IEEPA Tariff Refunds for Small Importers: Who Can Claim, How Much, and the Mistakes That Forfeit It
Small U.S. importers that paid IEEPA duties between February 4, 2025 and February 24, 2026 can claim a full refund with interest through CBP's CAPE portal, typically paid 60 to 90 days after acceptance.
- On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled in Learning Resources v. Trump that IEEPA does not authorize tariffs. More than 170 billion $ collected under it became refundable.
- Refunds are not automatic. They are claimed through CBP's CAPE tool inside the ACE portal, live since April 20, 2026, and paid with statutory interest.
- The average small-business importer paid about 306,000 $ in extra tariffs over twelve months, roughly 25,000 $ per month (Center for American Progress, March 2026).
- Only IEEPA duties qualify. Section 232 metals, Section 301 actions and the new 2026 tariffs are not refundable through this process.
You are eligible if your company was the importer of record (IOR) on entries that paid IEEPA duties between February 4, 2025 and February 24, 2026. That covers the two families struck down by the Court: the trafficking tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico, and the reciprocal tariffs applied to nearly all trading partners from April 2025. If your customs broker was the filer, you are still the claimant as long as your company was the IOR on the entry summary.
Two groups often assume they qualify and do not. First, importers whose duties were paid under Section 232 (steel, aluminum, copper, lumber) or Section 301: those authorities were not touched by the ruling and remain in force. Second, foreign sellers who shipped DDP but were not the IOR: the refund belongs to whoever is on the entry as importer of record. The reverse is also true. Canadian companies that acted as their own IOR into the United States qualify like any American importer; the Canadian Federation of Independent Business estimated in April 2026 that about a third of small Canadian exporters paid these duties on non-CUSMA goods, and roughly a quarter of those were the IOR. If that is your situation, start with our note on why some Canadian SMEs paid the full tariff.
The refund pool is not a rounding error. Of the 242,515 companies that import into the United States, 97 percent, or about 236,000, are small businesses (U.S. Census data cited by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce). The Center for American Progress calculated in March 2026 that small-business importers paid on average 306,000 $ more in tariffs over the twelve months following the April 2025 announcements. By July 10, 2026, CBP had accepted roughly 121.75 billion $ in refund claims for processing and sent about 86.3 billion $ (duties plus interest) to the U.S. Treasury for disbursement, according to a July 13 court filing by CBP. The channel works; the money is moving.
Illustrative model, not a client case: an importer that entered 1.5 million $ of Chinese-origin goods spread across the refund window, at combined IEEPA layers averaging 20 percent, paid about 300,000 $ in refundable duties. Add statutory interest and the claim is worth more than many owners' annual profit. Run the same arithmetic line by line on your own entry summaries before deciding the paperwork is not worth it.
- February 4, 2025: the first IEEPA trafficking tariffs take effect. This date opens the refund window.
- April 2025: reciprocal tariffs of 10 percent and more extend IEEPA duties to nearly every trading partner.
- August 2025: the Federal Circuit rules that IEEPA does not authorize tariffs; collection continues pending appeal.
- February 20, 2026: the Supreme Court affirms, 6 to 3, in Learning Resources v. Trump. Collection ends by February 24, which closes the refund window.
- March 6, 2026: the Court of International Trade pauses immediate refunds so CBP can build a system able to handle the volume.
- April 20, 2026: CBP launches CAPE (Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries) inside ACE. Phase 2 followed in the summer for certain reconciliation entries. Phase 3, for previously liquidated entries, has been delayed while CBP builds additional validations, and the government has stated it will process those refunds only for importers that filed suit at the Court of International Trade, a position a July 15 CIT order entered across roughly 3,700 cases reflects.
- Confirm your ACE portal access as importer of record, or delegate to your authorized customs broker.
- Enroll in ACH refunds and make sure your CBP importer record (Form 5106) is current. Refunds are deposited electronically; without ACH enrollment nothing gets paid.
- Pull your entry summaries for February 4, 2025 to February 24, 2026 and isolate the IEEPA duty lines, entry by entry.
- File a CAPE Declaration in the ACE portal: a structured CSV listing up to 9,999 entry numbers per submission. Phase 1 accepts unliquidated entries and entries within 80 days of liquidation.
- CBP validates, reliquidates the entries without the IEEPA duties, and issues one consolidated refund per IOR, typically within 60 to 90 days of acceptance, statutory interest included. A designated third party can receive it via CBP Form 4811.
- Assuming it is automatic. It is not. No CAPE Declaration, no refund. Many owners also assume their broker filed; brokers file when instructed and paid to.
- Letting the clock run. Phase 1 covers entries within 80 days of liquidation. Every week of waiting pushes older entries past the window and into Phase 3, which is delayed and which, on the government’s current position, pays only importers that have filed suit at the Court of International Trade. An entry that slides from Phase 1 to Phase 3 turns a broker filing into litigation.
- Failing validation on details. An IOR number that does not match the entry summary, a stale Form 5106, or missing ACH enrollment gets the declaration rejected, and rejected claims go to the back of a very long line.
The refund is one-time; the exposure is structural. The temporary 10 percent global surcharge under Section 122 expired on July 24, 2026 and was replaced the same day by a Section 301 action: 10 percent or 12.5 percent on most products of 60 economies, depending on the origin. Separately, an additional 50 percent under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 took effect on August 22, 2026 on 554 tariff lines of Canadian-origin goods, with alcoholic beverages, dairy and motor vehicles as the headline categories, and CUSMA origin does not exempt a listed good. Canada answered on September 8 with surtaxes of 15 to 50 percent on about 27.6 billion $ of U.S. goods, and five further U.S. proclamations signed the same day modify the 50 percent list effective September 15 and convert specified alcohol, dairy and motorcycle lines into outright import bans from September 29. An importer who claims the refund and changes nothing will hand it back within quarters. The durable question is sourcing structure: which products, from which origins, under which entities. That is diagnostic work, not filing work; it is what our tariff response practice exists for. Tariff exposure is examined within the cash and operations dimensions of the Sentinel Mandate.
If your claim is a clean Phase 1 case with one broker and tidy records, you may not need to pay anyone beyond that broker’s filing fee. SCORE mentors have carried tariff guidance on their front page since the ruling, and a good customs broker handles the CSV mechanics daily. Pay for outside help when the question is structural: multiple origins, related entities, contract terms that pushed duty costs to your customers, or a refund large enough to change this year’s decisions.
Who qualifies for an IEEPA refund?
Any importer of record that paid IEEPA duties on U.S. entries between February 4, 2025 and February 24, 2026, filed through CBP's CAPE tool in the ACE portal. Canadian and other foreign companies qualify if they were the IOR.
Are Section 232 or Section 301 duties refundable?
No. The February 2026 ruling struck down IEEPA tariffs only. Steel, aluminum, copper, autos, lumber and Section 301 duties remain in force and are not part of the CAPE process.
How long does the refund take?
CBP has indicated roughly 60 to 90 days from acceptance of a valid CAPE Declaration, paid electronically with statutory interest. Rejected or flagged declarations take longer.
Do I need a lawyer to file?
For a straightforward Phase 1 claim, a customs broker is usually enough. Complex fact patterns, drawback claims, reconciliation entries or disputes over who bears the refund justify trade counsel, and so do finally liquidated entries, which on the government’s current position are paid only through a suit at the Court of International Trade. This article is general information, not legal or customs advice.
What does Mirabilys do on tariffs?
We do not file customs claims. We run the structural side: a six-week fixed-fee diagnostic, the Sentinel Mandate, identical in scope for every client, which includes tariff exposure inside its cash and operations dimensions. The fee is fixed and confirmed on a 30-minute discovery call.
This article is general information for business owners, not legal, customs or tax advice. Dates and figures are sourced as of August 2026 and marked in text.
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