Journal article
Navigating the Complex World of Tax Footnotes: A GPT-4-Driven Case Study in Financial Statements
Journal of emerging technologies in accounting, pp 1-9
01 Apr 2026
Featured in Collection : Drexel's Newest Publications
Abstract
This study examines how students develop professional judgment by analyzing the "Income Taxes" footnotes of Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. The design guides a four-step workflow: (1) compute effective tax rates; (2) identify qualitative drivers: unrecognized tax benefits, deferred tax assets/liabilities/, valuation allowances, and cross-border/legal exposure; (3) apply a deterministic large-language-model prompt using context engineering; and (4) reconcile human and model conclusions to deliver a concise evidence-based comparative conclusion. Structured worksheets and reflections promote reproducibility and professional skepticism. The paper further provides validated reference analyses, additional guidance, and discusses retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) as an optional pathway for source validation and auditability. By linking computational tools with evidence-based reasoning, the study provides a rigorous, ready-to-use framework that accelerates the first-pass reading of dense disclosures while maintaining a central role for human judgment.
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Details
- Title
- Navigating the Complex World of Tax Footnotes: A GPT-4-Driven Case Study in Financial Statements
- Creators
- Tony L. J. Lin - Rowan UniversityAnthony P. Curatola - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Journal of emerging technologies in accounting, pp 1-9
- Publisher
- American Accounting Association
- Number of pages
- 9
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Accounting
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001755476500001
- Other Identifier
- 991022179555804721