U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said it will begin processing refunds on Monday for some of the businesses that collectively paid over $166 billion in IEEPA tariffs to the federal government before those tariffs were invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The nation's highest court ruled in February that President Donald Trump had overstepped his authority in imposing sweeping global tariffs last year under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a 1977 law meant for use in national emergencies. The U.S. Court of International Trade subsequently ordered CBP to issue refunds, plus interest.
The CBP’s online system for processing refunds is scheduled to go live at 8 a.m. EST on Monday, April 20. The government said it will initially process refunds for recently imported goods and more straightforward entries during Phase 1, and that those refunds will be issued within 90 days.
According to a CBP court filing on Tuesday, 56,0497 importers of record had pre-registered for refunds as of April 9 and more companies are continuing to register daily.
“In total, refunds can be issued electronically for approximately 82% of entries with IEEPA duty payments and/or duty deposits,” Brandon Lord, executive director of trade programs at the CBP stated in the court filing. “The principal amount of IEEPA duty payments and/or duty deposits for these entries is approximately $127 billion.”
Later phases of the refund process will handle more complicated and already liquidated cases, CBP said.
The CBP’s Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries refund system, called CAPE, is designed to provide each importer with one consolidated payment for all duties paid instead of processing refunds on an entry-by-entry basis.
Importers can apply for refunds by logging into their Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) account and accessing the CAPE Claim Portal.
For more information about the refund process, go the U.S. Customs and Board Patrol website here.
