Tariff Refunds & SMBs

U.S. importers are lining up for tariff refunds after a February Supreme Court ruling, but the cash is set to land first with the companies that paid the duties directly. (time.com) U.S. Customs and Border Protection told a federal trade court in March that it had collected about $166 billion in tariffs from more than 330,000 importers across more than 53 million entries. The agency said it needed new systems before it could start paying that money back. (cnbc.com) The refund process formally opened on Monday, April 20, through a new Customs portal called Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries, or CAPE. In the first phase, Customs is accepting claims for unliquidated entries and some entries finalized within roughly the past 80 days, with broader categories scheduled for later in 2026. (rsmus.com) The legal trigger was the Supreme Court’s Feb. 20, 2026 decision in *Learning Resources v. Trump*, which found tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act were not authorized by that law. On March 4, the Court of International Trade said all importers of record subject to those duties are entitled to the benefit of that ruling. (sullcrom.com) That setup favors large retailers and brands that import at scale and kept paying duties while the case moved through court. Citi estimates cited by The Motley Fool put Walmart’s potential refund at about $10.2 billion, Target’s at $2.2 billion, Nike’s at $1 billion, and Kohl’s at $550 million. (fool.com) Small and midsize businesses are in a different position because many have already changed prices, suppliers, or inventory plans to cope with higher import costs. Netstock said its 2025 tariff report drew on a survey of 126 North American customers with annual revenue below $500 million and found companies operating in what it called a “high tariff/compliance environment.” (netstock.com) Netstock’s April 22 release said 82% of U.S. small businesses now pass tariff costs to customers and about one in three have switched suppliers. Its earlier report also found only 12% of surveyed businesses said they rely heavily on analytics tools to measure tariff impacts. (globenewswire.com) (netstock.com) Other surveys point in the same direction on pricing. A Gartner survey published in April 2025 found 45% of supply chain leaders expected passing costs to customers to be their primary tariff response, while a New York Federal Reserve analysis later found most firms passed on at least some tariff increases. (gartner.com) (newyorkfed.org) The result is that tariff policy is now hitting balance sheets in two different ways: refunds for importers that fronted the cash, and higher prices or supplier changes for smaller firms that already adjusted. Customs says accepted CAPE claims should be paid electronically in about 60 to 90 days, with interest, subject to review. (rsmus.com)