Tariff portal blocks refund claims

U.S. importers can now seek refunds for tariffs the Supreme Court struck down, but some businesses say the new federal portal is blocking them at the login screen. (cbsnews.com) (cbp.gov) U.S. Customs and Border Protection launched the CAPE system on Monday, April 20, inside its Automated Commercial Environment, or ACE, the trade portal importers already use for customs filings. Phase 1 covers certain unliquidated entries and entries within 80 days of liquidation. (cbp.gov) (time.com) The refunds cover duties collected under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the legal authority President Donald Trump used for broad tariffs that the Supreme Court invalidated in February 2026. Customs has said the system is meant to pay approved claims with interest in one electronic refund rather than entry by entry. (time.com) (cbp.gov) Some claimants say the rollout has been rough. Rick Woldenberg of Learning Resources told CBS News he hit a “high volume” error, and Beth Benike of Busy Baby said a “duplicate tax ID” problem blocked a claim for about $50,000. (cbsnews.com) Benike told CBS News she spent more than four hours on hold with Customs over the weekend trying to fix her ACE account. She said the agency gave her a ticket number but had not resolved the problem. (cbsnews.com) The portal matters because Customs is trying to reverse a huge volume of tariff collections through a system built for normal trade processing, not a mass court-ordered refund. NPR reported Customs estimated about $166 billion in refunds, while other outlets put the figure as high as $175 billion. (vpm.org) (cbsnews.com) Customs has also changed how it pays refunds. Since February 6, 2026, the agency has required refunds to go out electronically through Automated Clearing House, with limited exceptions, so businesses need ACE portal access and bank information on file before money can be sent. (cbp.gov 1) (cbp.gov 2) That requirement has created a second chokepoint. Customs’ own FAQ says verification codes go to the email tied to a company’s importer record, and account applicants can run into errors if an Employer Identification Number is already attached to an existing top account. (cbp.gov) Customs says CAPE is being deployed in phases, with later releases intended to handle more complicated claims. The agency has said it will make regular updates to its refund webpage as the process expands. (cbp.gov) For companies that spent months waiting for relief after the February ruling, the bottleneck has shifted from the courtroom to the portal. The money is now theoretically available, but some importers still cannot get far enough into the system to ask for it. (vpm.org) (cbsnews.com)