What Is IEEPA Tariff Refund Recovery
$132.5 billion accepted.
Phase 3 Ordered — Portal Not Yet Live.
In February 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that the IEEPA tariffs — both the February 2025 trafficking tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China and the April 2025 reciprocal tariffs — were unlawfully levied. This ruling entitled approximately 330,000 U.S. importers to reclaim those duties in full — plus interest.
CBP launched the CAPE portal on April 20, 2026 (Phase 1) to process refund claims, and opened Phase 2 on June 29, 2026, extending eligibility to reconciliation-flagged entries (entry types 01, 02, and 06) where no Type 09 reconciliation entry has been filed yet. A July 17, 2026 CIT order directed CBP to reliquidate finally liquidated entries — Phase 3 — once it launches, limited to the roughly 3,700 companies that already filed their own CIT lawsuit. CBP confirmed on August 25, 2026 that Phase 3 portal is not yet live while it builds additional validations to ensure reliquidation only touches IEEPA duty lines; no new deployment date has been announced. As of CBP's most recent public status update (August 21, 2026), $132.5 billion has been accepted into CAPE and $106.6 billion has been sent to Treasury for disbursement, out of the $166 billion total pool.
The barriers remain real: ACE portal complexity, HTS classification review requirements, the False Claims Act certification risk on every CAPE Declaration — and for Phase 2 specifically, a filing-sequence trap: file your Type 09 reconciliation entry before your CAPE Declaration, and that entry drops out of Phase 2 into a later, slower phase. Layered on top, CBP is now voiding Importer of Record numbers for inaccurate Form 5106 data (enforcement active as of September 18, 2026) — a voided IOR blocks entries and CAPE eligibility alike, since an active IOR is a baseline CAPE requirement.
The Tariff Bureau was built specifically to close this gap — from eligibility screening through full claim documentation and filing preparation, including correct filing sequencing — for mid-market U.S. importers and DDP foreign manufacturers.
Who Qualifies for IEEPA Tariff Refunds
Your company may be eligible under Phase 1, Phase 2, or both if you meet these criteria:
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You imported goods subject to IEEPA tariffs — trafficking or reciprocal — between early February 2025 and February 2026
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Your company is the Importer of Record on the CBP entry summaries for those shipments
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Your entries are unliquidated or liquidated within the 80-day CAPE window (Phase 1 or Phase 2), or your entries are finally liquidated (more than 80 days past liquidation) and you’ve filed — or are prepared to file — an individual CIT case, which Phase 3 will require once CBP’s portal launches
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For Phase 2 specifically: your entries are flagged for reconciliation (types 01, 02, 06) and no Type 09 reconciliation entry has been filed yet
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You have an active ACE Secure Data Portal account and a currently valid Importer of Record number — CBP is now voiding IOR numbers tied to inaccurate or incomplete Form 5106 data (enforcement active since September 18, 2026). If your IOR has been voided, it must be reestablished before CAPE eligibility resumes.
What Tariffs Are NOT Eligible
CAPE refunds apply only to IEEPA tariffs. The following are not eligible for CAPE recovery:
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Section 232 tariffs — steel, aluminum, automobiles, and their derivatives
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Section 301 tariffs — tariffs on China imposed before the IEEPA period
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Section 122 / new Section 301 tariffs — the 10% Section 122 global tariff expired by statute on July 24, 2026; new Section 301 tariffs of 10–12.5% took effect the same day on roughly 60 countries. Neither is refundable through CAPE.
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Section 338 tariffs (Canada) — a 50% duty on specified dairy, alcohol, and motor-vehicle goods, no USMCA exemption, took effect August 22, 2026 (delayed three days from an original Aug 19 date). Canada retaliated dollar-for-dollar effective September 8 on roughly 700 U.S. product lines. Five further U.S. proclamations signed September 8 revise product coverage effective September 15 and convert certain covered goods to an outright import ban effective September 29, 2026 — none of this is CAPE-eligible.
IEEPA Refund Recovery Services
The Tariff Bureau starts every engagement with a free, AI-powered eligibility assessment — no upfront fee — and offers five paid advisory tiers for engagements that move forward from there:
Full Recovery Package
End-to-end CAPE enrollment, documentation, and claim strategy.
$4K base + 12–15%
Claim Audit & Optimization
Pre-submission review for $250K+ claims. Mitigates False Claims Act risk.
$6K–$15K flat
Tariff Risk Assessment
Classification review, origin documentation, and CAPE eligibility analysis.
$8K–$18K flat
Rerouting Analysis
Supplier diversification and country-of-origin restructuring.
$10K–$40K
Monitoring Retainer
Ongoing trade intelligence and regulatory alerts via TariffIQ.
$3K–$10K/mo
Minimum eligibility for full engagements: $50,000 estimated recovery required for Full Recovery Package engagements. Contingency terms are confirmed in your engagement agreement before advisory begins.
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