IEEPA Tariff Refund FAQ: Your Questions Answered

IEEPA tariffs were imposed by the President under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act between March 2025 and February 24, 2026. The Supreme Court ruled 6–3 on February 20, 2026, in Learning Resources v. Trump, that IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs. That ruling made all IEEPA duties unlawfully collected — and therefore refundable. CBP developed the CAPE (Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries) system to process these refunds at scale. Total refundable duties are approximately $166 billion across 53 million entry summaries and 330,000 importers of record.

Any U.S. Importer of Record (IOR) named on CBP Form 7501 who paid IEEPA duties between March 2025 and February 24, 2026 may be eligible. Only the IOR or their licensed customs broker (under a valid Power of Attorney) can file a CAPE Declaration in ACE. You do not need to have filed a lawsuit, but importers with finally liquidated entries who did not file at the CIT face significant risk of exclusion from Phase 3 refunds under DOJ's current position.

CAPE — Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries — is CBP's automated refund processing system within the ACE Secure Data Portal. Importers or their licensed customs brokers upload a CSV file listing entry numbers (the CAPE Declaration). ACE validates the file and each entry, removes IEEPA HTS Chapter 99 codes, recalculates duties without them, and triggers reliquidation. Treasury then issues ACH refunds — duties plus statutory interest under 19 U.S.C. § 1505 — directly to the IOR's enrolled bank account or Form 4811 designee.

Phase 1 launched April 20, 2026. It covers unliquidated entries and entries liquidated within 80 days of the CAPE Declaration filing date. Phase 1 is the broadest phase, covering approximately 63% of total IEEPA entries. As of June 29, 2026, 18.1 million entries have cleared validation under Phase 1, and $71.06 billion has been certified and sent to Treasury. Phase 1 is unaffected by the Federal Circuit appeal.

Phase 2 launched June 29, 2026. It covers reconciliation-flagged entries (Types 01, 02, 06) where the Type 09 reconciliation entry has not yet been filed, and the entry is unliquidated or within 80 days of liquidation. Critical: file your CAPE Declaration before the Type 09. Once the Type 09 is filed, the underlying entries drop out of Phase 2 eligibility. If your reconciliation deadline is within 30 days, CBP guidance says to file the Type 09 first to protect your reconciliation window.

Phase 3 targets late July 2026. It will cover finally liquidated entries — those liquidated more than 80 days before the CAPE filing date. Under DOJ's current position, Phase 3 refunds will only be processed for importers who filed individual Section 1581(i) lawsuits at the CIT. Approximately 4,000 CIT plaintiff importers qualify. The remaining 326,000 importers who did not file at the CIT may not receive Phase 3 refunds under the government's current position, which is being litigated at the Federal Circuit.

Effective July 7, 2026, per CSMS #69127837, warehouse entries (Types 21 and 22) are no longer accepted on CAPE Declarations. Warehouse withdrawals (Types 31, 32, 34, 38) continue to be accepted. If warehouse entries were included on your CAPE Declaration between April 20 and July 6, 2026 without corresponding withdrawal entries, those will not generate a refund — you must file a new, separate CAPE Declaration using the withdrawal entry numbers.

CBP's July 1, 2026 CIT status declaration confirms that 8,384 approved, certified refunds are sitting at Treasury solely because the importer — or their Form 4811 designee — never provided ACH banking information in ACE. These refunds are fully processed and ready to pay. If you have submitted a CAPE Declaration and are waiting for payment, log into ACE immediately and confirm your ACH banking information is complete and active. CBP requires a U.S. bank account — foreign bank accounts cannot receive ACH payments directly.

For Phase 2 reconciliation entries, once your Type 09 reconciliation entry is filed in ACE, the underlying entries immediately drop out of Phase 2 eligibility. The correct sequence is: (1) file your CAPE Declaration first; (2) wait for ACE validation confirmation; (3) then file the Type 09. The exception: if your reconciliation deadline is within 30 days, file the Type 09 first per CBP guidance to avoid missing your reconciliation window.

On June 2–3, 2026, DOJ appealed the CIT's universal IEEPA refund order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. DOJ argues the CIT's order is an impermissible universal injunction extending relief to non-plaintiffs. The appeal does not affect Phase 1 or Phase 2 refunds. It directly threatens Phase 3 refunds for importers who did not file individual CIT lawsuits. No briefing schedule has been set at the Federal Circuit as of July 10, 2026.

Under 19 U.S.C. § 1505, CBP owes statutory interest on late duty refunds, accruing from the date the duties were paid. Industry estimates put total IEEPA interest accrual at approximately $650 million per month across all importers. The interest rate is set by Treasury and applied per entry based on the payment date. Interest is included in the consolidated ACH refund payment — you receive duties plus interest in a single disbursement. Filing earlier captures more interest.

Yes, if the foreign company is the Importer of Record named on CBP Form 7501. This is common in DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) arrangements where the foreign seller paid duties. However, foreign IORs face two challenges: ACE account access (which your U.S. customs broker can handle under a valid POA) and the U.S. bank account requirement (CBP only issues ACH refunds to U.S. bank accounts). Foreign IORs without a U.S. bank account can use CBP Form 4811 to designate a U.S.-based party to receive and remit the refund.

IEEPA tariffs were encoded on entry summaries under HTS Chapter 99 subheadings in the 9903.01.xx and 9903.02.xx ranges, differentiated by country of origin at the eight-digit level. These Chapter 99 codes are what CAPE removes during processing — the refund equals the duty amount associated with those codes. Run the Entry Summary Detail Report (ES-003) in ACE and filter for 9903.01 or 9903.02 to identify your IEEPA-affected entries. If an entry has no qualifying Chapter 99 code, it fails CAPE validation.

CBP Form 4811 — Authorization for Refund of Excessive Duty Deposits — allows an importer of record to designate a third party to receive the IEEPA refund ACH payment directly from Treasury. The Form 4811 must be executed before the CAPE Declaration is submitted — post-submission amendments are not permitted. The designee must have a U.S. bank account enrolled in ACE. Form 4811 is commonly used by foreign IORs without U.S. bank accounts, or by importers who want to use a contingency advisory firm (such as The Tariff Bureau) as their ACH designee.

A pure contingency model means the advisory firm charges nothing unless your refund is recovered. The fee is a percentage of the actual refund received — duties plus statutory interest — taken at disbursement. No upfront fees, no retainers, no hourly rates. If you don't recover, you owe nothing. The Tariff Bureau operates on a pure contingency basis. All major IEEPA recovery advisors as of mid-2026 offer free initial assessments — be cautious of any firm charging upfront screening fees.

The CIT's two-year statute of limitations is a critical but legally unsettled issue. The earliest IEEPA entries (March 2025) will begin approaching the CIT's two-year filing window in early 2027. For importers with finally liquidated entries who have not filed at the CIT, the combination of the SOL clock and DOJ's Phase 3 position creates significant urgency. The exact SOL accrual date remains legally unsettled — consult trade counsel immediately if you have finally liquidated entries with significant refund exposure.

No. The Supreme Court's ruling in Learning Resources v. Trump applied only to tariffs imposed under IEEPA. Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods — in effect since 2018 under the Trade Act of 1974 — were not affected by the IEEPA ruling and remain in force. CAPE refunds apply only to IEEPA Chapter 99 duty amounts. Section 301 duties on the same entries are not refundable through CAPE.

Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 — the 10% global surcharge imposed as an IEEPA replacement on February 24, 2026 — expires at 12:01 AM EDT on July 24, 2026 by statutory hard limit. Congress cannot extend it by executive action alone. USTR has proposed Section 301 replacement duties at 12.5% on 46 countries, with a July 20 completion deadline. Section 122 duties are entirely separate from IEEPA duties and are not refundable through CAPE.

Processing time varies by entry volume and validation results. After a CAPE Declaration is submitted and validated, entries are reliquidated and refunds are batched by IOR and liquidation date before transmission to Treasury. Treasury then issues ACH payments on its own schedule. Phase 1 importers who filed early have begun receiving ACH payments — the first confirmed payment was received May 12, 2026. CBP does not publish a specific processing timeline guarantee, but the 60–90 day window from validated Declaration to ACH receipt is a reasonable working estimate based on reported experiences.

The most common reasons: (1) entry-mix errors — including ineligible entry types (e.g., Types 21/22 after July 7, 2026) or entries with a filed Type 09 on Phase 2 Declarations; (2) no qualifying IEEPA Chapter 99 HTS code on the entry; (3) duplicate entry numbers across Declarations; (4) CSV formatting errors in the Declaration file; (5) ACH not enrolled in ACE; (6) submitter is not the IOR or authorized broker. Industry-wide discrepancy rates on IEEPA filings are approximately 30% per Gaia Dynamics' analysis of 300,000+ entry line items. TariffIQ™ pre-validates all entries before submission.

Start with a free assessment at tariffbureau.com/assessment — TariffIQ™ screens your import profile and generates a preliminary eligibility report. If you want to proceed, complete the full intake at tariffbureau.com/intake. You will execute a DocuSign NDA, Engagement Letter, and Terms of Service. We then perform a full entry analysis, build your CAPE Declaration prep package, and coordinate with your licensed customs broker for ACE submission. No upfront fees — contingency only.