Tariff Refund

What Is an IEEPA Tariff Refund and Does Your Business Qualify?

June 3, 2026

$166 billion in IEEPA tariff refunds. 330,000 importers owed money. Almost none of it gets claimed automatically.

If you paid IEEPA tariffs between February 2025 and today, you are likely owed a refund. But the government is not mailing you a check.

Here is what most importers don’t know, and what their customs brokers can’t tell them.

The Three-Track Problem Nobody Explains

IEEPA tariff refund eligibility depends entirely on the age of your entries. Not your industry. Not your HTS code. The timeline of your liquidation determines which recovery path is even available to you.

Track 1: Entries not yet liquidated, or liquidated within the past 80 days. File a CAPE declaration through CBP’s portal. Your broker can help here.

Track 2: Entries liquidated within 180 days. You can still file an administrative protest. Tight window. Most importers miss it because finance doesn’t flag elevated duty spend until quarter-end review, and by then the clock has run.

Track 3: Entries liquidated beyond 180 days. No administrative protest right exists. No portal fixes this. The only path to recovery is litigation in the U.S. Court of International Trade. Your customs broker cannot file there. This is where most SMB importers are told “nothing we can do now”, and walk away from money they are legally owed.

CAPE Phase 1 covers roughly 63% of eligible entries. The other 37% require CIT action. That gap is where most of the unclaimed money sits.

Who Qualifies for IEEPA Refund Recovery

If your business imported goods subject to IEEPA tariffs and you were the Importer of Record, you likely have a claim worth assessing. The question isn’t whether you qualify. The question is which track applies to your entries, and whether the window is still open.

The businesses most at risk of leaving this money behind:

Companies that reviewed their duty spend at year-end, not monthly. By the time the number looked wrong, the 180-day protest window was already closed.
Companies that assumed their customs broker was handling it. Brokers file what you instruct them to file. They do not proactively audit your HTS classifications or monitor protest windows on your behalf. And they cannot go to court.
Companies that filed a CAPE declaration and assumed that was enough. A portal submission covers unliquidated entries. It does not protect your rights on liquidated entries past the 80-day mark.

The Tariff Overpayment Refund Math Nobody Ran

This is the part that should bother you.

Your finance team knows how much you paid in duties. What they likely don’t know is how much of that was IEEPA-specific, which entries are still inside a recovery window, and whether the HTS codes your broker used were even correct. Wrong classification is common. A lower applicable rate on a misclassified entry means the tariff overpayment refund owed to you could be larger than the IEEPA rate alone.

Most CFOs I talk to want one thing: show me recovered dollars, not a 50-page memo on customs law. That framing is exactly right. The question is who does the work to produce that number.

Fewer than 150 customs attorneys practice in the United States. Fewer than 10 law firms run a dedicated Customs and Trade practice. SMBs have never had a structured path to that level of counsel, at terms that don’t require a six-figure retainer.

What a Dual-Track Strategy Actually Covers

Opscale runs protest filings, CAPE submissions, and CIT litigation in parallel. The intake is a single submission. Specialists handle each track. Fees apply only when a recovery is successfully processed, nothing out of pocket to find out what you’re owed.

For businesses that need cash before the government disburses, which runs 6 to 18 months out, Opscale also offers a cash advance against validated refund claims. It is a sale of the receivable, not a loan. No personal guarantee. No monthly payments. The financing partner waits for CBP; you receive funds in days.

The window is not staying open. Entries that liquidated in early 2025 are already past the protest deadline. Every week that passes moves more entries into Track 3 territory, where only CIT litigation can reach them, and even that has limits.

If your company paid IEEPA tariffs and you have not had a specialist review your entry timeline, you are making a decision by default. That decision costs you the refund.

Eligibility isn’t a self-serve check. Complete the intake at opscaleexchange.com and the Opscale team will call to walk through qualifying programs together.

Frequently Asked Questions: IEEPA Tariff Refund Recovery

Who is eligible for an IEEPA tariff refund?

Any business that was the Importer of Record on goods subject to IEEPA tariffs between February 2025 and today. Eligibility is not determined by industry or product category. It is determined by the liquidation status of your entries and whether a recovery window is still open.

What are the three recovery tracks?

Track 1 covers entries not yet liquidated, or liquidated within the past 80 days. A CAPE declaration filed through CBP’s portal applies here. Your customs broker can assist.

Track 2 covers entries liquidated within 180 days. An administrative protest can still be filed, but the window is tight. Most importers miss it because finance doesn’t flag elevated duty spend until a quarterly review, and by then the deadline has passed.

Track 3 covers entries liquidated beyond 180 days. No administrative protest right exists. The only recovery path is litigation in the U.S. Court of International Trade. Your customs broker cannot file there.

CAPE Phase 1 covers roughly 63% of eligible entries. The remaining 37% require CIT action. That gap is where most of the unclaimed money sits.

My customs broker said there’s nothing they can do. Is that true?

For liquidated entries past the 180-day protest window, yes. Brokers are not licensed to practice before the Court of International Trade. That is not a criticism of your broker. It is a jurisdictional fact. The work that recovers Track 3 money requires a customs attorney, not a portal submission.

We filed a CAPE declaration. Are we covered?

Partially. A CAPE submission protects unliquidated entries. It does not preserve your rights on entries that have already liquidated past the 80-day mark. If your entry history spans both categories, the CAPE alone leaves money unaddressed.

How do we know how much we’re owed?

Your finance team likely knows total duty spend. What they probably don’t have is a breakdown of which portion was IEEPA-specific, which entries are still inside a recovery window, and whether the HTS codes your broker used were accurate. Misclassification is common. A lower applicable rate on a misclassified entry means the refund owed could exceed what the IEEPA rate alone would suggest.

That number requires a specialist review of your ACE entry data. It is not a self-serve calculation.

Why can’t our CPA or general counsel handle this?

Fewer than 150 customs attorneys practice in the United States. Fewer than 10 law firms run a dedicated Customs and Trade practice. This is a narrow specialty. A generalist advisor who does not regularly practice before CBP or the Court of International Trade will not catch misclassifications, will not know which entries are still actionable, and cannot file in federal court. The cost of that gap is the refund itself.

What does Opscale actually do?

Opscale runs protest filings, CAPE submissions, and CIT litigation in parallel through a single intake. Vetted specialists handle each track. There are no upfront fees. Fees apply only when a recovery is successfully processed.

We need cash now, not in 18 months. Is there an option for that?

Yes. For businesses that cannot wait for CBP to disburse, which typically runs 6 to 18 months, Opscale offers a cash advance against validated refund claims. It is a sale of the receivable, not a loan. No personal guarantee, no monthly payments. The financing partner waits for the government; the business receives funds in days.

How much time do we have?

Less than most companies realize. Entries that liquidated in early 2025 have already passed the administrative protest deadline. Every week that passes moves more entries into Track 3 territory, where CIT litigation is the only option, and even that has limits. If your team has not reviewed your entry timeline with a specialist, the window is narrowing while you read this.

How do we start?

Submit the intake at opscaleexchange.com. One submission, no upfront cost. The Opscale team will call to walk through which programs apply to your entry history.