The $165 Billion Refund Window: How to File Your IEEPA Tariff Claim Before It Closes

CBP launched its CAPE refund system on April 20, 2026, and the first checks are expected by May 11 — but refunds are not automatic. If you paid IEEPA tariffs on any of your 2025-2026 entries, here's exactly what you need to do, what's eligible, and the deadlines that could cost you everything if you miss them.

Three hundred and thirty thousand importers. Fifty-three million entries. One hundred and sixty-five billion dollars in duties the Supreme Court called unlawful. That's the scale of what's happening right now in trade compliance — the largest tariff refund event in U.S. history.

And yet, as of early April, only about 6% of eligible importers had even completed the ACH enrollment required to receive a single dollar back.

If you're a customs broker, that gap is both a crisis and an opportunity. Your clients are sitting on refunds ranging from thousands to tens of millions of dollars. The filing mechanism is live. The first disbursements are imminent. But the window isn't infinite — and Phase 1 doesn't cover everything.

The Supreme Court Decision That Started It All

On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not grant the President authority to impose tariffs. The decision was categorical: every tariff imposed under IEEPA — the "reciprocal tariffs" and "fentanyl tariffs" that dominated 2025 trade policy — was collected without legal authority.

The ruling immediately stopped collection. CBP ceased collecting IEEPA duties on goods entered for consumption or withdrawn from a warehouse on or after February 24, 2026, per the Ending Certain Tariff Actions Executive Order.

But stopping collection was the easy part. The hard part — getting $165 billion back into the hands of importers who paid it — required a mechanism that didn't exist.

From Ruling to Refunds: The Court Orders

The refund path ran through the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT), where Judge Richard K. Eaton took charge. The timeline moved fast:

March 4, 2026 — Judge Eaton ordered CBP to liquidate unliquidated entries and reliquidate entries where liquidation wasn't final, all without IEEPA duties
March 12, 2026 — CBP filed a declaration proposing an automated refund system rather than entry-by-entry processing
March 27, 2026 — The scope expanded to cover three categories: unliquidated, liquidated but not final, and even finally liquidated entries
April 7, 2026 — CIT suspended the immediate compliance requirement, giving CBP time to build its system
April 20, 2026 — CAPE Phase 1 launched

The case that's driving all of this is Atmus Filtration, Inc. v. United States, which became the lead case after the initial V.O.S. Selections proceedings. Over 2,500 individual IEEPA tariff cases remain stayed under Administrative Order 25-02 while the CAPE process handles claims in bulk.

What Is CAPE and How Does It Work?

CAPE — the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries — is CBP's purpose-built tool within the ACE portal for processing IEEPA refund claims at scale. Instead of handling 53 million entries one by one, CAPE lets importers and brokers submit bulk declarations covering thousands of entries in a single filing.

Here's the core workflow:

Log into ACE — You need an established ACE Secure Data Portal account
Enroll in ACH — CBP must have your bank account information on file to send refunds
Prepare your CSV — A CAPE Declaration consists of a comma-separated values file listing entries for which you're requesting IEEPA duty refunds (up to 9,999 entries per declaration)
Submit the declaration — File through the ACE Portal
CBP validates — The system checks entries against eligibility criteria
Entries are reliquidated — ACE removes the IEEPA duty lines and recalculates
Refund issued — Lump sum per importer (not per shipment), including interest

Critical detail: Refunds are issued in a lump sum per importer, including interest, rather than per shipment. This means you'll receive one payment covering all validated entries.

Phase 1 Eligibility: What's In and What's Out

Phase 1 is deliberately limited. Understanding the boundaries is essential to advising clients correctly.

Eligible for Phase 1	NOT Eligible for Phase 1
Unliquidated entries	Finally liquidated entries
Entries liquidated within preceding 80 days	Entries flagged for reconciliation
Suspended/extended/under review entries (accepted but held)	Entry Type 09 (Reconciliation Summary)
	Entries on a drawback claim
	Entries covered by an open protest
	Entries not filed in ACE
	AD/CVD entries with DOC liquidation instructions pending

The 80-day liquidation window is the critical number. CBP chose this timeframe because it needs processing time before the 90-day deadline for voluntary reliquidation under 19 U.S.C. § 1501. If an entry was liquidated more than 80 days before your CAPE submission date, it's out of Phase 1 scope.

Phase 1 covers approximately 63% of affected import entries — roughly 33 million of the 53 million total entries.

The Numbers So Far: Who's Filing?

As of April 26, 2026 — six days after CAPE launched — CBP reported:

75,300+ CAPE declarations filed
~1,740,000 entries included in those declarations (approximately 3% of the 11 million entries eligible in Phase 1 at that point)
First refunds expected on or about May 11, 2026
Entries submitted on April 20 already showing as reliquidated with April 21 liquidation dates

The math is striking. Out of 330,000 affected importers, only a fraction have filed in the first week. The Reddit customs broker community is already reporting that April 20 submissions are showing reliquidated status with refund amounts and dates confirmed.

Five Filing Pitfalls That Are Tripping Up Brokers

CBP's April 28 status conference with Judge Eaton flagged real-world issues brokers are encountering:

ACE access problems — Long wait times to reset usernames and passwords are delaying filings. If your clients' ACE accounts have been dormant, start the reset process now.
ACH enrollment gaps — Only ~6% of eligible importers had completed ACH banking enrollment as of early April. No ACH enrollment = no refund disbursement, even if your CAPE declaration is accepted.
Incorrect importer identification — Early guidance suggested third parties could file CAPE declarations. CBP has since clarified: only the Importer of Record (IOR) or the broker that originally filed the entries may submit the CAPE Declaration. If a different broker now handles the account, the original filing broker must submit.
Training webinar overload — CBP's April 21 and April 28 webinars hit capacity immediately. If you missed them, recordings should be available, but don't wait for training to start filing.
CSV formatting errors — The declaration requires a properly formatted CSV file with up to 9,999 entries. Malformed files are being rejected without clear error messages in some cases.

The 180-Day Protest Clock: Your Hardest Deadline

Here's what keeps trade attorneys up at night: the 180-day protest window under 19 U.S.C. § 1514 is a hard deadline. For entries that are liquidating right now — during the CAPE processing period — you have 180 days from liquidation to protest.

This means IEEPA refunds are not a one-time filing event. You need an ongoing monitoring process:

Entries liquidating today start a 180-day countdown
If CAPE rejects an entry or Phase 2 hasn't launched by the time your window closes, you need a protest filed
For finally liquidated entries where the protest period has expired, you may need to file a protective action in the CIT within the two-year statute of limitations

Don't treat CAPE as "set it and forget it." Build a tickler system that flags entries approaching their 180-day protest deadline.

What About Finally Liquidated Entries? The Phase 2 Question

The biggest gap in Phase 1 is finally liquidated entries — entries where the liquidation became final (protest period expired) before CAPE launched. The CIT's original order covered these entries, directing CBP to reliquidate them "without regard to the IEEPA duties."

But CBP has excluded them from Phase 1. And the timeline for Phase 2 is undefined.

Judge Eaton noted on April 1, 2026, that "no resolution has been reached with respect to the reliquidation, by way of CAPE, of entries for which liquidation has become final." He reminded importers to remain mindful of available remedies under Section 1514.

What to do now:

Identify all finally liquidated entries that paid IEEPA duties
For entries where the protest window is still open, file protective protests immediately
For entries where protests have expired, evaluate whether a protective court action at the CIT is warranted (two-year statute of limitations applies)
Monitor CBP announcements for Phase 2 scope and timing

The Government Is Fighting Back

Don't assume this is a done deal. The administration has signaled it will aggressively contest refunds. Key developments to watch:

The government is expected to appeal the CIT orders directing refunds
CBP's language is careful — it will issue validated refunds "pursuant to court order," not voluntarily
The Atmus Filtration lead case settled, meaning a new lead case will drive the next round of court orders
Finally liquidated entries remain in legal limbo while the government contests their inclusion

The 60-90 day refund timeline assumes no complications. Compliance concerns flagged during CBP review, appeals, or government challenges could extend that window significantly.

Your Action Plan: Seven Steps to Protect Your Clients' Refunds

Audit ACE access immediately — Verify every client's ACE Portal account is active and accessible. Begin password resets now — wait times are long.
Complete ACH enrollment — This is the single biggest bottleneck. No bank account on file means no refund, period. Guide clients through the ACE Portal enrollment at CBP's ACH setup page.
Pull your entry data — Export all entries from April 2, 2025 through February 23, 2026 that carried IEEPA duty lines. Separate into Phase 1 eligible (unliquidated + liquidated within 80 days) and Phase 2 candidates.
File CAPE Declarations in batches — Don't try to cram 50,000 entries into one declaration. Use the 9,999-entry limit strategically. File your oldest-liquidated entries first to stay inside the 80-day window.
Set up protest monitoring — For any entry liquidating now or in the coming months, track the 180-day protest deadline. If CAPE hasn't processed it by day 150, file a protective protest.
Document finally liquidated entries — These need a different strategy. Consult trade counsel about protective CIT filings before the two-year statute runs.
Watch for Phase 2 announcements — Subscribe to CBP's trade notifications and monitor the Atmus Filtration successor case for new orders.

What's Coming Next

The next 90 days will define how the refund process plays out:

May 11, 2026 — First refund disbursements expected
Ongoing — New lead case selection after Atmus Filtration settlement
TBD — Phase 2 scope announcement (finally liquidated entries, excluded categories)
TBD — Government appeal of CIT refund orders
Rolling — Interest calculation guidance from CBP

For customs brokers, this is a once-in-a-career event. The importers who move quickly and file correctly will get their money back in 60-90 days. Those who don't understand the deadlines, can't access ACE, or haven't enrolled in ACH will watch their refund windows close while they're still figuring out the CSV format.

The Bottom Line

The CAPE system works. Early filers are already seeing reliquidated entries and confirmed refund amounts. But "the system is live" doesn't mean "the money comes automatically." Every importer needs to actively file, monitor, and protect their claims — and most of them need their broker to drive the process.

If you're managing IEEPA refund claims across hundreds of entries and multiple clients, tools like TariffLens can help you track entry status, flag approaching deadlines, and ensure nothing falls through the cracks during this historic refund window.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or customs advice. Consult a licensed customs broker or trade attorney for guidance specific to your situation.