SAN FRANCISCO, March 02, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Instead has secured 67% of all required government approvals for electronic and print tax filing across federal, state, and municipal jurisdictions, with over 85% of applications submitted and complete nationwide coverage expected within weeks.

The AI-powered platform has built the first autonomous AI tax agent capable of true end-to-end preparation and filing across all major entity types (Forms 1040, 1041, 1120, 1120-S, and 1065), positioning the company to disrupt the $15 billion tax preparation industry.

"No company has accomplished these approvals in decades," said Andrew Argue, CEO and founder of Instead. "Even if another company started today with hundreds of millions of dollars, it would take them years to get through the regulatory approvals our team has achieved."

Instead's "zero-touch tax return" represents the industry's first truly autonomous workflow. The AI system takes every document from taxpayers, extracts all data, creates work papers, populates the return, and reviews it for accuracy, with human reviewers signing off in minutes

The comprehensive approval scope creates a direct challenge to established platforms like CCH, GoSystem, UltraTax, Lacerte, and ProConnect. Unlike existing AI tax tools that handle only partial workflows, Instead's unified system provides complete automation while eliminating the need for multiple software licenses.

"If you're a firm that's tried AI products that only do part of the process, they prepare work papers but don't populate the return, or require you to keep your legacy tax software, we want to talk," Argue said.

Instead is actively recruiting beta firms for product rollout later this year, with major partnership announcements expected soon. The company is targeting current users of legacy platforms ahead of the next renewal cycle.

For more information, visit www.instead.com.

About Instead
Instead (www.instead.com) is an AI-driven tax platform that helps individuals, businesses, and tax professionals discover, implement, and document tax strategies with confidence. The first platform in decades approved by the IRS to e-file across all major entity types, Instead has introduced the zero-touch tax return — an autonomous AI workflow that end-to-end prepares and files returns. The company has secured 67% of all required government approvals, with full nationwide coverage expected shortly.

Media Contact:
Olivia Rodi
Manager of Marketing, Instead
olivia@instead.com