Role of automation in tax and accountancy

I am grateful to the editor-in-chief of Taxation Andrew Hubbard for giving me an opportunity to set out some of my thoughts and concerns on the changing landscape surrounding the accountancy profession and more specifically the tax compliance and consultancy landscape.

I was prompted to write this article after reading about the collapse of Bench a Vancouver-based online bookkeeping plus service. While Bench was very much a North American facing service provider it did seem at least to me that there were some serious issues concerning the provision of remote services in the field of accountancy and tax that needed to be addressed.

For readers unfamiliar with Bench and its sudden and unexpected collapse and cessation of service on 27 December 2024 here is a brief recap.

Bench – the background

The business that became Bench Accounting Inc. was launched in 2013 and provided...