo ago
  I think this is the big gap in AI vs real people - they're focused on giving an answer, not asking questions. I've prompted AIs to ask me questions if anything was unclear or if important information was missing and it usually doesn't. Whereas financial advisors do.
  - hbs18 2mo ago
    > I've prompted AIs to ask me questions if anything was unclear or if important information was missing and it usually doesn't LLMs don't actually have a concept of importancy.
  - mmcnl 2mo ago
    Sooo true, AI never asks questions. It just makes up requirements. I think it's because the models are trained on benchmarks where task completion is an important metric. But I'd rather have it not finish a task and specify why than make up stuff along the way.

by mschild 2mo ago

mikeocool 2mo ago

Yeah, Claude told me what a great idea converting my LLC to an S Corp would be and how much I would save in taxes. When I asked my accountant about he told me it would actually cost me more, because of NYC taxes S Corps. I didn’t tell Claude I lived NYC, because it didn’t occur to me that it was relevant. I find tax stuff is full stuff like this (often more subtle than where you live).

foxtrot8672 2mo ago
[flagged]
eks391 2mo ago
This is exactly what I found when I was trying to get advice for some business decisions. My friends with businesses all live in different states/jurisdictions, and the biggest takeaway has been that any tax-affecting advice is useless unless it is tailored all the way down to your city.
Cthulhu_ 2mo ago
I think this is the big gap in AI vs real people - they're focused on giving an answer, not asking questions. I've prompted AIs to ask me questions if anything was unclear or if important information was missing and it usually doesn't. Whereas financial advisors do.
- hbs18 2mo ago
  > I've prompted AIs to ask me questions if anything was unclear or if important information was missing and it usually doesn't LLMs don't actually have a concept of importancy.
- mmcnl 2mo ago
  Sooo true, AI never asks questions. It just makes up requirements. I think it's because the models are trained on benchmarks where task completion is an important metric. But I'd rather have it not finish a task and specify why than make up stuff along the way.