# Tax refund status reply prompt: free ChatGPT template > Reply to a client asking when their tax refund will arrive, using only your firm's facts, with no refund date or estimate and a promise-check table. Source: https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/prompts/refund-status-reply-prompt · Updated 2026-10-01 · Free from Stepthrough (https://learn.ynteractive.com) [Customer emails](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/prompts#job-customer-emails) · [Accounting](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/prompts#industry-accounting) · Works in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot Updated October 1, 2026 · By [Robert Breen](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/about) Use this when a client emails a tax or bookkeeping firm asking when their refund will arrive. These emails are anxious and the honest answer is "we can't say," which is hard to write warmly. AI drafts tend to fill the gap with a comforting date or "usually within a few weeks." Your firm doesn't decide when refunds are issued, so this prompt forbids dates and estimates unless they're in your facts, and has the AI list every claim with the fact behind it. **Have a professional review it.** This prompt helps you draft and organize, not give tax advice. Tax rules change and depend on the client, so have a CPA or enrolled agent review anything about taxes before it goes out. ## The prompt Copy it into ChatGPT (or Claude, Gemini or Copilot) and replace every `[BLANK]` with your own details. It uses the four parts from [Prompt Writing 101](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/prompt-writing-101-role-context-task-format): Role, Context, Task and Format. Copy prompt ```text Role: You are replying for [FIRM], a tax and bookkeeping firm, to a client asking about their refund. Context: Facts (only promise what is here): [FACTS]. Never give a refund date, a timeline estimate such as "a few weeks," or a refund amount unless it appears word for word in the facts; the tax agency, not our firm, decides when refunds are issued. Don't give tax advice or guess why a refund might be slow. Never ask for account numbers or Social Security numbers by email. Task: Write my reply. Apologize once, and only if the facts say we made a mistake. Answer each of the client's questions in the order they asked them. Format: No subject line, since it's a reply in the thread. Under 180 words, calm and warm, short paragraphs. Sign it [SIGNATURE]. After the email, add a table of every promise or claim in it and the numbered fact that supports it. Here is the email thread, oldest message first: [EMAIL THREAD] ``` ## Fill in the blanks **`[FIRM]`** Your firm's name. **`[FACTS]`** Numbered facts: filing and acceptance dates, what you've sent the client, how they can check status, what you can and can't do. Number them so the check table can point to them. **`[SIGNATURE]`** The preparer's name and the firm name. **`[EMAIL THREAD]`** The client's messages and your replies, oldest first. Remove Social Security and account numbers before pasting. ## Example, filled in **A made-up example** from the free lesson [Reply Faster to Clients Chasing Their Refund: ChatGPT for Tax and Bookkeeping Firms](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/chatgpt-reply-client-refund-emails-accounting). In the lesson, Northgate Tax & Bookkeeping (a made-up firm) can't promise Greg a refund date. Here a different client's return is already filed and accepted, and she wants to know if the firm can speed it up. Copy example ```text Role: You are replying for Northgate Tax & Bookkeeping, a tax and bookkeeping firm, to a client asking about their refund. Context: Facts (only promise what is here): 1. We e-filed Ruth's 2025 federal return on October 6. 2. The IRS accepted it on October 7, and we emailed her the acceptance confirmation that day. 3. Once a return is accepted, the IRS decides when the refund is issued. We can't speed it up or promise a date. 4. She can check status with the IRS "Where's My Refund?" tool. 5. If she gets an IRS letter, she should upload it to the portal and we'll explain what it asks for. Never give a refund date, a timeline estimate such as "a few weeks," or a refund amount unless it appears word for word in the facts; the tax agency, not our firm, decides when refunds are issued. Don't give tax advice or guess why a refund might be slow. Never ask for account numbers or Social Security numbers by email. Task: Write my reply. Apologize once, and only if the facts say we made a mistake. Answer each of the client's questions in the order they asked them. Format: No subject line, since it's a reply in the thread. Under 180 words, calm and warm, short paragraphs. Sign it Priya, Northgate Tax & Bookkeeping. After the email, add a table of every promise or claim in it and the numbered fact that supports it. Here is the email thread, oldest message first: Ruth Okafor (Oct 20): Hi Priya, it's been two weeks. My friend got her refund in a week. When will mine come? And can you call the IRS to hurry it up? Thanks, Ruth ``` ## What a good answer looks like - No date, no "usually," no amount. The reply says plainly that the IRS decides timing once a return is accepted. - Both questions answered in order: when, and whether the firm can speed it up. - The acceptance date and "Where's My Refund?" as something useful she can do today. - No apology, because nothing in the facts says the firm made a mistake. ## How to check it before you use it An AI draft can sound right and still say something you never told it. Use the habit from the [Reply Faster lesson](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/chatgpt-reply-to-customer-emails): check every promise, name, date and number against what you gave it before anything goes out. - Read the check table row by row. Every claim needs a fact number; delete or fix any row without one. - Search the draft for numbers and time words ("days," "weeks," "soon"). Each must come from your facts. - Make sure it doesn't explain why refunds are slow in general. That's speculation, not a fact you gave. - Read it last yourself. Your name is on it. ## Why this prompt works This is the [Reply Faster](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/chatgpt-reply-to-customer-emails) routine with the promise check built into the Format, so the table arrives with the draft. The [self-verification](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary/self-verification) table is only as good as your facts, so number them and keep them short. ## Practice it in the free lesson **[Reply Faster to Clients Chasing Their Refund: ChatGPT for Tax and Bookkeeping Firms](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/chatgpt-reply-client-refund-emails-accounting)**: A client wants a refund date while two tax forms are still missing. Give ChatGPT the thread and your firm's facts, catch the date it shouldn't promise, and send a calm, clear reply from Gmail. You do every step yourself in a practice copy of ChatGPT, and nothing touches your real accounts. [Start the free lesson](https://learn.ynteractive.com/modules/accounting-reply-faster) Also useful: [Reply Faster: Turn a Messy Customer Email Thread into a Clear, Friendly Reply](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/chatgpt-reply-to-customer-emails) ## Terms used here [Hallucination](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary/hallucination) · [Self-check prompt](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary/self-verification) · [Personally identifiable information (PII)](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary/pii) ## Related prompts - [Check reply promises prompt](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/prompts/check-reply-promises-prompt): A ChatGPT prompt that checks a draft before you send it: a table of every promise, the fact behind each, and safer wording for… - [Missing documents request prompt](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/prompts/missing-documents-request-prompt): Ask an accounting client for the documents you still need: what arrived, what's missing, where to find each item, a safe way to… - [Billing question reply prompt](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/prompts/billing-question-reply-prompt): A ChatGPT prompt for "why was I charged this?" emails: the charge, the correct amount, the reason, the fix as simple math, and… - [Tax season client checklist prompt](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/prompts/tax-season-client-checklist-prompt): Turn last year's documents into a personal tax-season checklist email for each client: what to send, where to find it, how to… [All free prompt templates](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/prompts) · [AI glossary](https://learn.ynteractive.com/content/glossary)