Each of these is a refusal this regime lets a counterparty attempt, paired with the answer to it. Reading them before you write is worth more than any amount of polish on the letter itself.
"You never filed, so there is nothing to refund"
high likelihoodThe taxpayer assumes that because they never filed for a year, the withholding is simply the government's money and nothing can be done.
What answers it
Filing the return for that year is itself the refund claim, and it can be filed late. What cannot be done is filing it more than three years after the original due date, because § 6511(b)(2)(A) then puts the withheld tax outside the look-back period. Within the window, a late return claiming a refund is ordinary and there is no penalty for filing late when a refund is due.
26 U.S.C. § 6511 — § 6511(a) (claim within 3 years of filing the return or 2 years of payment), § 6511(b)(2)(A) (refund limited to tax paid within the 3-year look-back)
A "recovery agent" or "asset locator" contacts you first
high likelihoodA firm writes or calls saying it has located money in your name and will recover it for a share — commonly a quarter to a half — and asks you to sign a locator agreement before it will tell you where the money is or who holds it.
What answers it
Every register in this product is free to search and free to claim from, and the office holding the money will not pay a finder any faster than it pays you. You do not need to know where the money is to find it: search the official portal for your own name. If you have already signed, check the statutory finder rules for the jurisdiction — most void an agreement made within a defined window after the property reached the administrator and cap the fee thereafter, and an agreement that breaks those rules is unenforceable against you.
"We cannot match you to this record"
high likelihoodThe administrator cannot tie the claimant to the reported owner because the address on the holder's record is decades old, the name is spelled differently, or a middle initial is missing.
What answers it
This is an evidential problem, not a refusal, and it is solved with documents rather than argument. Send whatever ties your identity to the address the holder reported: an old driving licence, a utility bill, a tax return, a lease, a bank statement, a marriage certificate for a name change, or a sworn statement where nothing else survives. Ask the office in writing which specific element it cannot match so you answer the actual gap rather than resending what it already has.
"The owner is deceased and you have not proved you are entitled"
high likelihoodThe register holds property in a dead relative's name and the administrator asks for grant of probate, letters of administration or an equivalent that the family never obtained because the estate looked too small to be worth administering.
What answers it
Ask the office what its small-estate route is before you pay for probate. Most administrators will pay a modest sum to a surviving spouse or next of kin on an affidavit of heirship, a death certificate and proof of relationship, precisely because requiring a grant for a small balance would mean nobody ever claims it. Where the sum is large enough to need a grant, the existence of the asset is itself the reason to obtain one.
"Your refund was applied to something else"
medium likelihoodThe refund is offset against tax owed for another year, defaulted federal student loans, child support arrears or another federal debt, and the taxpayer receives nothing.
What answers it
Offset is lawful, and it is a reason to file rather than not to: a refund applied to a debt you owe still reduces that debt, and you are entitled to written notice identifying which agency took it and why. If the underlying debt is disputed, or the offset was against a joint refund where the debt is only your spouse's, there are specific relief routes — but none of them are available if the return is never filed.