Chat GPT is usually wrong on financial matters

Brendan Burgess

Brendan Burgess

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I have moved the following posts from a thread on PRSAs.

The thread was going along nicely until Fibbernacci decided to ask Chat GPT and got completely incorrect answers.

He seems to disregard the corrections from professionals in the business - Ger Sheehy and Liam Ferguson.

It has resulted in calls to ban Chap GPT from askaboutmoney. But that won't really solve the problem.

So I have set up this thread and people can refer back to it whenever anyone quotes Chat GPT.
 
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Hi Folks. During my morning chinwag with ChatGPT it appears that I can open a PRSA to get tax free growth even after having maxed out contributions to occupational pension scheme. Is this true? It would effectively be an ISA only it s pension related.


Can You Open an Extra PRSA and Still Get Tax-Free Growth?

Yes, absolutely.

Even if you’ve already maxed out your tax relief limits (e.g., 25% of earnings under age 40), you can still make additional contributions to a PRSA (or even a second one), and the growth within it remains tax-free.


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The Two Key Things to Know:

1. Tax Relief Limit

Revenue allows tax relief on contributions up to a certain % of your earnings, based on your age.

This limit includes both your contributions and your employer’s (BBH’s 8%).

Anything above that limit doesn’t get tax relief on the way in, but...


2. Tax-Free Investment Growth Still Applies

All funds inside a PRSA—whether made with tax-relieved money or not—grow free of income tax, DIRT, or CGT.

This is a huge advantage versus investing through a regular brokerage account where you’d be taxed on gains or income annually
 
Fibbernacci said:
Even if you’ve already maxed out your tax relief limits (e.g., 25% of earnings under age 40),
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That's wrong.

Fibbernacci said:
This limit includes both your contributions and your employer’s (BBH’s 8%).
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That's wrong.

And - fundamental issue - some of your fund is probably going to be taxed when you withdraw it. So you don't get tax relief on contributions but pay tax on withdrawals.

I agree with @GSheehy - you're better off searching through Askaboutmoney for correct information; not ChatGPT.
 
According to ChatGPT there should be no tax on the way out for the portion where tax was already paid.

Anyway everyone's saying it doesn't happen but I sent an enquiry to Revenue just in case. Will circle back on their response.
 
GSheehy said:
I'd be 100% in favour of a 'Block' function on AAM.
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This?

Screenshot_20250425-194517.png
 
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"Can you clarify what exactly you're referring to here? Bear in mind that you've already posted at least two pieces of information from ChatGPT that were egregiously incorrect."

I'm aware it's most likely egregiously incorrect but I like to follow these things up to their conclusion nonetheless. AI is great for Maker-side work but needs to be Checked for this very reason. It's claimed there is nothing in the law that indicates growth in a PRSA cannot be tax free when created off the back of non tax-relieved contribution so I'm making an enquiry to Revenue to confirm that rather than:

1/ Taking an AI chatbot's word as gospel

2/ Taking anonymous strangers' word as gospel on an internet forum

And just to be clear I didn't state anything as a fact, I just canvassed opinion about the unexpected output from ChatGPT.
 
Fibbernacci said:
And just to be clear I didn't state anything as a fact, I just canvassed opinion about the unexpected output from ChatGPT.
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I threw a load of questions at ChatGPT a few months ago on various subjects around managing personal finances in Ireland. All but one of the answers was wrong, and there wasn't exactly anything complicated in there.
 
ClubMan said:
Will, that's what bans are for I guess?
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No, I'd like to afford other users the opportunity to block the absolute dross that I post so they'd never have to see anything I put up again. I don't want to put the onus on someone else to do that.

Fortune said:
I threw a load of questions at ChatGPT a few months ago on various subjects around managing personal finances in Ireland. All but one of the answers was wrong, and there wasn't exactly anything complicated in there.
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The internet is running out of places to factually accurate and reliable information. There was a time when you could comfortably recommend AAM as as an accurate source, but the integrity of the information is being undermined. As for Rule No. 4 of posts staying 'On Topic', no one seems to care anymore. Just stick your random post in some other post where you might get a bit of attention. You'll also note that no one has asked ChatGPT for an inaccurate reply to something like 'What's the best (cheapest) PRSA in Ireland'.

If Revenue are going to be fielding these nonsense questions because ChatGPT says something different, some GenZ head read a book or a pasty looking YouTuber, that demands a fee for his/her wisdom from the basement, has notions based on info gleaned from peers on Reddit, then that's some waste of our taxes.
 
GSheehy said:
No, I'd like to afford other users the opportunity to block the absolute dross that I post so they'd never have to see anything I put up again.
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That's what the Ignore option that I mentioned is for.
GSheehy said:
As for Rule No. 4 of posts staying 'On Topic', no one seems to care anymore. Just stick your random post in some other post where you might get a bit of attention.
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And the Report post option can be used to flag such off topic posts to the moderators.
 
Corola said:
It's better at helping you work with information than helping you access it.
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It's better at looking at your question and deciding which words are statistically most likely to follow from that. For certain fields this would be extremely suitable (I'm sure it works great for meal plans or fashion), but for something that realises on tax law of a specific country, it's not so hot.
 
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