Magnetic is live · pricing from $25/return · last verified 22 Oct 2026 · viability monitor
Magnetic
AI drafts 1040 tax returns and a licensed US EA or CPA reviews each one before delivery
If keying numbers into your tax engine is the filing-season bottleneck, Magnetic deserves a real trial. The combo that earns its place is agentic entry into software you already run plus a licensed EA/CPA check on every return, so you review a finished return instead of raw AI output. Named firms report over 80% prep-time savings, and one owner clocked a return dropping from three and a half hours to thirty minutes.
Verdict generatedVerified 8d ago · liveness 69/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/magnetic
- CPA firms with a high volume of individual 1040 returns and too few preparer hours
- Small and mid-sized tax practices that need extra capacity during filing season without hiring
- Firms already running UltraTax, ProSystem fx Tax, Lacerte, Drake Tax, TaxSlayer Pro or CCH Axcess
- Firms that want AI-drafted returns checked by a licensed EA or CPA before they review them
- Individual filers preparing their own taxes
- Firms running tax software outside the supported engine list
- Practices that need e-filing or payment processing inside the same tool
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Skip Magnetic if you run tax software outside UltraTax, ProSystem fx Tax, Lacerte, Drake Tax, TaxSlayer Pro, or CCH Axcess — the entire handback depends on entering figures into one of those engines.
If new or updated client documents arrive after the draft is returned, the rework is not part of the original handback — reconcile those changes before importing the XML.
Magnetic's economics are per-return and volume-driven, which suits firms with a steady backlog of individual 1040s and hurts practices that file a handful a year. Compare it against the fully loaded cost of a seasonal preparer's hours — a three-and-a-half-hour return cut to thirty minutes is the benchmark to beat.
In short
Magnetic — AI drafts 1040 tax returns and a licensed US EA or CPA reviews each one before delivery. Best for CPA firms with a high volume of individual 1040 returns and too few preparer hours, Small and mid-sized tax practices that need extra capacity during filing season without hiring, Firms already running UltraTax, ProSystem fx Tax, Lacerte, Drake Tax, TaxSlayer Pro or CCH Axcess. Plans from $25/return.
What is Magnetic?
Magnetic — AI drafts 1040 tax returns and a licensed US EA or CPA reviews each one before delivery. Best for CPA firms with a high volume of individual 1040 returns and too few preparer hours, Small and mid-sized tax practices that need extra capacity during filing season without hiring, Firms already running UltraTax, ProSystem fx Tax, Lacerte, Drake Tax, TaxSlayer Pro or CCH Axcess. Plans from $25/return.
Magnetic is an AI 1040 tax preparation service for CPA firms and tax practices, not for individual filers. Firms send in the returns their team can't get to — W-2 scans, handwritten notes, prior-year PDFs, 1099-NECs, K-1s, brokerage statements, mileage logs — and the system reads each document and drafts the return. Turnaround averages 2–4 days, and each return comes back as an upload-ready XML file plus review notes that flag every assumption and open item. The handback format is the differentiator versus extraction-only OCR tools. Figures land in the professional tax engine your firm already runs, so there's no firm-wide rollout to train your staff on. Every return is checked by a US-based licensed EA or CPA before it reaches you, per the vendor's claim that 100% of returns get that review, which means you open a finished draft rather than raw AI output. Audit trails track agent actions, data is encrypted in transit and at rest on U.S.-based servers, and client information is not used to train AI models. Coverage spans full 1040 work — multi-state K-1s, Schedule C P&Ls, Schedule A and Schedule E — with firm-level rules that apply automatically and per-engagement overrides when a return needs different treatment. A secure portal handles intake by upload or email, and Magnetic pre-fills and hands back only. E-filing and payment processing stay in your existing stack.
Key features
- Drafts complete 1040 returns from W-2s, 1099-NECs, K-1s, brokerage statements and handwritten notes
- Cross-document reasoning reconciles figures and flags inconsistencies across the full set
- Agentic entry of figures directly into UltraTax, ProSystem fx Tax, Lacerte, Drake Tax, TaxSlayer Pro and CCH Axcess
- 100% of returns checked by a US-based licensed EA or CPA before delivery
- Delivery as upload-ready XML plus review notes with flagged assumptions and open items
- Average 2–4 day turnaround from document intake to upload-ready file
- Missing-document alerts surfaced alongside assumption counts on every return
- Full 1040 coverage including multi-state K-1s, Schedule C P&Ls, Schedule A and Schedule E
- Firm-level rules with per-engagement overrides
- Audit trail on every agent action
- 256-bit encryption in transit and at rest on US-based servers
- No AI training on client data
- Secure client document portal with upload or email intake
- Continuous learning from reviewer corrections to capture firm-specific preferences
Behind the verdict
The pitch here is narrow on purpose, and that's a good sign. Magnetic doesn't try to be your tax software or your e-filing layer — it drafts the 1040 and hands it back ready to import. If you run UltraTax, Lacerte, ProSystem fx Tax, Drake, TaxSlayer Pro or CCH Axcess, the fit is close to plug-and-play. If you run something else, it isn't, and no amount of AI drafting fixes that. Where it bites is the edge of the supported-engine list. Firms on niche or homegrown software get nothing from this. Firms that want e-filing and payment processing in one place also need to keep their existing stack — Magnetic deliberately stops at pre-fill and handback. The 2–4 day turnaround is real per the vendor and the testimonials, but it's still days, not minutes. If you're chasing an extension-week pileup with a same-day deadline, days may be too slow. Where it earns its keep is the steady backlog: the returns your staff can't reach because they're on the phone with clients or buried in a complex K-1. We'd reach for this when preparer hours are the constraint and the work is standard-to-moderately-complex 1040 volume. We'd pass when the value of your firm is deep specialization in returns that don't fit a template, or when you genuinely want to key every figure yourself. The closest alternatives are extraction tools that stop at a spreadsheet — those save data entry but leave you assembling the return. Magnetic goes further by writing into the tax engine and putting a licensed reviewer in front of the output. Hiring is the other comparison, and it takes months you don't have mid-season.
Models under the hood
as of 2026-09-09
Limitations
- Magnetic covers tax preparation only — it does not e-file and does not process payments, so sign-off and filing stay in your existing stack.
- It requires one of the supported engines (UltraTax, ProSystem fx Tax, Lacerte, Drake Tax, TaxSlayer Pro, CCH Axcess); there is no path for firms on anything else.
- Accuracy depends on document quality, so poor scans or illegible handwritten forms will push correction work back onto your preparer.
- Turnaround averages 2–4 days rather than instant, so it fits a planned workflow, not a same-hour deadline.
as of 2026-10-17
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Is Magnetic still active?
Magnetic is live · pricing from $25/return · last verified 22 Oct 2026 · viability monitor.
Viability score
How well maintained and how widely used is Magnetic? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: October 2026
How we score →What do users say about Magnetic?
What people actually say about Magnetic — is it worth it?
We scanned public community sources for Magnetic on Sep 1, 2026 and could not establish that the discussion we found is about this tool rather than something else sharing its name. Our own analysis of that scan says the posts were off-subject. Rather than publish a sentiment score built on the wrong subject, we publish nothing here and re-run the scan.
How we verified this
Every listed fact about Magnetic— pricing, features, links, status — is re-read from the vendor's own pages by our verification pipeline and each change is logged with a date; the last pass ran on 22 Oct 2026. Pages mix model-assisted synthesis with human review; see how we verify.
Verification history
We have re-verified Magnetic 10 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — changed who should skip it, pricing tiers, our verdict, features, summary, description, who it suits
- — changed who it suits, summary, hidden costs, use cases, switching out, limitations, who should skip it, our verdict, description, pricing fit, switching in, features, pricing tiers, setup time
- — changed features, summary, our verdict, who it suits, pricing tiers, who should skip it, description
- — changed setup time, who it suits, description, our verdict, features, hidden costs, limitations, switching in, switching out, who should skip it, pricing fit, summary, use cases
- — changed SSL certificate
- — changed domain expiry, SSL certificate
Showing the 6 most recent of 10 verification passes.
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
How much does Magnetic cost in 2026?
Magnetic: Plans from $25/return. Pricing last verified 22 Oct 2026.
Plans compared
Every published Magnetic tier, its price as the vendor publishes it, who it fits, and what it adds over the tier below. The 12-month cost projection follows.
| Plan | Price | Billing | Who it's for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | Usage-basedVendor: “$0/return” | usage | A firm testing Magnetic on one or two returns before committing filing-season volumeAdds: Free entry point with access to the secure client document portal and intake by upload or email |
| Pro | $25/return | usage | CPA firms with a steady 1040 backlog who need drafted returns checked by a licensed EA or CPAAdds: Adds drafted 1040 returns in 2–4 days, EA/CPA review on every return, agentic entry into supported tax engines, and upload-ready XML with workpaper export |
| Enterprise | Custom | quote | Multi-preparer practices needing volume terms and consistent firm-wide treatment across returnsAdds: Adds custom volume arrangements plus firm-level rules and per-engagement overrides |
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Magnetic's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
Magnetic's economics are per-return and volume-driven, which suits firms with a steady backlog of individual 1040s and hurts practices that file a handful a year. Compare it against the fully loaded cost of a seasonal preparer's hours — a three-and-a-half-hour return cut to thirty minutes is the benchmark to beat.
Has Magnetic's pricing changed?
No plan price for Magnetic has moved since we began logging in Aug 2026; the pricing page is re-read on every verification pass.
Who should pick Magnetic?
Pick Magnetic if you are CPA firms with a high volume of individual 1040 returns and too few preparer hours, Small and mid-sized tax practices that need extra capacity during filing season without hiring, Firms already running UltraTax, ProSystem fx Tax, Lacerte, Drake Tax, TaxSlayer Pro or CCH Axcess, Firms that want AI-drafted returns checked by a licensed EA or CPA before they review them.
Look elsewhere if you are Individual filers preparing their own taxes, Firms running tax software outside the supported engine list, Practices that need e-filing or payment processing inside the same tool, Preparers who want to key and review every figure themselves with no AI involvement.
Skip it if Skip Magnetic if you run tax software outside UltraTax, ProSystem fx Tax, Lacerte, Drake Tax, TaxSlayer Pro, or CCH Axcess — the entire handback depends on entering figures into one of those engines.
GeneratedReal-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Magnetic actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
April backlog of 40 individual returns with no room to hire. You upload W-2s, 1099-NECs, and prior-year PDFs to the secure portal, keeping the multi-state K-1s in-house for now.
Outcome: Returns come back in 2–4 days as upload-ready XML plus review notes with assumptions flagged and missing documents listed, so your reviewers sign off instead of keying.
A complex multi-state K-1 return that normally eats three and a half hours of keying. You send the K-1s, brokerage statements, and Schedule E back-up through Google Drive or direct upload.
Outcome: The draft arrives with cross-document figures reconciled and open items called out, cutting the job to a review pass — the pattern Cornbelt Financial's Adam Carr describes as thirty minutes.
Client list keeps growing faster than you can hire, and someone just left. You hand off whatever the team cannot get to, quantity decided per week.
Outcome: Extra prep capacity arrives without a firm-wide rollout or training program, since figures land in the tax engine you already run.
Use cases
- Send a backlog of 1040s you can't get to and get them back in 2–4 days as upload-ready files
- Cut prep time on a complex multi-state K-1 return from three and a half hours to a thirty-minute review pass
- Have 50+ client documents read, reconciled, and checked without manual keying
- Catch missing or inconsistent documents before a preparer opens the return
- Absorb filing-season volume spikes without hiring or training new staff
- Apply firm-level rules and per-engagement overrides consistently across every return
- Give reviewers a handback with assumptions flagged and open items listed
- Take on more clients without a firm-wide software rollout
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Magnetic — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
Portal setup is roughly five minutes — upload or email client documents and you are running. First value lands when the first batch of returns comes back in 2–4 days as upload-ready XML with review notes.
Switching to or from Magnetic
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From in-house keying: no migration needed — keep your existing tax engine and send returns through the portal instead.
- →From hiring a seasonal preparer: redirect the backlog to Magnetic while the hiring search continues.
- →From extraction-only OCR tools: move from spreadsheet output to figures entered directly in UltraTax, ProSystem fx Tax, Lacerte, Drake Tax, TaxSlayer Pro, or CCH Axcess.
- ↗To an end-to-end filing platform: Magnetic stops at the handback, so e-filing and payment processing move to your existing sign-off stack.
- ↗To in-house prep: the upload-ready XML and review notes import straight into your engine, so no data is stranded.
Integrations
Resources & guides
Tutorials & Learning
YouTube returned 6 videos for “Magnetic”, and we withheld 6: 6 could not be judged, because “Magnetic” is a single word that other videos use for other things. We are showing none, because we could not prove any of them are about Magnetic.
Official links
What are the best Magnetic alternatives?
The closest alternatives to Magnetic we list are Puzzle, Jinna.ai and Brex. Ranked by direct product-type match, not category overlap.
| Alternative | Pricing | Starts at | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Puzzle | Freemium | Pricing not published | — |
| Jinna.ai | Freemium | Pricing not published | — |
| Brex | Freemium | Pricing not published | — |
Alternatives to Magnetic
View all
Tools that pair well with Magnetic
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Magnetic, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
Puzzle
AI-native accounting software that drafts your month-end close as the month runs
Jinna.ai
AI admin assistant for U.S. freelancers that drafts proposals, sends invoices via Stripe, and chases payment for you
Brex
Brex is an AI-powered spend management platform combining corporate cards, expense automation, travel, bill pay and treasury.
Magnetic vs its closest rival
Magnetic's closest head-to-head is with Bitsgap — These tools serve entirely different domains: Bitsgap for automated crypto trading and Magnetic for AI-powered tax preparation. Your choice depends purely on your profession. If you are a crypto trader looking for bot automation and multi-exchange management, go with Bitsgap. If you run a CPA firm wanting to reduce manual data entry, choose Magnetic. There is no overlap in use cases. Verdict generated
Head-to-head comparisons
Magnetic vs Bitsgap
These tools serve entirely different domains: Bitsgap for automated crypto trading and Magnetic for AI-powered tax preparation. Your choice depends purely on your profession. If you are a crypto trader looking for bot automation and multi-exchange management, go with Bitsgap. If you run a CPA firm wanting to reduce manual data entry, choose Magnetic. There is no overlap in use cases.
GeneratedMagnetic vs Transfix
Transfix and Magnetic serve entirely different domains: freight brokerage vs. tax preparation. Buyers should choose based on industry need, not feature comparison. Transfix is ideal for mid-market to enterprise freight brokers seeking AI-driven pricing and workflow automation; Magnetic is best for CPA firms automating individual tax return data entry. Neither tool competes directly.
GeneratedMagnetic vs Cryptohopper
Cryptohopper and Magnetic serve completely different domains — crypto trading automation vs. tax preparation automation. Your choice depends solely on whether you need to trade cryptocurrencies or prepare tax returns. Both are AI-powered but non-overlapping. If you trade crypto, Cryptohopper offers robust features like copy trading and AI integration via MCP. If you run a CPA firm, Magnetic reduces manual data entry by pre-filling tax software. There's no competition; pick based on your professional need.
GeneratedFrequently asked questions
Best-of guides
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