IEEPA tariff refunds: who qualifies and how to claim through CAPE

On February 20, 2026 the Supreme Court decided Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, together with Trump v. V.O.S. Selections. The holding was short: IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs. Every duty collected under it became refundable. CBP stopped collecting IEEPA duties at 12:00 a.m. Eastern on February 24, 2026, so entries dated up to and including February 23 carry them.

By mid-September 2026, CBP had accepted roughly $134.7 billion in claimed refunds into its new system, covering about 27 million entries, according to figures CBP shared with brokers. If your business imported anything in 2025, some of that money may be yours. This guide explains who can claim, what qualifies, and how the process works as of October 22, 2026.

Which tariffs are refundable

CBP treats all of these as IEEPA duties. They were reported under Chapter 99 headings in the 9903.01 and 9903.02 ranges.

IEEPA duties applied on top of the normal rate. Laptops from China pay no base duty, and computers were carved out of the reciprocal tariff in April 2025. They still paid the China fentanyl tariff: $2,000 on a $10,000 entry at the 20% rate in force for most of 2025. That is the kind of entry CAPE refunds.

What CAPE is

CAPE stands for Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries. It is a tab in the ACE Portal, available in Importer, Organizational Broker and Filer accounts. Phase 1 launched on April 20, 2026. You upload a CSV file, called a CAPE Declaration, that lists entry numbers. One declaration can hold up to 9,999 entries, and you can file as many declarations as you need. ACE removes the IEEPA Chapter 99 lines, recalculates the duty, and CBP liquidates or reliquidates the entry and pays the difference.

• You cannot file a CAPE Declaration through ABI. It is a portal upload.
• An accepted declaration cannot be amended or cancelled, and each entry can appear on only one accepted declaration. Check the list before you submit.
• A post summary correction cannot be used to start an IEEPA refund.
• CBP charges no fee. It has warned about refund-recovery scams that ask for portal access or a cut of the refund.

Who can file and who gets paid

Only the importer of record, or the licensed customs broker that filed the entries, can submit a CAPE Declaration. An attorney cannot file on your behalf. The refund goes to the importer of record, or to a third party named on CBP Form 4811 as the notify party.

Refunds are paid only by ACH, and only to bank details entered under ACH Refund Authorization in an Importer sub-account of the ACE Portal. This is separate from ACH set up for paying duty. If it is missing, CBP holds the refund. Around September 2026, about 20,000 refunds worth roughly $1.3 billion were on hold for missing ACH refund details, according to broker reports.

Which entries qualify right now

The deadline that catches people

CBP has set no filing deadline and no minimum amount. The clock that matters is liquidation. Most entries liquidate about 314 days after entry. Once an entry is more than 80 days past liquidation it drops out of CAPE, and 180 days after liquidation it becomes final unless a protest is filed. A finally liquidated entry has no administrative route to a refund today.

Example: an entry made on April 15, 2025 would typically liquidate around late February 2026. It stays CAPE-eligible for 80 days after that, to roughly mid-May 2026, and becomes final around late August 2026. If you have not filed for spring 2025 entries, they may already be outside CAPE. Entries from late 2025 and early 2026 are mostly still inside the window. File them now.

Protests, PSCs and the courts

A protest under 19 U.S.C. 1514 is due within 180 days of liquidation. CBP's guidance is to file any non-IEEPA post summary corrections before you file in CAPE, and to hold non-IEEPA protests until after the refund, because an open protest blocks CAPE. Some practitioners advise withdrawing an IEEPA-only protest so the entry can go through CAPE. Whether that is right depends on the entry's status, so ask your broker.

The Court of International Trade has around 3,700 refund suits before Judge Richard K. Eaton. In July 2026 it ordered reliquidation of finally liquidated entries for plaintiffs. The government is appealing and argues that non-plaintiffs cannot get that relief. Whether finally liquidated entries of importers who did not sue will ever be refunded is the biggest open question. If you have large finally liquidated entries, talk to a trade attorney about a suit soon. Statutes of limitation apply.

Small sellers who shipped by courier

If DHL, FedEx or UPS cleared your goods and acted as importer of record, only the carrier (or its broker) can file in CAPE, and the refund goes to the carrier. You have to claim from the carrier. UPS said in April 2026 that it would file for shipments where it was importer of record and pass refunds through to customers, and other carriers were reported to be filing too. We could not confirm each carrier's terms from primary sources, so check their refund pages and keep your invoices and tracking numbers.

If you were the importer of record on a formal entry, you or your broker file directly. Informal Type 11 entries are harder. Many liquidated close to the entry date and may already be final. CBP has not clearly said whether CAPE will cover most informal entries, and we found no CBP guidance on refunds of IEEPA duties collected on postal shipments. Treat both as unresolved as of October 22, 2026.

Interest and timing

Refunds include interest under 19 U.S.C. 1505 at the IRS quarterly rate, from the date of deposit to liquidation or reliquidation. CBP nets any bills you owe against the refund. CBP says refunds generally arrive 60 to 90 days after a declaration is accepted.

What replaced IEEPA

A 10% Section 122 surcharge applied from February 24 to July 24, 2026, the 150-day maximum. In May 2026 the Court of International Trade held it unlawful, but only for the named plaintiffs, and the ruling is stayed on appeal. CAPE does not refund Section 122 duties. From July 24, 2026, USTR replaced it with Section 301 duties of 10% or 12.5% on 60 economies. Those are current law and are not refundable.

Step-by-step

1. Pull an ACE report of all entries with IEEPA Chapter 99 lines from February 2025 through February 23, 2026.
2. Sort by liquidation status and date. File the entries closest to the 80-day cutoff first.
3. Fix any non-IEEPA errors with post summary corrections before you file.
4. Set up ACH Refund Authorization in the ACE Portal Importer sub-account.
5. Build the CAPE CSV, check for duplicates, and upload it, or have your broker do it.
6. Track acceptance, then reconcile each refund and its interest against the entry.
7. For finally liquidated entries, get legal advice on whether to sue.