- Julio Rodriguez US Customs Broker
- Insights
- Refund fees, honestly
What filing a tariff refund should actually cost
The refund wave built an industry of recovery firms overnight, most charging a contingency cut of your own money. Here is the honest teardown of the fee models, from a firm with an obvious interest, we file refunds per entry, and an obvious answer to it: we will put both numbers in front of you and let you do the arithmetic.
Published September 14, 2026 · Updated October 5, 2026.
The contingency model, examined
The contingency agreements importers have shown us commonly ask for 15 to 30 percent of whatever is recovered; no agency publishes these rates, and that range is what we see. The pitch is fair on its face: no recovery, no fee. But look at what the work actually is for a documented claim like an IEEPA refund: pull the entries, isolate the amounts, file the declaration in CAPE, and CBP verifies against records it already holds. On an illustrative $400,000 refund, a 25 percent contingency is $100,000 for work a brokerage completes per entry at a small fraction of that. The contingency model prices your uncertainty, and on well-documented claims your uncertainty is low.
Contingency can be rational: genuinely speculative claims, litigation-adjacent disputes, cases where the filer eats a real risk of zero. A flat IEEPA refund on clean entries is not that case.
Questions that sort the field
Whoever you talk to, three questions expose the economics. First: are you a licensed customs broker? Filing refund claims for someone else is customs business under 19 USC 1641; unlicensed shops must route filings through a broker anyway, and that markup is inside your percentage. Second: what would this cost per entry instead? Anyone refusing to quote it is telling you the answer is embarrassing. Third: who keeps the interest? CAPE refunds pay with interest, and a percentage of the interest should not be anyone's fee for filing a form.
Our model, stated plainly: per-entry pricing quoted in advance, filed under our own license, filer code EWV, whether it is one entry or a thousand. If a contingency arrangement genuinely fits your case better, we will say so, because a reader who catches us shading this page never becomes a client.
Tariff refunds
Paid IEEPA or Section 301 tariffs? Find out what you can get back.
Licensed customs brokers since 2007, filer code EWV. We file your refund under our own license: IEEPA claims through CAPE, protests, post-summary corrections and duty drawback. Priced per entry and quoted before you commit, with no percentage of your refund.
FAQ
What do tariff refund companies charge?
In the agreements we see, typically 15 to 30 percent of the recovery, contingent on success. On large, well-documented refunds that percentage vastly exceeds the cost of the filing work.
Is a contingency fee ever the right choice?
For speculative or disputed claims with real risk of recovering nothing, it can be. For documented claims like IEEPA refunds through CAPE, per-entry filing by a licensed broker usually costs far less.
Can a refund company file with CBP directly?
Only a licensed customs broker or the importer itself can file. Unlicensed recovery firms must place the filing through a broker, a step their fee absorbs and their marketing rarely mentions.
How does Julio Rodriguez US Customs Broker charge for refund filings?
Per entry, quoted before you commit, filed under our own license. No percentage of your refund and no percentage of your interest.
Why do some refund firms charge 15 to 30 percent “administrative fees”?
Because the contingency model prices the refund, not the work. In the agreements importers have shown us, the fee runs 15 to 30 percent of whatever comes back, sometimes labelled an administrative fee. The filings are made per entry and do not get harder because the refund is larger, so ask for a per-entry quote before you sign anything.
Get the other number
Holding a contingency proposal? Send us the shape of the claim and we will quote the per-entry alternative so you can compare like for like.
CTPAT certified broker · EWV