Guide

Asking an AI assistant about your own records

If you already use an AI assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT, you can let it read your Tax App records and answer questions about them. An owner of your organisation switches AI assistants on and decides whether they may add records; then each person connects their own assistant. It cannot delete or change anything, and an owner can remove it whenever they like.

The assistant works through your own Tax App login. It never sees your password, and it can only see what you could see yourself.

What you can ask

Ask in your own words, the way you would ask someone who had your records in front of them. For example:

• "What is my estimated tax for this year?"
• "Which expenses did I record for the rental in March?"
• "Add a $120 plumber bill for 12 Smith Street."

The assistant looks up the records it needs and answers from them. The figures it reads are the ones the app shows you. The answer itself is written by the AI, which can misread a figure, so check anything that matters in the app before you rely on it.

Which apps work

These apps can connect:

• Claude, on the web, in the desktop app and in the phone apps
• ChatGPT, on the web, on a paid plan
• VS Code, with GitHub Copilot
• Cursor
• Claude Code

Tax App accepts these apps, and apps you run on your own computer. It turns away any other website that asks. For technical readers, it uses the Model Context Protocol (MCP), an open standard for connecting AI assistants to other services.

First, an owner switches it on

AI assistants are off in every organisation until an owner turns them on. An owner opens the app and goes to Settings, then AI assistants, and chooses one of:

• Off: no AI assistant can reach the organisation.
• Read only: assistants can read records and reports.
• Read and add records: assistants can also add expenses, income and contacts.

From then on any member of the organisation can connect their own assistant, and it can do what the owner chose, never more than that person's own role allows. A read-only member's assistant only reads.

The address to give it

Every app asks for the same address:

Copy it exactly, including the /mcp at the end. It is not a web page, so there is nothing to see if you open it in your browser. Paste it into the app instead.

How to connect

Find your app below. Every app ends the same way: a Tax App sign-in page opens, and you choose what the assistant may see.

Claude

Add it once, in Claude on the web or in the desktop app. It then appears in Claude's phone apps too, the next time you sign in there.

1. Open Customize, then Connectors.
2. Choose Add, then Add custom connector.
3. Enter the name taxapp and the address https://mcp.taxapp.nz/mcp, then choose Continue.
4. Keep the sign-in settings Claude suggests, and choose Add.
5. When Claude asks you to sign in, sign in to Tax App on the page that opens.

To use it in a chat, choose the + button at the bottom left, then Connectors, and turn taxapp on.

Claude's free plan allows one custom connector. On a Team or Enterprise plan, an owner of your Claude organisation adds it first, under Organization settings, then Connectors. You then connect to it from your own Connectors list.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT adds apps like this one through developer mode, a setting for apps that are not in ChatGPT's own directory. It is available on the web, on paid plans.

1. Open Settings, then Security and login, and turn on Developer mode.
2. Go to Plugins and choose the + button.
3. Enter the name taxapp and the address https://mcp.taxapp.nz/mcp.
4. Set Authentication to "OAuth", the sign-in option, and create it.
5. When ChatGPT asks you to sign in, sign in to Tax App on the page that opens.

To use it in a chat, choose Developer mode from the + menu, then pick taxapp.

VS Code

This works with GitHub Copilot's chat in VS Code. On a computer where VS Code is installed, this link opens VS Code and asks you to install the Tax App connection:

Add to VS Code

Choose Install. When VS Code asks whether taxapp may sign in, allow it, and sign in to Tax App on the page that opens. Then open the Chat view, choose Agent, and ask your question.

If the link does nothing, add it by hand in VS Code instead:

1. Open the Command Palette and run MCP: Add Server.
2. Choose HTTP.
3. Enter the address https://mcp.taxapp.nz/mcp and the name taxapp.
4. When VS Code asks you to sign in, sign in to Tax App on the page that opens.

Cursor

On a computer where Cursor is installed, this link opens Cursor and asks you to install the Tax App connection:

Add to Cursor

Confirm the install. When Cursor asks you to sign in, sign in to Tax App on the page that opens. Then ask your question in Cursor's chat.

If the link does nothing, add this to the file mcp.json in the .cursor folder in your home folder, then sign in from Cursor's settings:

If the file already has an mcpServers section, add only the Tax App entry inside it, with a comma after the entry before it:

Claude Code

Run this in your terminal:

It is one line, with two hyphens before transport. Then start Claude Code, type /mcp, choose taxapp, and choose Authenticate. Sign in to Tax App on the page that opens.

What happens when you connect

Every app hands you to the same Tax App page, at app.taxapp.nz, to finish. Nothing is shared until you approve there.

1. Sign in with your Tax App login, the same way you always do.
2. Check the page names the app you are using. If it names a different one, choose Don't allow. An app that runs on your own computer, such as Claude Code, can show as An app on this computer.
3. Tick each organisation the assistant may see. It sees nothing in the ones you leave unticked.
4. The page says what it will be able to do in each one: read only, or read and add records, as the owner chose. An organisation where no owner has switched AI assistants on cannot be ticked.
5. Choose Allow, then go back to your app, ready to ask. A web app such as Claude or ChatGPT takes you back itself; for an app on your computer, close the tab and return to the app.

What it can do

In the organisations you chose, it can read:

• income and expense records, with their contacts, properties and expense accounts
• the tax year overview, the tax summary and your estimated tax
• profit and loss, and the rental report for each property
• contacts, without their IRD numbers or bank account numbers
• rental properties, with their owners and tenancies
• the bank inbox, and how far reconciliation has got

Only in the organisations where you allowed it, it can also add:

• expense records
• income records
• contacts

Every record it adds names a contact, just as yours do, and shows in the app like any other. Sending the same record twice does not make two, unless the assistant says it really means a second one. Records it adds are not reconciled when they are made; your next reconciliation in the app treats them like any other record.

Most of these apps ask you before the assistant adds anything. Read what it is about to add before you agree.

What it cannot do

• It cannot delete anything.
• It cannot change a record, including one it added. Correct those in the app.
• It cannot change settings, members, or anything else an owner looks after.
• It cannot reconcile bank statements, or change a match.
• It cannot see an organisation you did not tick, or anything your own role cannot see.
• It cannot file a return with Inland Revenue.

Keeping it safe

You approve each organisation yourself, on a Tax App page, and nothing is shared until you do. The assistant then acts as you, with your role and no more than the owner allowed. If you leave an organisation it loses that organisation too.

An owner sees every AI assistant connected to their organisation, whoever connected it, under Settings, then AI assistants, and can remove any of them there. Switching AI assistants off removes every one at once. The assistant loses access, and nothing in your records changes.

Changing your password ends every AI assistant connection you made, in every organisation.

What you share goes to the company behind the assistant you chose, such as Anthropic for Claude or OpenAI for ChatGPT, and that company handles it under its own terms with you. It may keep it outside New Zealand. Your records in Tax App stay where they are. The privacy policy says more.

Where to go next

• How income tax is calculated - the working behind the estimated tax your assistant reads.
• Privacy policy - what happens to records you share with an AI assistant.

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