Tariff refund portal
U.S. Customs will open a tariff-refund portal on April 20 so importers can seek reimbursement for duties collected under the IEEPA regime after the Supreme Court invalidated those tariffs. (finance-commerce.com) Importers could seek as much as $166 billion back and the portal will launch in phases, even as legal advisers warn tariffs could snap back to earlier levels as soon as July. (time.com)(considerable.com) The refund uncertainty is already complicating deals because targets may be entitled to recover large sums whose ownership and valuation are unclear in mergers and acquisitions. (law.com)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection will open an online portal on April 20 for importers to seek refunds on tariffs the Supreme Court struck down in February. (cbp.gov) The new tool, called Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries, or CAPE, will sit inside the Automated Commercial Environment portal that importers already use for customs filings. CBP said the first phase will accept International Emergency Economic Powers Act refund requests “pursuant to court order” and under other legal authority. (cbp.gov) The refunds trace back to the Supreme Court’s February 20, 2026 decision in *Learning Resources v. Trump*, which held that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the president to impose tariffs. The opinion covered both the broad “reciprocal” tariffs and the fentanyl-linked duties on goods from China, Mexico, and Canada. (supremecourt.gov, time.com) CBP has described the refund process as electronic and batch-based, with claims submitted as declarations through CAPE and paid back through Automated Clearing House transfers in most cases. Reuters reported earlier this month that the agency expected some claims to take as long as 45 days to process. (cbp.gov, cbp.gov, finance-commerce.com) The scale is unusually large. Reuters reported that importers could seek roughly $166 billion tied to more than 53 million shipments and more than 330,000 importers of record. (finance-commerce.com, finance-commerce.com) That money is already affecting dealmaking. The *New York Law Journal* reported on April 17 that mergers and acquisitions lawyers are wrestling with who owns a refund claim when a company is sold after the tariffs were paid but before the cash comes back. (law.com) Advisers say ordinary purchase agreements often do not clearly assign these claims, because tariff refunds are not always treated the same way as tax refunds or working-capital adjustments. Law firms including Adams and Reese and Greenberg Traurig have urged buyers and sellers to write specific refund-allocation terms into deals. (adamsandreese.com, gtlaw.com, law.com) The portal also opens into another deadline. After losing the International Emergency Economic Powers Act case, the administration shifted to a 10% tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act, and trade advisers say that temporary authority is set to expire on July 24, 2026 unless Congress extends it. (grantthornton.com, freightfigures.com, considerable.com) CBP said this week it is “ready to implement current and any forthcoming executive actions as directed by the President.” For importers, that means filing to recover old duties while planning for tariff rules that could change again before summer ends. (cbp.gov, considerable.com)
