For thousands of American business owners, February 20, 2026 was a moment of stunned relief. The U.S. Supreme Court had just ruled, in a 6-3 decision, that President Trump’s sweeping tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act were unconstitutional — and the money companies had paid under those tariffs would need to come back.
Then came the hard part.
Approximately $166 billion in tariffs was paid by around 330,000 different companies or importers during the period the tariffs were in effect. Recovering that money requires navigating a new federal system that, by most accounts, was built quickly and is showing the strain.
The Portal Opens — and Stumbles
U.S. Customs and Border Protection launched the first phase of its Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries tool — known as CAPE — on April 20, 2026, at 8 a.m. EST, allowing importers to begin submitting refund requests for IEEPA duties through the federal Automated Commercial Environment portal.
Valid refund claims are expected to be processed within 60 to 90 days following acceptance, unless a compliance concern requires further CBP review. On paper, the system represents a significant operational improvement over traditional entry-by-entry processing. In practice, the rollout exposed deep gaps in readiness — particularly among the small businesses that bore the most strain while the tariffs were in effect.
Beth Benike, co-founder of Busy Baby, a Minnesota-based maker of baby products, spent more than four hours on hold with CBP over the weekend trying to resolve a system error. “I got an error message saying ‘Duplicate tax ID,’ which means my importer account is tied to someone else’s,” Benike said, adding that she is seeking a refund she is owed for IEEPA duties already paid.
As of April 26, CBP had processed more than 11 million entries from businesses, roughly 1.7 million of which were already in the refund pipeline. The invalid entries were rejected primarily because they contained incorrect information or concerned tariff payments not eligible for refunds under Phase 1 of the system.
While CBP guidance suggested a relatively streamlined process, early activity tells a more nuanced story: submission delays and portal congestion have been reported, with high volumes of first-time filers slowing uploads and data formatting issues creating friction before submissions even reach the review stage.
Small Businesses Carry the Burden
The refund process is not a level playing field. Alex Jacquez, chief of policy and advocacy at Groundwork Collaborative, said the process is particularly critical for small businesses. “Some of these small businesses were hit hard and they really need this money back to make ends meet,” Jacquez said.
At the same time, large retailers like Walmart and Target, which passed tariff costs onto consumers through higher prices, stand to pocket refunds without necessarily returning savings to the shoppers who ultimately bore the cost. “The big ones went ahead and passed their costs onto their consumers, and now they’re getting a refund that they’ll just be able to pocket,” Jacquez said.
The structural advantages held by larger importers go beyond the political optics. Phase 1 of CAPE covers only unliquidated entries or entries liquidated within the previous 80 days. Businesses with already-liquidated entries outside that window face the prospect of having to file formal protests with CBP or sue in the Court of International Trade — steps that smaller businesses without legal counsel may not even know are available to them.
Trade attorney Seligman warned that technical glitches are not just inconvenient delays. “They are delays that can lead to ineligibility, and potentially — if importers don’t have appropriate counsel — can result in permanent loss of refund rights,” he said.
New Tariffs Already Replacing the Old
Even as refund claims are being filed, the underlying trade policy has not stabilized. After the Supreme Court ruling, the Trump administration moved swiftly to impose new tariffs under different legal authorities. By the day after the ruling, Trump had announced a new global tariff of up to 15% under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, followed by additional measures under Section 301 and Section 232, which address unfair trade practices and national security respectively.
CBP has signaled that IEEPA refund claims may be subject to review, documentation requests, and potential post-refund audit activity — meaning that even accepted claims carry ongoing compliance risk after submission.
In Congress, the Tariff Refund Act of 2026 — Senate Bill 3905 — has been introduced, which would require CBP to refund all IEEPA duties within 180 days of enactment with interest, and would prioritize small businesses in the process. As of this writing, the bill has not passed.
What Comes Next
For businesses waiting on refunds, the timeline remains uncertain. CBP told CBS News the portal “streamlines the process for removing IEEPA-related duties, reduces paperwork, and enables efficient, compliant review of claims,” and noted that the only period of downtime after launch was an 18-minute pause on April 20 to reconfigure processing resources.
Trade experts recommend that importers confirm their ACE portal accounts are properly configured, compile entry records dating back to when the tariffs first took effect, and work with a licensed customs broker or trade attorney to avoid errors that could delay or forfeit their refund rights.
For the hundreds of thousands of American businesses that spent the past year absorbing costs they were never legally required to pay, the system is now open. Getting through it is another matter entirely.
