For a moment it looked like the tax world was about to be taken over by PokéTax, but accountants can now breathe a sigh of relief. At least for now, PokéTax has been sidelined .
Last April, Pryce Adade-Yebesi, the 24-year-old co-founder and CEO of OpenLedger, unveiled PokéTax, a new game that uses Tax Trainers, representing different parts of a tax form, like income, deduction, and credits (put me on the exclusion team please!), to complete a tax return. Once the “run” is finished, the player is directed to the IRS Direct File site to officially submit the return.1
PokéTax Tax Trainers ask players various questions to help them win deduction badges. An article cites questions such as “How much did you receive from pensions and annuities?” and “How much did you receive in unemployment compensation?”
I must confess, I thought that was really boring. I mean think of the questions that the standard Pokémon characters might ask:
Pokémon Trainer Style: “How many Poké-pension coins did you collect this season?”
Professor Oak Style: “Now then! Tell me, how much experience points did your retirement account earn?”
Team Rocket Style: “Prepare for trouble, make it double! To protect our tax returns from devastation! Now tell us — what’s your retirement compensation?”
Pokémon Center Nurse Joy Style: “Welcome! I hope your retirement portfolio is in good health! How much did it grow this year?”
Gym Leader Challenge Style: “Before you can pass, challenger, you must declare: What retirement experience did you gain to get here?”
There are various characters that may assist a player through the game, such as Deductoise and Auditmandar, and players can use moves like “Audit Dodge,” “Tax Blast,” “W-2 Flamethrower,” and “Refund Rush.”2
But alas, tax pros are going to have some time to get their game on in preparation for these tax world games. With the IRS’s tabling of Direct File this year, it appears that PokéTax will not be playing this filing season.
Also note that in 2023, there was the dating-style game Tax Heaven 3000, where users went on a date with an avatar named Iris who asked questions to help complete a tax form. But that was only available for the 2022 tax filing year. We will have to see what games are released next.
