Wolters Kluwer Adds Agentic Tax Preparation to TaxWise

Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting has added agentic tax preparation software to TaxWise, its product for small and mid-sized preparer practices, the company said in a statement on October 5, 2026.

The release names no price, no launch date for each customer tier and no productivity figures. It describes what the agents do in general terms and says preparers approve every return before filing.

That matters to practices for three reasons: the software budget, the engagement letter and the liability. A tool that drafts returns raises questions about client consent, data handling and who answers for an error, and the announcement does not address them.

Agentic tax preparation software arrives in TaxWise

TaxWise powered by Expert AI combines agentic AI, document intelligence, data extraction and integrated CCH tax research, Wolters Kluwer said. The company describes a shift from a manual process to a “low-touch, review-first” workflow.

Rocco Impreveduto, vice president and segment leader for tax and accounting performance at Wolters Kluwer, called the launch “one of the most significant tax preparation advancements in recent years.”

“By bringing agentic capabilities directly into the workflow, TaxWise is helping preparers eliminate repetitive work, create meaningful capacity, and focus more of their expertise where it matters most,” Impreveduto said.

The agentic layer builds on TaxWise Online powered by Expert AI, which Wolters Kluwer announced on November 25, 2025. That release added AI-powered document extraction, ID scanning and CCH AnswerConnect research guidance, and described Expert AI as a layer of generative and agentic capabilities.

What the agentic tax preparation software does

Wolters Kluwer lists four tasks. The software organises client documents, extracts and maps tax-relevant information, flags potential issues and produces a review-ready draft return.

The first two steps are document capture and data extraction, a category most preparers already use in some form. The step that makes the product agentic is the last one: the software carries a return from source documents to a draft without a preparer prompting each stage.

The announcement does not say which forms or return types the agents cover, how they handle documents they cannot read, or how often they pass a return back to a person. Those details decide whether a practice sees the saving on a simple 1040 only or across business returns as well.

Wolters Kluwer also published no measurement of time saved or returns added per preparer. The phrase “increase return preparation capacity” is a design goal in the release, not a result, and practices should treat any capacity figure as unverified until the company supplies one with a method behind it.

Review, logging and liability for preparers

Wolters Kluwer said preparers remain in control throughout, reviewing, editing, validating and approving every return before filing. That is a human-in-the-loop design, with one review point at the end of the draft rather than a sign-off at each step.

The release does not say whether the software records each agent action, such as which document supplied which field or which diagnostic it cleared. A practice supervising several preparers needs that record to trace an error, and to show a reviewer how a figure reached the draft.

The preparer’s exposure does not change. The IRS Office of Professional Responsibility issued Introductory Guidelines for Responsible AI Use in Federal Tax Practice on June 24, 2026, as alert 2026-19. It applies the due diligence duty in Circular 230 section 10.22 to AI-assisted work.

The alert tells practitioners to treat AI output as a draft and to check facts, citations and calculations before anything reaches a client or the IRS. It states that “final decisions must always rest with qualified professionals.”

It also points firms to section 10.36, which covers supervision. Firms are expected to set internal AI policies, train staff, vet third-party tools and document their compliance steps.

Section 7216 consent and client data

Section 7216 of the Internal Revenue Code makes it a crime for a preparer to knowingly or recklessly disclose or use tax return information outside the narrow cases the rules allow. Civil penalties apply under section 6713. The consent rules sit in 26 CFR 301.7216-3, and they require consent that is knowing and voluntary.

The OPR alert restates those penalties and says practitioners “must strictly handle all client data using only secure, enterprise-approved AI.” It does not create an exception for AI tools.

Wolters Kluwer has not published where TaxWise processes return data for the agents, whether any third-party model provider sees it, or whether client data trains its models. Preparers cannot judge whether their existing consent language covers the new workflow without those answers.

Practices that update engagement letters for the 2027 filing season can start from the tax season engagement and consent kit. The question to put to Wolters Kluwer in writing is whether its contract treats the agents as part of the software the firm already licenses.

How rival agentic tax preparation software compares

Wolters Kluwer is not first. Thomson Reuters launched agentic AI for tax and accounting in June 2025 under the CoCounsel name, the same brand behind CoCounsel Audit & Accounting. Its Ready to Review agent extracts information from client documents, places it in tax forms, enters it in the GoSystem Tax engine and responds to the software’s diagnostic messages on 1040 returns.

Thomson Reuters said the system brings in a person, with context, when it meets a problem it cannot resolve. It runs on GoSystem rather than UltraTax, and Accountio found no UltraTax-specific agent announcement.

Intuit has described AI review and advisory features in ProConnect Tax in an August 2025 white paper, including an AI-driven review engine and Intuit Tax Advisor. Accountio found no agent announcement for Lacerte.

Within Wolters Kluwer’s own range, the company announced a Scan capability for CCH Axcess Expert AI on June 29, 2026. It handles the ingestion and interpretation of source documents, including variable K-1s, and the company presents it as part of the same low-touch preparation strategy. CCH Axcess serves larger practices than TaxWise does.

Pricing is the missing comparison. None of the vendors above publishes a price for its agentic tax features that Accountio could find, so buyers cannot yet tell whether the agents are bundled or sold as an add-on. Practices comparing options can start with the tax and compliance software directory.

What to watch in the 2027 filing season

No TaxWise customer or independent practitioner had commented publicly on the agentic features at the time of publication, as far as Accountio could find. Without that, there is no outside evidence on accuracy, review time or how often agents hand work back.

The use of AI accounting agents in tax work will be tested first in the 2027 filing season. Pricing, audit logging, data handling and the first customer figures are the four items to look for from Wolters Kluwer before then.