In February 2026 the Supreme Court held that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the President to impose tariffs. Importers who had spent most of a year paying those duties treated the ruling as the end of the cost. It was closer to the start of a recovery process.
That process has turned out to be administrative rather than legal for most of the money involved. Much of it depends on customs entry data, which may be held by the importer, its customs broker or other international logistics providers. In figures filed with the court, roughly $1.7 billion in refunds had not been transmitted as of 21 August because importers or their authorized designees had not supplied ACH account information.
Where the Money Stands
Court declarations put the pool at around $166 billion, paid or deposited by roughly 330,000 importers. By late August, CBP had reported over $100 billion certified and sent to Treasury.
CBP built a refund mechanism inside its existing customs system, the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries, or CAPE. Phase 1 launched on 20 April 2026, covering eligible unliquidated entries and entries within 80 days of liquidation. Phase 2 followed on 29 June, adding certain entries flagged for reconciliation where the reconciliation entry had not yet been filed.
The Claim Starts With Entry Numbers
A CAPE declaration starts with the entry numbers carrying the IEEPA duties, up to 9,999 per declaration. CBP then validates the entries against its customs records and calculates the applicable refund.
The refund is tied to the importer of record, although an authorized customs broker can submit it and a Form 4811 designee may receive the payment. Electronic refund enrollment is required for ACH payment, and CBP generally does not issue paper checks.
The Customs Data Question
The work sits in identifying which entries qualify. An importer that shipped steadily through 2025 may have thousands of entries, only some of which carried IEEPA duties, spread across several ports and more than one broker, and reconciling that history is where the administrative work sits.
Providers offering international logistics solutions that include customs brokerage may hold some of that data. Where the same provider handled the original entries, that relationship can be useful when an importer needs to identify and reconcile eligible entries.
Entries at Final Liquidation
Entries that had reached final liquidation fell outside Phases 1 and 2. A Court of International Trade order directed CBP to reliquidate certain of those entries, and CBP’s planned Phase 3 process is intended to address them, while the treatment of others remains subject to ongoing litigation.
Importers that did not file have not, to date, had access to the same court-ordered mechanism, and the government has appealed the underlying order to the Federal Circuit. CBP told the court in an August update that Phase 3 had been delayed, without giving a new date.
The Cash Flow Question
For a mid-sized importer, this is a working capital event rather than a tax adjustment. Duties paid across a year of entries were funded from operating cash, credit facilities or other working-capital resources, and the refunds carry statutory interest.
A company that knows which entries are eligible, and has enrollment in place, can forecast the recovery and use it. A company still reconciling records cannot, which leaves inventory buying, supplier terms and borrowing headroom sitting on an unknown.
What to Check
The practical work is mostly clerical:
- Whether ACE access and electronic refund enrollment are set up, since payment needs banking information on file
- Which entries carried IEEPA duties, and which had already reached final liquidation
- Whether the customs broker can produce that entry history in usable form
- Who is named as importer of record, and whether a Form 4811 designee should receive payment
- For entries at final liquidation, what route is open, since it differs by whether a case was filed
The Ruling Was the Starting Point
For many importers the challenge is identifying eligible entries and reconciling the records needed to support the refund. It is the difference between a recovery a company can plan around and one that arrives whenever the records are ready.
Article received via email
