If your company paid IEEPA tariffs in 2025, you are probably owed a refund. That is not a sales line. It is the current position of the federal government, and the money is moving.
Here is the short version of how we got here, where the refund process stands as of late August, and what an importer should be doing this week.
How the refunds came about
In February 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3 in Learning Resources v. Trump that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize tariffs. That decision covered the 2025 emergency tariffs: the fentanyl and trafficking tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico, and the reciprocal tariffs that took effect in April 2025. Section 232 tariffs on steel, aluminum, copper, and autos were not part of the case and are still in place.
After the ruling, the Court of International Trade ordered the government to refund IEEPA duties to importers of record. The court paused enforcement of that order while Customs and Border Protection built a system to process refunds at scale. The government has also appealed the refund order, which is one reason the process still has open questions around scope and timing.
What CAPE is and how it works
CBP built a tool inside the ACE Portal called CAPE, short for Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries. Instead of refunding entry by entry, CAPE lets an importer submit one declaration that covers many entries. CBP validates the entries, recalculates duties without the IEEPA amounts, and sends approved refunds, with interest, to Treasury for payment.
CAPE has opened in phases:
Phase 1 opened April 20, 2026. It covers unliquidated entries and entries liquidated within 80 days of the CAPE submission.
Phase 2 opened June 29, 2026. It added entries flagged for reconciliation where the reconciliation entry has not been filed.
Phase 3 covers finally liquidated entries, meaning entries liquidated more than 80 days before the refund request. A July 17 order from the CIT directed CBP to reliquidate those entries, but only for importers who have filed their own case at the court. That distinction matters, and we cover it in a separate post.
The scale of what is moving
CBP filed a status report with the court on August 4. As of the end of July, importers had submitted more than 75,000 CAPE declarations, and roughly $128.68 billion in potential and certified refunds had been accepted into the system. Around $100 billion had been certified and sent to Treasury for payment. Total IEEPA collections were about $166 billion.
Those numbers say two things. First, the process works and money is being paid. Second, a meaningful share of the pool has not been claimed yet. In a normal year, CBP’s own estimates put unclaimed duty refunds at 70 to 85 percent of what is eligible. The importers who never got around to drawback are the same importers sitting on IEEPA refunds today.
What to do this week
Start with ACE access. If your company does not have an ACE Portal account, get one. Your customs broker filed entries under your importer of record number, but the refund declaration belongs to you.
Pull the Entry Summary Detail Report, known as ES-003, and export it. That report shows every entry, its liquidation status, and what was paid. Sort by liquidation date. Anything unliquidated or within 80 days of liquidation is a Phase 1 candidate right now. Anything past 80 days is a Phase 3 question.
Check for reconciliation flags. If your entries were flagged, Phase 2 applies, and the order of operations matters. CAPE removes the IEEPA duties before you file the reconciliation entry.
Watch for recalculation surprises. Some entries filed under the framework agreements with the EU, Japan, South Korea, and Switzerland required a combined 15 percent rate. When CBP strips the IEEPA portion, the refund may differ from what you expect. That is not an error. It is how the math works.
Decide who owns this. Brokers are stretched. Many importers have found that the refund work needs a dedicated owner, whether that is someone inside the company or a partner who does this full time.
Why timing is not a manufactured deadline
Liquidation is a clock. Every day, more entries cross the 80-day line and move from the simplest refund path to the hardest one. Refund claims on finally liquidated entries currently depend on court action, and the government’s appeal adds uncertainty to that path. Filing sooner keeps more of your entries in the straightforward lane.