Tariff and customs duty refunds, filed by a licensed broker

Billions of dollars in import duty refunds are flowing right now, and CBP lets exactly two parties file a CAPE claim for them: you as the importer of record, or the licensed customs broker who filed those entries. Most refund routes are wider than that, and we work all of them. Here is every route your money can take back to you, and who is allowed to walk each one.

The IEEPA refunds: the big wave

On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court held in Learning Resources v. Trump that IEEPA does not authorize tariffs. The April 2025 reciprocal tariffs and the fentanyl-order tariffs fell with that decision, and CBP stopped collecting them on February 24, 2026.

Refunds flow through CAPE, the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries tool inside ACE that CBP opened on April 20, 2026. The scale is real: as of September 11, 2026, CBP had accepted roughly $134.7 billion in declarations and certified about $122 billion, duties plus interest, to the Treasury for payment, on more than 200,000 declarations covering 27 million entries. CBP estimates about 330,000 importers paid these tariffs. CBP says valid refunds generally issue 60 to 90 days after a declaration is accepted.

Now the part that gets misrepresented. CBP has announced no deadline for filing a CAPE claim, and anyone selling you a countdown on one is selling urgency. The real clocks are per entry: your own liquidation date decides whether you are in CAPE territory, protest territory, or neither. The dates you see quoted, February 4 and April 5 of 2027, are something narrower: they are the outside limits for filing suit at the Court of International Trade over entries that have already finally liquidated, computed from the two-year limit in 28 USC 2636(i) rather than published by CBP. If your entries are in that group, those dates matter enormously and the conversation should start now. If they are not, they are somebody else's deadline.

Which refund route is yours?

A tariff refund is not one process. It is four or five, and picking the wrong one wastes months. This is the decision tree we walk with every new refund client:

Paid the 2025 IEEPA tariffs? CAPE, filed by you as importer of record, or by the licensed broker who filed those entries.
Exported or destroyed what you imported? Duty drawback: 99% back, five years to look back.
Entry not liquidated yet? A post-summary correction, within 300 days of entry and no later than 15 days before liquidation, whichever comes first. Never for an IEEPA refund: CBP requires those through CAPE.
Entry liquidated within the last 180 days? A protest under 19 USC 1514.
An exclusion covered your product and nobody claimed it? A post-summary correction before liquidation, or a protest within 180 days after.

What is refundable, and what is gone

Not every charge on your landed cost can come back, and an honest refund page says so before you spend money chasing the wrong line.

Refundable or not, at a glance
Charge	Refundable?	Route
IEEPA tariffs (2025)	Yes, with interest	CAPE only, never a PSC. Your liquidation date sets the clock
Ordinary duties overpaid	Yes	PSC before liquidation, protest within 180 days after
Section 301 duties	Yes, if exported or excluded	Drawback, or PSC/protest on an exclusion
Section 232 duties	Depends on the proclamation	Lumber and pharma yes; trucks, parts and partner metals manufacturing drawback only; copper, chips, autos and pre-April 2026 steel and aluminum no
MPF and HMF	Yes, on drawback claims	19 CFR 190.3 lists both fees
AD/CVD duties	No	Never subject to drawback
Demurrage, per diem, exam costs	No	Not claims against the government at all

Refund facts current as of September 30, 2026. Deadlines and program status change; we re-verify before every filing.

The fee-model warning

The refund wave produced a wave of contingency refund shops charging, as a contingency or “administrative” fee in the agreements importers have shown us, 15 to 30 percent of whatever comes back. On a large IEEPA refund that can be a six-figure fee for filings a broker completes per entry at a small fraction of that. Before you sign a contingency agreement, ask a licensed customs broker what filing the same claims per entry would cost. We will tell you the number before you commit to anything.

One more thing worth knowing: preparing and filing refund claims for someone else is customs business under 19 USC 1641 and requires a broker license. Whoever you hire, ask for the license. We will show you ours.

The rule behind each refund route

Every route on this page is set by a federal rule. These are the rules themselves, on the government's sites.

CBP, IEEPA duty refunds and CAPEOfficial
Only the importer of record, or the licensed broker that filed the entries for it, may file the CAPE declaration.
CBP, post-summary correctionsOfficial
Filed within 300 days of entry and up to 15 days before scheduled liquidation, whichever comes first.
CBP, protestsOfficial
Within 180 days of liquidation, the importer, its broker or its attorney can contest the decision.
19 USC 1514, protestsOfficial
The statute that sets the protest and its deadline.
19 USC 1313, drawbackOfficial
Refunds of up to 99 percent of duties, taxes and fees on goods later exported or destroyed.
28 USC 2636, Court of International TradeOfficial
Section 2636(i) gives two years from when a claim first arises for actions under the court's residual jurisdiction.

Free tool

Check your entry against the refund rules

Five questions and you see which routes look open on your dates, which are closed, and which need a look at the entry summaries. No email, nothing stored.

Open the refund checker

FAQ

Who can file an IEEPA tariff refund in CAPE?

Only you as the importer of record, or the licensed customs broker who filed those entries. Not consultants, not refund companies, not attorneys, and not a different broker. So if we filed your entries, we file your CAPE claim. If another broker filed them, that broker files it or you file it yourself in ACE, and we will still read your situation, tell you which entries qualify and prepare the list. Every other refund route stays open to us.

My old broker filed those entries and I do not use them anymore. Can you file my CAPE refund?

No, and any broker who says otherwise is guessing. CBP accepts a CAPE declaration only from you or from the broker who filed the entries. What we can do is confirm which entries are affected, prepare the entry list so filing is mechanical, and handle every other route your entries qualify for, including protest, post-summary correction and drawback, where a new broker is allowed to act.

How long does a CAPE refund take?

As of mid-2026, payouts have been running roughly 60 to 90 days from acceptance of the declaration, paid with interest. Complex entries and liquidation issues can add time.

What is the deadline for IEEPA tariff refunds?

CBP has announced no deadline for filing a CAPE claim, and anyone selling you a countdown on one is selling urgency. What is real is that each entry runs its own clock off its liquidation date: unliquidated entries and entries liquidated within the last 80 days go through CAPE, and past that you are into protest territory at 180 days. For entries that have already finally liquidated, the outside limits for suing at the Court of International Trade work out to February 4 and April 5 of 2027, computed from a two-year statute rather than published by CBP.

Can I get a customs duty refund if I never sued over the tariffs?

Yes. The refunds are not limited to the plaintiffs. Any importer who paid the IEEPA tariffs can claim through CAPE, and CBP estimates about 330,000 importers paid them.

What does a tariff refund company charge?

In the agreements we see, contingency shops typically take 15 to 30 percent of the recovery; no agency publishes these rates. A licensed broker filing per entry usually costs far less. Ask for both numbers before signing anything.

Are Section 232 steel and aluminum duties refundable?

It depends on the entry date and the metal. Entries before April 6, 2026 are barred by Proclamations 9704 and 9705 as amended. From April 6, 2026, Proclamation 11021 allows manufacturing drawback, under 19 USC 1313(a) and (b), on steel, aluminum and copper melted and cast in a treaty partner such as the EU, UK, Japan, Korea, Mexico or Canada, and bars everything else. Section 301 duties, by contrast, are drawback-eligible per CSMS 18-000419.

Find out what your entries are owed

Tell us roughly when you imported and how many entries you run a year. A licensed broker will map your refund routes and quote a per-entry price, no contingency contract required.

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