US Tariff Refunds Start

U.S. importers can now start filing for refunds on tariffs the Supreme Court struck down in February, after Customs and Border Protection opened a new online claims system on April 20. (cbp.gov) The new tool is called Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries, or CAPE, and it runs inside the Automated Commercial Environment portal that importers and customs brokers already use for customs filings. Customs said CAPE’s first phase is designed to handle refund requests for duties collected under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. (cbp.gov) The Supreme Court ruled on February 20, 2026, that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize a president to impose tariffs. The case covered Trump’s drug-trafficking tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China, and his broader “reciprocal” tariffs on imports from all trading partners. (supremecourt.gov) That decision turned a court fight into an administrative one: companies now have to identify which entries included invalid duties, prove they paid them, and submit those entry numbers in a machine-readable file. Customs says filers must upload a comma-separated values, or CSV, file through the portal, and valid claims then receive a CAPE claim number. (cbp.gov) Customs says only the importer, or the customs broker that filed the original entries, can submit a CAPE declaration. Refunds will be paid by Automated Clearing House, and Customs says filers need separate bank-account information on file in the portal before any money can be sent. (cbp.gov) The dollar figure is large because the invalidated tariffs covered multiple 2025 trade actions and broad categories of imports. News reports on the launch put the potential refund pool at about $166 billion, with thousands of companies preparing claims as the portal went live. (usatoday.com) Customs has not said every importer will be paid immediately, and its guidance stresses that refunds will be issued only after claims are validated and only when authorized by court order and statute. The agency also says CAPE will roll out in phases, which points to a long processing cycle rather than a single mass payout. (cbp.gov) The refund push lands as the administration is still using other tariff authorities. The Office of the United States Trade Representative says Trump separately imposed a temporary import surcharge on February 20, 2026, under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, a different statute from the one the Supreme Court rejected. (ustr.gov) That leaves importers sorting old tariffs from current ones, entry by entry, inside the same trade-compliance systems. Customs’ own guidance tells companies to start compiling lists of entries that paid International Emergency Economic Powers Act duties, a task that turns a court ruling into months of data cleanup. (cbp.gov)