For the UK's 5.5 million small businesses, tax compliance isn't just an obligation, it’s a financial and time-consuming burden. According to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), the average small firm spends £4,500 and approximately 44 hours annually on compliance. This translates to a staggering £25 billion and over 240 million hours collectively across the small business community each year.

These numbers paint a clear picture that small businesses need a solution to help give back their most valuable resource – time, because time is money.

SmartTax AI: the foundation for automated tax

SmartTax AI marks a step change in Countingup's vision for automated accounting and tax features. Built using proprietary models leveraging more than eight years and £10 billion of transaction data, SmartTax AI uses machine learning to automate time-consuming parts of financial admin like categorising expenses.

It learns from patterns across tens of thousands of small businesses to suggest transaction categories, whilst getting smarter with every use. It also identifies ‘tax risk’ transactions, highlights them for review with an intelligently generated shortlist of likely options. It also links to real-time tax estimates across VAT, Corporation Tax, and Income Tax Self Assessment, helping business owners maintain accurate records and avoid unexpected tax liabilities.

SmartTax AI is developed with strict adherence to data protection standards, including GDPR, and customer data is never sold or individually identifiable, ensuring privacy and security are always maintained.

"SmartTax AI is the next step in our ambitious roadmap to completely automate accounting and tax for small businesses," says Tom Platt, Countingup's CEO. "We've built this technology as the foundation for a suite of AI-powered tools that will fundamentally shape how self-employed people and small business owners manage their finances."

Countingup’s CTO, Mike Moate, adds: ”Countingup has always looked to leverage technology to help save small business owners time and money. We're combining leading technologies like machine learning and generative AI with the strong data foundation delivered by our existing automated accounting and tax features. SmartTax AI is just the first such initiative to be brought to market, with more being actively worked on by our team.”

Alongside SmartTax AI, Countingup has introduced a new Tax Tab that houses all its tax features, like a real-time tax estimate that updates with each transaction, automated tax pots, and personalised tax timelines tailored to each business's filing deadlines. It also features practical Tax Hacks – education on allowances, including trivial benefits and work from home allowance. The Tax Tab helps small business owners stay in control, without the cost of an accountant.

The smarter app for small businesses

Unlike traditional banks, Countingup combines day-to-day money management with accounting and tax tools built to proactively save small business owners time and money.

SmartTax AI is more than a feature drop, it’s a bold step toward a fully integrated, AI-driven finance app that understands the challenges small business owners face and helps them stay ahead of the game. As tax and compliance demands continue to evolve, SmartTax AI lays the foundation for a future where financial admin is not just simplified but largely automated.

“There’s a lot more to come,” says Tom. “We’re building so much more than another financial app – we’re building a platform that understands small businesses and grows with them. Smart, integrated and always working in the background to give back time to small business owners. This is just the beginning.”