Three kinds of AI tax tool.
The tools differ less in the model they use than in where their answers come from, so start with the source, not the interface.
| Kind of tool | Examples | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| General AI assistants | ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Claude | Whether each answer cites a primary source you can open, and what happens to client data you paste in. |
| AI added to a research database | Tolley+ AI, CoCounsel Tax, CCH AnswerConnect, Croner-i | Whether answers rest on legislation and HMRC guidance or on the publisher's commentary, and whether drafting and document review are included. |
| AI built for tax and legal research | Blue J, Harvey, Tallia | Which jurisdictions are covered in depth, how each citation is shown, and whether the tool drafts and reviews documents as well as answering questions. |
Where Tallia fits.
Tallia is an AI tax research and drafting platform for tax advisers in accountancy and tax firms and in-house teams: it answers with citations, then drafts and reviews in the same place.
| What does it cite? | Tax authority guidance (HMRC guidance for UK questions), legislation, and case law, plus your own uploaded documents. Every claim links to its source. |
|---|---|
| Which jurisdictions? | The UK and 35+ jurisdictions in total. You choose the jurisdiction before you ask. |
| Does it draft? | Memos, advice notes, and letters, with every claim cited, exported to Word or PDF. |
| Does it review documents? | It runs your questions across every document in a project, in one structured grid. |
| Where does it work? | The web platform, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Teams, and email. |
| What happens to client data? | It is never used to train models. Tallia is ISO 27001 certified and SOC 2 Type II audited, with SSO, audit logs, and hard deletion within 30 days of offboarding. |
| How is it priced? | Per firm. Teams start with a 30-minute demo, then a pilot against agreed success metrics. |
How to compare them yourself.
Run the same four checks in every tool on your shortlist. Each takes minutes in a demo and shows more than a feature list.
- Ask a question whose answer and source you already know, then open the authority each tool cites.
- Check that the cited passage supports the claim, and that the surrounding context is visible.
- Ask something the sources do not answer, and see whether the tool says so.
- Ask for the security documentation and contract terms on training, residency, retention, and deletion.
The buying guide expands each check, and security sets out how Tallia handles client data.
