Court opens $166B tariff refunds portal

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has opened a new claims process for importers seeking refunds on tariffs that courts said were unlawfully collected. (cbp.gov) The system is called CAPE, short for Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries, and it runs inside Customs’ Automated Commercial Environment, or ACE. Phase 1 went live on April 20, 2026. (cbp.gov) The underlying tariffs were imposed by President Donald Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a sanctions law better known as IEEPA. On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court held in *Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump* that IEEPA does not authorize the president to impose tariffs. (supremecourt.gov) (congress.gov) That ruling knocked out tariffs tied to declared emergencies over drug trafficking and the trade deficit, including the April 2025 “Liberation Day” tariff program. It did not by itself create a refund mechanism. (supremecourt.gov) (ropesgray.com) The refund machinery came from the U.S. Court of International Trade in *Atmus Filtration, Inc. v. United States*. On March 4, Judge Richard K. Eaton ordered Customs to liquidate or reliquidate covered entries without the IEEPA duties, then later expanded that order to cover all IEEPA duties and all entries regardless of liquidation status. (sullcrom.com) (gtlaw.com) Customs then told the trade court it needed time to build a mass-refund system instead of fixing millions of entries one by one. The agency said CAPE would be deployed in phases, with early eligibility limited to certain unliquidated entries and entries still within the voluntary reliquidation window. (taxathand.com) (cbp.gov) Phase 1 does not cover every importer yet. Customs has said it excludes some more complicated cases, including entries flagged for reconciliation, drawback claims, open protests, some antidumping or countervailing duty entries, and entries missing usable ACE liquidation data. (taxnews.ey.com) (cbp.gov) Only the importer of record, or an authorized customs broker that filed the entry, can submit a CAPE declaration. The filing is a CSV upload through the ACE secure portal, with a limit of 9,999 entries per declaration, and Customs says filers must be enrolled for electronic refunds. (cbp.gov) (taxnews.ey.com) The money goes to the businesses that paid the duties at the border, not automatically to shoppers who later paid higher prices. Customs also says CAPE is designed to refund the duties with interest, though later phases are still needed for finally liquidated and other harder cases. (cbp.gov) (dwt.com) So the story is less about a court “opening a portal” than about Customs carrying out two court rulings through a new claims system. The next test is whether CAPE can move a court-ordered wave of tariff refunds from legal victory to actual cash. (cbp.gov) (supremecourt.gov)