US Set to Start Refunding $127 Billion in Tariffs

A Court of International Trade judge said Tuesday (April 14) that the U.S. government expects to begin processing claims for refunds from tariffs on Monday (April 20), The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The government confirmed this plan in a closed conference and said it can start accepting refund claims for $127 billion of the $166 billion it collected in tariffs that were later invalidated by the Supreme Court in February, according to the report.

The judge ordered the government to file a report by April 28 detailing its progress on processing refund claims, per the report.

Reuters reported earlier Tuesday that the government said in a court filing that it had completed the initial phase of development of a refund system that will provide each importer with a single, consolidated electronic payment rather than payments for each entry.

The government said in a court filing that as of Thursday (April 9), 56,497 importers had completed the process to receive refunds that collectively total $127 billion, according to the report.

More than 330,000 importers paid tariffs, per the report, which cited court documents.

A bulletin issued Friday (April 10) by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said that the agency will launch the first phase of a tool called Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) that will simplify duty refund requests pursuant to court order.

“CAPE is designed to consolidate refunds of IEEPA [International Emergency Economic Powers Act] duties including interest rather than processing funds on an entry-by-entry basis,” the bullet said. “CBP plans to implement CAPE through a phased development approach, adding more functionality in subsequent phases for more complicated scenarios. CAPE Phase 1 is limited to certain unliquidated entries and certain entries within 80 days of liquidation.”

The Supreme Court ruled in February that the IEEPA does not authorize a president to impose tariffs.

PYMNTS reported at the time that the most immediate complication after this ruling involved tariffs already collected, because the court did not explicitly resolve how refunds should be administered.

In early March, the Court of International Trade ordered CBP to begin the process of refunding to importers the money it collected in tariffs that were later determined to be illegal.