Skip to content
man bot
Compare

Technicians and associate professionals · code 3352

Government tax and excise officials

AI can flag the dodgy return. Investigating it is still an inspector.

Checking tax returns and keeping records are where AI could take a fair chunk. Investigating accounts and explaining tax law to the public are mostly out of its reach.

What they actually do (and what else they get called)

Government tax and excise officials examine tax returns, bills of sale and other documents to determine the type and amount of taxes, duties and other types of fees to be paid by individuals or businesses, referring exceptional or important cases to accountants, senior government officials or managers. Tasks include - (a) advising organizations, enterprises and the public on government laws, rules and regulations concerning the determination and payment of taxes, duties and other government fees, and on the public’s rights and obligations; (b) examining tax returns, bills of sale and other relevant documents to determine types and amounts of taxes, duties and other types of fees to be paid; (c) investigating filed tax returns and accounting records, systems and internal controls of organizations to ensure compliance with taxation laws and regulations; (d) performing related administrative tasks to document findings, maintain records and report on actions taken for cases. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Excise officer - Taxation inspector - Tax officer Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Accountant - 2411 - Auditor - 2411

  • tax inspector
  • tax compliance officer

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

51 / 100

Changing significantly

AI could do a real share of the everyday tasks. The job is changing shape, not vanishing.

Not the odds you keep your job. It's how much of the everyday work still needs a person, out of 100.

← Robot's turf Human's turf →

The ILO's official verdict: Exposed: Gradient 2

376 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 4 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 49.3 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 49.3 = 50.7.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Exposed: Gradient 2”: A good share of the tasks are affected.

This job rates 18.1 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Man v Bot · compare

Who holds up better?

Government tax and excise officials 51

v

Go on, try your partner's job. Or your sibling's. We won't tell.

Man v Bot

Where the bot helps, and where the human wins

Bot

What AI takes

The routine stuff. You may not miss it.

  • Case records.
  • Examining returns.
  • Spotting risks with data.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Investigating businesses.
  • Advising taxpayers.
  • Enforcement decisions.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • AI risk scoring.
  • Digital tax systems.
  • Crypto and online income.

Written by a human, from the ILO's task ratings below. Yes, we see the irony. Read it as one person's take.

Meet your two rivals

They're not the same machine. AI software can only reach the parts of a job done on a screen or in words. A chatbot can't climb a ladder. A robot might, one day, if it doesn't fall off.

The AI

Lives in a screen. Never had to fix a boiler.

Threat level: Medium

39 could do without you

It could take over some of the work, and help with more. It could help with 68 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Lower

18 how hands-on

Not much of this job needs hands, so the robot can sit this one out.

So could a robot do the physical part?

Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.

Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 15 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

18 How
hands-on
15 How fiddly
and cramped

Kind of hands-on work Less than half hands-on

The small print

They aren't a robot score, and nothing on this page is. Nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to put a number on it. These are the closest thing we have: how hands-on the job is, and how much fiddly, cramped work it takes, which is what Frey and Osborne found hardest for machines.

From O*NET, matched to one US job .

finger skill 30.3 · hand skill 14.3 · cramped spaces 0.5 · averaged · rule: hands-on under 50

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.8-observed-use measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

The job, task by task

Every job is really a bundle of tasks. Here's this one unpacked, with how much of each AI could do, out of 100. The score is the average, and averages can hide a lot.

AI's favourite task here scores 66, against an average of 49. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 66

    Performing related administrative tasks to document findings, maintain records and report on actions taken for cases.

    Medium
  2. 50

    Examining tax returns, bills of sale and other relevant documents to determine type and amount of taxes, duties and other types of fees to be paid

    Medium
  3. 44

    Investigating filed tax returns and accounting records, systems and internal controls of organizations to ensure compliance with taxation laws and regulations

    Low
  4. 37

    Advising organizations, enterprises and the public on government laws, rules and regulations concerning the determination and payment of taxes, duties and other government fees, and on the public’s rights and obligations

    Low

4 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Sidekick or replacement?

A tool that makes you faster is a very different thing from one that does the task while you watch. Jobs and Skills Australia measured the two separately, which is handy.

AI helps you
68
AI does it for you
39

Sidekick wins, by 29 points.

How good a match is this?

One Australian job matches this one closely, so this is about as reliable as it gets here.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 5995

So, should tax inspectors be worried?

Short answer: not worried, but paying attention. The job is changing.

Parts of it are exposed. Case records and examining returns are rated Medium; investigations and advice are Low. Automated checks and risk scoring take on more; investigations stay human.

Worth remembering: we score tasks, not jobs. When AI takes on a task, the job usually reshuffles around it rather than vanishing.

Where this job could lead

None of the new jobs we've written up start from here yet. Could be you're the first. See the jobs AI is creating →

How are the neighbours doing?

There are 82 jobs in the “Technicians and associate professionals” family, averaging 66. This one is below the family average.

Pit this against any other job →