How to File for Your IEEPA Tariff Refund Through the CAPE System

What You’ll Learn

This article walks through the mechanics of the CAPE filing process for IEEPA tariff refunds: who can file, what Phase 1 covers, how to prepare your data, what mistakes are sinking claims in the early filing surge, and what to do if your company was not the Importer of Record on your entries.

The Ruling That Created the Refund Opportunity

On February 20, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in the consolidated cases Trump v. V.O.S. Selections and Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the President to impose tariffs. The ruling invalidated the IEEPA-based tariffs that had applied to U.S. imports from February 4, 2025 through February 24, 2026, including the reciprocal tariffs, the fentanyl-related surcharges on Canada, Mexico, and China, and bilateral arrangements with multiple trading partners.

The scope is worth understanding precisely. Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum, Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods, and antidumping or countervailing duty orders are not affected by this ruling and are not refundable through this process. If your company paid IEEPA duties on top of any of those other tariffs, only the IEEPA layer is in play.

The dollar amount at stake is significant: CBP estimates roughly $166 billion in IEEPA duties were collected from approximately 330,000 importers across more than 53 million entries. The refunds will include statutory interest, at 6% per year for corporate importers, compounded daily under 19 CFR 24.36, which means that the recovery for many companies will be meaningfully increased.

Important Scope Limitation

The Supreme Court’s ruling covers only IEEPA-based tariffs. Section 232 (steel, aluminum, auto parts), Section 301 (Chinese goods), and antidumping/countervailing duties are entirely separate and are not refundable through CAPE. Make sure your data analysis distinguishes IEEPA Chapter 99 HTS codes from other duty classifications before you build your claim.

What CAPE Is and How It Works

CBP’s refund mechanism is called the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries system, and it operates as a new module within the Automated Commercial Environment Secure Data Portal, the same ACE Portal that importers and customs brokers already use for customs filings. CAPE launched Phase 1 on April 20, 2026, and it is now the exclusive channel for IEEPA refund claims. Post-Summary Corrections, which would ordinarily be available for correcting duty amounts, cannot be used here.

The design is meaningfully different from traditional CBP refund processing. Rather than reviewing entries one at a time, CAPE consolidates refunds by Importer of Record and liquidation date. Once CBP validates and accepts a CAPE Declaration, ACE strips the IEEPA Chapter 99 HTS codes from the affected entries, recalculates duties without them, and initiates the refund process. CBP anticipates issuing valid refunds within 60 to 90 days of CAPE Declaration acceptance, with unliquidated entries set to liquidate approximately 45 days from the acceptance date.

The early numbers are instructive about what this looks like at scale. As of April 26, 2026, importers and brokers had submitted approximately 75,300 CAPE Declarations covering more than 11.2 million individual entries, of which roughly 1.74 million had already cleared all validations and entered the refund process. CBP confirmed that the first ACH payments began issuing around May 11-12, 2026.

Phase 1 Eligibility: What’s In and What Has to Wait

Phase 1 is intentionally limited in scope. It covers two categories of entries: unliquidated entries (those CBP has received but not yet finalized) and entries liquidated within 80 days of the CAPE submission date. CBP estimates that Phase 1 captures approximately 82% of total IEEPA entries and duty deposits, a substantial portion of the overall refund universe.

Several entry types are excluded from Phase 1 and will be addressed in later phases or through alternative remedies:

• Entries flagged for reconciliation, and Entry Type 09 (Reconciliation Summary) entries

• Entries subject to antidumping or countervailing duties where the Department of Commerce has issued liquidation instructions

• Drawback entries

• S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement duty-deferral entries

• Temporary importation under bond entries

• Entries on which the surety (rather than the importer) paid the IEEPA duties

For entries that fall outside Phase 1 — particularly liquidated entries more than 80 days past their liquidation date — the preservation option is a protest under 19 U.S.C. section 1514. The protest window is 180 days from the date of liquidation. If you are within that window on any entries, file to protect your rights now. Entries past the 180-day protest deadline currently require litigation at the Court of International Trade to recover.

Watch the Protest Clock

The single most common strategic error being made right now is treating the refund process as open-ended when it is not. Each liquidated entry has a 180-day protest deadline running from its liquidation date, regardless of when CAPE launches additional phases. If you have entries that liquidated before January 2026, some of those deadlines may already be closing. Audit your entry-level protest windows as soon as possible.

Who Can File

Only two parties are authorized to submit a CAPE Declaration: the Importer of Record named on CBP Form 7501, and the licensed customs broker who originally filed the entries on that IOR’s behalf. No other party, regardless of who economically bore the tariff cost, can file directly with CBP.

This is not a technical formality. It is the controlling legal rule. CBP Form 7501 is the entry summary document, and boxes 23 and 26 identify the Importer Number and Importer of Record name and address for each entry. If your company is listed there, you are the IOR, and you can file. If a freight forwarder, third-party logistics provider, or foreign supplier is listed, they are the IOR, and the CAPE refund goes to them.

One useful option for IORs who want to redirect their refund is CBP Form 4811, the notify party form, which allows an IOR to designate a third party to receive the refund on its behalf. This can be useful in situations where ownership has changed or where a parent company is consolidating refund receipts across subsidiaries.

The Step-by-Step Filing Sequence

For companies filing under their own IOR designation, here is the complete sequence:

• Step 1: Confirm Your ACE Portal Access

Log in to the ACE Secure Data Portal and verify that your account is active and that you have an Importer sub-account. This specific sub-account type is required to enter banking information for ACH refund delivery. If your ACE credentials are tied to a former employee or have gone dormant, a customs broker can file CBP Form 5106 to update your importer records before you file.

• Step 2: Set Up ACH Banking Information

As of February 6, 2026, CBP no longer issues paper checks. All refunds are paid electronically via ACH transfer. The ACE module for receiving refunds is separate from the module used to pay duties; a distinction that has caused payment delays for a significant number of filers in the early weeks of the process. Verify that your ACH refund banking information is current in the correct ACE sub-account before you submit your Declaration.

• Step 3: Pull Your Import History

Run the ES-003 Entry Summary Details report from your ACE account to pull your complete import history for the IEEPA period. You are looking for all entries containing IEEPA Chapter 99 HTS codes filed between February 4, 2025 and February 24, 2026. For each entry, confirm its current liquidation status and calculate whether it falls within Phase 1 eligibility.

• Step 4: Build Your CAPE Declaration

The CAPE Declaration is a CSV file with a single column labeled ‘Entry Number’ in the first row, and your entry numbers filling the rows below, 1 per row, up to 9,999 entries per Declaration. (You can submit multiple Declarations if you have more than 9,999 eligible entries.) Entry numbers must be exactly 11 alphanumeric characters with no duplicates. For broker and filer accounts, the first three characters must match the filer code on file with CBP.

One rule with significant practical consequences: CAPE Declarations cannot be amended after submission. If you omit eligible entries from a Declaration, you must file a separate Declaration for them later. Take the time to organize and validate your entry data before you upload.

• Step 5: Upload Through CAPE and Monitor

Upload your CSV through the CAPE tab in your ACE Portal account. ACE will conduct two validation series: first, on the Declaration file itself; then, on the individual entries listed. Once accepted, you will receive a CAPE claim number. Track your refund activity using the REV-603 Trade Refund report and, after payment, the REV-615 report. Review these promptly, as early filers have reported rejected or delayed entries that needed follow-up within CBP’s own processing windows.

Common Filing Errors to Avoid

Based on the first weeks of CAPE filings, the rejection rate on initial validation has run approximately 15%. The most common causes:

• Outdated ACE credentials tied to former employees or inactive users, causing IOR number mismatches between the portal account and the entry summaries.

• Incorrect or missing ACH banking information. CBP will accept a CAPE Declaration and then hold payment until valid banking details are on file in the correct sub-account.

• Entry number formatting errors. Numbers must be exactly 11 alphanumeric characters. Duplicates within a single Declaration cause rejections at the file validation level.

• Submitting entries that fall outside Phase 1 eligibility, particularly entries with AD/CVD liquidation instructions pending, reconciliation entries, or entries where the surety paid the duty.

CBP published a complete CAPE error code table on April 29, 2026, which your customs broker should be using as a reference to clean your data before submission.

If Your Supplier was the Importer of Record

Many businesses paid IEEPA tariff costs indirectly through inflated supplier invoices, DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) pricing arrangements, or pass-through surcharges, or because a vendor, freight forwarder, or third-party logistics provider was listed as the IOR on their entries. If that describes your situation, you cannot file through CAPE directly, and the refund in CBP’s system belongs to whoever holds the IOR designation.

Your options depend on your commercial arrangements. If the supplier or freight forwarder is cooperative and still in business, they can file the CAPE claim, and you can recover through your contractual relationship, but that recovery requires their active participation. Some businesses have structured formal assignments of refund rights, but these arrangements are legally complex, and CBP’s acceptance of such assignments is not automatic. The Assignment of Claims Act imposes statutory requirements that are unlikely to be satisfied for most IEEPA claims until CBP formally issues a reliquidation.

The right immediate steps: identify every entry in the IEEPA period where a third party held the IOR designation, contact those parties now to confirm their plans, and review your contracts for any language covering duty overpayments, refunds, or tariff pass-throughs. Retailers and distributors who absorbed tariff costs through higher purchase prices may also have unjust enrichment or contractual recoupment claims against suppliers who receive CAPE refunds without passing any of the value back.

Downstream Buyers Should Act Now on Contracts

If your supplier was the IOR and you absorbed tariff costs through inflated prices or explicit surcharges, the legal and commercial landscape is moving fast. Putative class actions have already been filed against importers on unjust enrichment theories. If you have contractual hooks, like duty drawback provisions, price adjustment clauses, or cost-plus mechanics, engage counsel now. The window to negotiate a reasonable resolution with your supplier narrows as CAPE refund payments begin arriving.

The Legal Uncertainty: What Filers Should Know

The government’s deadline to appeal the Court of International Trade’s nationwide refund order runs through early June 2026. A successful government appeal could result in a stay of the refund process and significantly delay, or in the worst case, reverse, refunds that have already been processed. The current administration has signaled aggressive intent to contest the scope of the refund mandate.

Filing through CAPE now does not eliminate that risk, but it does preserve your claim and position you to receive payment promptly if the legal landscape remains favorable. The alternative, waiting for a full legal resolution, risks missing Phase 1 processing windows and the protest deadlines for liquidated entries running in parallel. Most advisors recommend filing promptly while closely monitoring appellate developments.

Gray, Gray & Gray monitors these developments and can help you assess your refund eligibility and prepare for the accounting and tax implications of the recovery. The window is open now, so contact us to start the conversation.