IEEPA Tariff Refund Guide: ACE, CAPE Process & Deadlines
Chen Cui Co-Founder of GingerControl What changed: Reviewed CAPE phase dates, appeal and totals against B1 source correction: existing dated court/CBP references retained; $136.6B accepted and $126B certified distinguished. Replaced inaccessible CourtListener opinion with official CIT Slip Op.26-123 (October8,2026); $166B universe is historical March2026 CBP estimate.
Importers get IEEPA tariff refunds by submitting a CAPE (Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries) declaration through the ACE (Automated Commercial Environment) portal. CBP launched CAPE Phase 1 on April 20, 2026, the first dedicated channel for processing IEEPA refund claims after the Supreme Court struck down IEEPA-based tariffs in February 2026. Refunds are typically issued within 60-90 days following CAPE Declaration acceptance, unless a compliance concern triggers further CBP review. The channel is now proven at scale: as of October 2, 2026, CBP had accepted about $136.6 billion in refunds for processing and certified about $126 billion, duties plus interest, to the Treasury for payment, and CAPE Phase 3 opened on October 6, 2026 for finally liquidated entries, though only those of Court of International Trade plaintiffs whose entries the court has ordered reliquidated.
Next step:Check every deadline on one entry
In this post
- What is the deadline to claim an IEEPA tariff refund?
- TL;DR
- Changelog (what changed and when)
- The IEEPA refund window in plain English
- What to do based on your refund size
- How CAPE actually works
- Comparison: refund paths by entry status
- Where most importers are getting tripped up
- What about the audit risk on IEEPA refund claims
- How much does an IEEPA tariff refund protest cost?
- FAQ
- If your team is dealing with IEEPA refund claims
- References
Check IEEPA refund offsets for Treasury, IRS and CBP debts when the disbursement is smaller than the duty reversal shown in the entry records.
What is the deadline to claim an IEEPA tariff refund?
The deadline depends on each entry's liquidation status. Phase 1 of CAPE accepts unliquidated entries and entries within 80 days of liquidation. For liquidated entries, importers must file a protest within 180 days of liquidation under 19 U.S.C. 1514. Past 180 days, the path narrows to litigation in the Court of International Trade. The single biggest mistake importers are making in mid-2026 is treating this as an open-ended process rather than tracking each entry's protest clock. And one hard caveat landed since this guide first ran: for entries whose liquidation is final, CAPE Phase 3 takes only Court of International Trade plaintiffs whose entries the court has ordered reliquidated, and the government's appeal arguing that the court cannot order refunds for importers who did not sue, V.O.S. Selections v. Trump, No. 26-1895, is still pending at the Federal Circuit.
TL;DR
If you paid IEEPA duties between February 2025 and February 2026, you may be owed a refund. The path: get an ACE account with ACH bank details on file, pull your ES-003 import history report, identify the entries with IEEPA Chapter 99 codes, check each entry's liquidation status and protest deadline, and submit a CAPE declaration through ACE for unliquidated entries or entries within 80 days of liquidation. Past-deadline liquidated entries require legal action. GingerControl built this guide because the IEEPA refund window is closing faster than most importers realize, and the audit risk on poorly-documented claims is real.
After confirming access and entry eligibility, follow the CAPE submission workflow in ACE to prepare and track the declaration.
Changelog (what changed and when)
- October 10, 2026: CAPE Phase 3 is open since October 6, 2026, but only for Court of International Trade plaintiffs whose entries the court has ordered reliquidated; added Phase 2 (June 29) and the warehouse-entry cutoff (July 7), refund totals as of October 2, 2026, the court-route deadline, the October 8, 2026 class certification in Freestyle World v. CBP, and Section 122 in the past tense; removed fee and refund-size figures we could not source. Corrected how GingerControl helps: we prepare the refund file and our licensed refund partner files it.
- September 18, 2026: Corrected the ACH and paper-check statements to match CBP's Electronic Refunds interim final rule, effective February 6, 2026, under which CBP issues refunds by ACH only, apart from rare waivers.
- July 23, 2026: Added July processing milestones ($121.75B accepted, $86.3B repaid as of July 10), CAPE Phase 3 timing (late July, finally liquidated entries), and the finally-liquidated eligibility caveat under the pending Federal Circuit appeal.
- June 2026: Government appealed the CIT refund order covering finally liquidated entries; refunds on those entries remain contested even as processing capability arrives.
- May 2026: Original guide published against CAPE Phase 1 (launched April 20, 2026).
The IEEPA refund window in plain English
In February 2026, the Supreme Court struck down the IEEPA-based tariffs imposed by executive order from February 2025 onward. The administration answered with a temporary 10% surcharge under Section 122, which applied to goods entered from February 24 through July 23, 2026 and has since expired (91 FR 9339), but the duties paid under the now-invalid IEEPA framework are refundable.
Review IEEPA refunds and customer tariff chargebacks against the sales contract when customers originally paid a separately identified tariff surcharge.
The refund universe is large. Many importers paid IEEPA duties layered on top of base MFN, Section 232, and Section 301 across the 12-month window, and the exposure scales with import volume, largest for big ecommerce platforms, 3PLs, and industrial importers. Our free IEEPA tariff refund estimator gives you a first-pass number on your own exposure before you pull the ES-003 and start reconciling entry by entry.
CBP responded by building CAPE (Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries), a refund channel inside ACE that consolidates refunds rather than processing them entry-by-entry. Phase 1 launched April 20, 2026. As of April 26, 2026, importers and brokers had submitted 75,306 CAPE declarations, and the 47,315 that passed the file checks covered 11,222,927 entries accepted for refund processing (CBP declaration, April 28, 2026).
What the volume tells you: the refund process is real, the channel works, and the people who organized their claims early are getting paid. The people sending frantic emails to brokers in May without organized records are not.
What to do based on your refund size
The right tactical approach depends on how much you can recover. Three tiers, each with different operational moves.
Tier 1: $0 to $10M in expected refunds
This is most importers. Five concrete steps:
Step 1: Get an ACE account. ACE is the government portal that holds your import records. You cannot file a CAPE declaration or receive ACH refunds without an ACE Portal account. Add your U.S. bank account in the ACE Portal: since February 6, 2026, CBP issues all refunds electronically by ACH under its Electronic Refunds interim final rule (91 FR 21), with a paper check only for the rare recipient who qualifies for a waiver under 31 CFR 208.4.
Step 2: Pull your ES-003 reports. ES-003 is the importer activity report that shows your entries, including the Chapter 99 codes that identify IEEPA duties. Pull the reports from the ACE Importer view in the public folder for the period February 2025 through February 2026.
Step 3: Track claims through a reputable platform or your customs broker. Refund claim tracking is not a job for spreadsheets at any meaningful scale. Use a reputable platform with a real team, or work through your existing licensed customs broker who has CAPE filing capability.
Step 4: Check protest deadlines per entry. For each entry with IEEPA exposure, check the liquidation status and protest deadline. Entries within 80 days of liquidation can go through CAPE Phase 1. Entries within 180 days of liquidation can be protested if they have liquidated. Entries past the 180-day protest window need a different strategy.
Step 5: Organize claims with audit defense in mind. CBP says a compliance concern can send a refund to further CBP review. Organize by entry: entry summary, commercial invoice, classification documentation, country of origin documentation, and the duty calculation that supports the refund amount. Be prepared to defend the claim if asked.
Tier 2: $10M to $50M in expected refunds
At this exposure, you should already have ACE and in-house counsel. If not, prioritize that this week.
The two strategic moves:
Strategic move 1: Total your liquidated-and-past-protest exposure. Add Chapter 99 IEEPA codes from your ES-003 reports for the February 2025 to February 2026 window, segmented by liquidation status. The goal is a clear number for past-deadline entries that can no longer be protested administratively.
Strategic move 2: Get a quote from a trade lawyer for the past-deadline portion. International trade firms with relevant practice include Sandler Travis & Rosenberg (ST&R), Grunfeld Desiderio Lebowitz Silverman Klestadt (GDLSK), Venable, and others. Ask for an hourly quote alongside any contingency offer. Push back on contingency fees; for class-action-style IEEPA litigation in the CIT, the legal work is substantially copy-paste from prior similar matters and contingency does not reflect the actual effort.
Tier 3: $50M+ in expected refunds
In addition to the Tier 2 steps, engage a tax professional. The refund itself is large enough that the tax treatment becomes significant. The major firms with international trade tax practices include KPMG, Grant Thornton, PwC, EY, and BDO.
Keep the duty reversal and refund interest separate when reviewing IEEPA tariff refund tax treatment with the tax team.
Their fees are professional-services rates, but the tax planning opportunities on a refund of this size typically justify the engagement. Ask for a free or low-cost initial scoping engagement to understand the savings opportunity before committing to a retainer.
How CAPE actually works
The CAPE process consolidates IEEPA refund processing inside ACE. The mechanics:
- Importer or authorized broker submits a CAPE declaration as a CSV file uploaded to the ACE Portal
- Each declaration covers up to 9,999 entries
- CBP validates the declaration (entry summary alignment, Chapter 99 IEEPA codes confirmed, eligibility checked)
- Once validated and accepted, ACE updates the affected entry summary lines by removing the IEEPA Chapter 99 provision and the corresponding IEEPA duties
- Following CBP review, entries are liquidated or reliquidated, and refunds are consolidated by Importer of Record (IOR)
- Refunds are typically issued within 60-90 days after CAPE Declaration acceptance, unless a compliance concern requires further review
Phase 1 was limited to certain unliquidated entries and entries within 80 days of liquidation, and later phases have expanded the scope since launch. Phase 2 opened June 29, 2026 for entries flagged for reconciliation with no reconciliation entry filed, under the same 80-day limit (CSMS #69066837), and warehouse entries (types 21 and 22) have been rejected since July 7, 2026, with the refund claimed on the warehouse withdrawals instead (CSMS #69127837). Phase 3 opened October 6, 2026 for finally liquidated entries, but only those of Court of International Trade plaintiffs whose entries the court has ordered reliquidated. Note the asterisk: for everyone else, refunds on finally liquidated entries turn on the government's pending Federal Circuit appeal (V.O.S. Selections v. Trump, No. 26-1895), which argues that the court cannot order refunds for importers who did not sue, so Phase 3 delivers the pipe, not necessarily the water. On October 8, 2026 the Court of International Trade certified a class in Freestyle World v. CBP (No. 26-01088) covering importers of record who paid IEEPA duties between February 1, 2025 and February 19, 2026, except those that sued separately, but it has not yet ordered relief for the class (opinion and order). Track the official status on CBP's IEEPA duty refunds page.
Comparison: refund paths by entry status
| Entry status | Refund path | Timeline | Typical effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unliquidated | CAPE declaration in ACE | 60-90 days post-acceptance | Low; data preparation only |
| Within 80 days of liquidation | CAPE Phase 1 declaration | 60-90 days post-acceptance | Low; data preparation only |
| Within 180 days of liquidation, no protest filed | Protest under 19 USC 1514 | Not set; CAPE does not take protested entries yet and CBP lists them for a later phase | Medium; protest writing required |
| Within 180 days of liquidation, protest filed | Protest pending; it keeps the liquidation from becoming final | Not set; CBP lists protested entries for a later CAPE phase | Low; await CBP |
| Past 180 days from liquidation | CIT suit under 28 USC 1581(i), filed within two years after the claim accrues (28 USC 2636(i)); no court has ruled when that is | Depends on the case | High; legal engagement |
| Finally liquidated, no claim ever filed | CAPE Phase 3 (open since October 6, 2026) takes these only from CIT plaintiffs with a reliquidation order; for everyone else it turns on the pending Federal Circuit appeal | Unknown pending Federal Circuit | High; monitor and preserve rights |
Bottom line: The CAPE channel is the fastest, cheapest path for entries that qualify. Protest is the next-best path for liquidated entries within 180 days. Past 180 days, you are in litigation territory, and the math has to justify the legal cost.
Where most importers are getting tripped up
Three patterns keep tripping importers up:
No ACE account or no ACH details on file. Without ACE access, you cannot file CAPE. Without ACH banking details on file, CBP does not mail you a check instead. Under the Electronic Refunds interim final rule, effective February 6, 2026 (91 FR 21), CBP issues all refunds electronically apart from rare waivers under 31 CFR 208.4; a refund certified without banking details on file is rejected, and where CBP certifies the refund within 30 days of liquidation but cannot deliver it solely for missing banking information, no interest accrues under 19 U.S.C. 1505(d) for that delay. CBP's IEEPA refund page says the same: with rare exceptions, refunds go "through a secure ACH payment to a verified party, not through a paper check" (CBP). Both gaps are easy to fix and gate everything else.
No organized inventory of IEEPA-affected entries. The ES-003 report is the source of truth for which entries paid IEEPA duty. Importers without an organized inventory cannot calculate their refund exposure, cannot check protest deadlines, and cannot file CAPE declarations in batches that match CBP's 9,999-entry-per-declaration limit.
Treating the process as open-ended. It is not. Each entry has a protest clock. Each clock is ticking from the date of liquidation. Importers waiting for "the process to mature" are watching their protest windows close on liquidated entries.
GingerControl's IEEPA refund service sorts each entry by refund route and deadline and prepares the refund file; our licensed refund partner files it, and no refund amount is promised. Our free Policy Briefings send one email when a U.S. trade rule changes, such as a new CAPE phase.
What about the audit risk on IEEPA refund claims
CBP says a compliance concern can send a refund to further CBP review, and the refund stays subject to liquidation, which nets every duty on the entry. For most importers, the audit risk is manageable if the underlying entries were properly classified, properly valued, and properly documented in the first place. The CAPE declaration is not a license to revisit classification or valuation; it removes the IEEPA Chapter 99 layer specifically.
The risk concentrates in importers who:
- Used aggressive classification to reduce duty before IEEPA applied
- Have inconsistent country of origin documentation across the entries
- Have valuation issues unrelated to IEEPA
- Submit large CAPE declarations without internal QA on the underlying entry data
For all of these, the right move before submitting CAPE is to review the underlying classifications and country of origin, fix what needs fixing through normal channels (a post-summary correction for non-IEEPA issues before the entry goes on a CAPE declaration, prior disclosure if appropriate), and then file CAPE on the cleaned record.
How much does an IEEPA tariff refund protest cost?
For entries you can protest under 19 U.S.C. 1514, the main cost is legal help from an international trade firm, billed hourly or as a contingency share of the refund. For Tier 1 importers with mostly unliquidated or recently liquidated entries, the cost is close to nothing beyond data preparation, because your existing customs broker plus CAPE through ACE is the right path and no lawyer is required. Past the 180-day protest window, entries move to CIT litigation, where firms sometimes propose a contingency fee, a percentage of the refund. We recommend pushing back on contingency, since class-action-style IEEPA litigation in the CIT is substantially copy-paste from prior similar matters, and an hourly arrangement can produce a lower total cost at this scale.
FAQ
How do importers get IEEPA tariff refunds in 2026? By submitting a CAPE declaration through the ACE Portal. CAPE Phase 1 launched April 20, 2026, accepts unliquidated entries and entries within 80 days of liquidation, and processes refunds typically within 60-90 days of declaration acceptance. Importers need an ACE account with ACH banking details to receive refunds.
What is the protest deadline for liquidated IEEPA-affected entries? 180 days from the date of liquidation under 19 U.S.C. 1514. For entries within 80 days of liquidation, CAPE Phase 1 is typically the simpler path. For entries past 80 days but within 180 days of liquidation, formal protest is the path. Past 180 days, the path is CIT litigation.
How does CAPE work for high-volume importers? Each CAPE declaration covers up to 9,999 entries. Importers and brokers submit CSV uploads through the ACE Portal. CBP validates, removes the IEEPA Chapter 99 provision from each entry summary, and consolidates refunds by Importer of Record. Refunds typically arrive 60-90 days after declaration acceptance.
Should I hire a trade lawyer for IEEPA refund claims? For Tier 1 importers (refund exposure $0-10M) with mostly unliquidated or recently-liquidated entries, no. Your customs broker plus CAPE through ACE is the right path. For Tier 2 ($10M-50M) with significant past-protest-deadline exposure, get a quote from an international trade firm. For Tier 3 ($50M+), engage both a trade lawyer and a tax professional.
Should I use a contingency fee arrangement for IEEPA refund litigation? Push back on contingency. For class-action-style IEEPA litigation in the CIT, the legal work is substantially copy-paste from prior similar matters. An hourly arrangement can produce a lower total cost than a percentage-of-refund contingency fee for refunds at this scale.
How does GingerControl help importers handling IEEPA refund claims? GingerControl's IEEPA refund service sorts each entry by refund route and deadline, closest deadline first, and prepares the refund file, and our licensed refund partner files it. We are not a customs broker, do not file your entries and do not promise a refund amount. For a first-pass number, the free IEEPA refund estimator works from the country you import from and a rough value, and the free Policy Briefings send one email when a U.S. trade rule changes.
Will CBP audit IEEPA refund claims? It can review them: CBP says valid refunds generally issue within 60-90 days of acceptance unless a compliance concern requires further CBP review (CBP), and BDO flags entries with missing or incorrectly reported IEEPA lines or incomplete ACE records as likely to face heightened review. The defense is clean documentation: properly-classified entries, consistent country of origin records, accurate valuation, and the audit trail that supports each refunded duty amount.
What if my entries are past the 180-day protest deadline? The path is litigation in the Court of International Trade. The economics depend on the size of the past-deadline exposure. For exposures large enough to justify legal cost, international trade firms (ST&R, GDLSK, Venable, others) handle CIT litigation. For smaller exposures, the math may not support litigation.
If your team is dealing with IEEPA refund claims
If your team is staring at a year of IEEPA-affected entries and trying to figure out the refund process, GingerControl's IEEPA refund service sorts every entry by refund route and deadline and prepares the refund file, and our licensed refund partner files it.
See how the IEEPA refund service works
Talk to our team about sorting your IEEPA entries by refund route and deadline.
References
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection, IEEPA Duty Refunds
Data cited: CAPE process, ACE Portal channel, refund consolidation by Importer of Record
Source: CBP IEEPA Duty Refunds
Published: 2026 - Thompson Hine SmartTrade analysis
Data cited: April 20, 2026 CAPE Phase 1 launch, scope to unliquidated entries and entries within 80 days of liquidation
Source: CBP Confirms April 20 2026 Launch of CAPE Phase 1
Published: April 2026 - White and Williams analysis of CAPE process
Data cited: CSV upload, 9,999 entries per declaration, 60-90 day refund timeline post-acceptance
Source: IEEPA Tariff Refunds CBP Launches CAPE Process
Published: 2026 - Sidley Austin analysis of IEEPA refund claims
Data cited: Refund landscape, broker engagement, audit risk
Source: IEEPA Tariff Refund Claims Key Considerations
Published: April 2026 - BDO IEEPA Tariff Refund FAQ
Data cited: entries likely to face heightened review or delayed processing
Source: BDO IEEPA Tariff Refunds FAQ
Published: August 11, 2026 - 19 U.S.C. 1514 protest provisions
Data cited: 180-day protest deadline from liquidation
Source: 19 USC 1514 - Flexport analysis of the SCOTUS IEEPA decision
Data cited: February 2026 Supreme Court ruling and refund implications
Source: Supreme Court IEEPA Tariff Ruling
Published: 2026 - U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Electronic Refunds, interim final rule, 91 FR 21, FR Doc. 2025-24171
Data cited: all CBP refunds issued electronically from February 6, 2026, subject to 31 CFR part 208 waivers; rejected refunds and no interest under 19 U.S.C. 1505(d) where banking information is missing
Source: Federal Register
Published: January 2, 2026, effective February 6, 2026 - Declaration of Brandon Lord, CBP, Freestyle World, Inc. v. CBP, CIT No. 26-01088, ECF 58
Data cited: about $136.6 billion accepted for processing and about $126 billion certified to Treasury as of October 2, 2026; CAPE Phase 3 deployed October 6, 2026 for finally liquidated entries of plaintiffs with a court reliquidation order
Source: Lord declaration
Published: October 6, 2026 - U.S. Customs and Border Protection, CSMS #69066837 and CSMS #69127837
Data cited: CAPE Phase 2 for entries flagged for reconciliation with no reconciliation entry filed (June 29, 2026); warehouse entries types 21 and 22 rejected from July 7, 2026
Source: CSMS #69066837, CSMS #69127837
Published: June 29, 2026 and July 2, 2026 - Proclamation 11012, Imposing a Temporary Import Surcharge To Address Fundamental International Payments Problems, 91 FR 9339
Data cited: 10% Section 122 surcharge on goods entered from February 24, 2026, in effect through 12:01 a.m. EDT July 24, 2026
Source: Federal Register
Published: February 25, 2026 - U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, V.O.S. Selections, Inc. v. Trump, No. 26-1895
Data cited: the government's consolidated appeal of the Court of International Trade's IEEPA refund orders
Source: Order of July 28, 2026
Published: July 28, 2026 - U.S. Court of International Trade, Freestyle World, Inc. v. CBP, No. 26-01088, ECF 61, Opinion and Order
Data cited: class of importers of record who paid IEEPA duties between February 1, 2025 and February 19, 2026, excluding those that sued separately, certified October 8, 2026; no relief ordered yet
Source: Opinion and Order
Published: October 8, 2026 - Declaration of Brandon Lord, CBP, Euro-Notions Florida, Inc. v. United States, CIT No. 25-00595, ECF 26
Data cited: 75,306 CAPE declarations submitted and 47,315 past the file checks, covering 11,222,927 accepted entries, as of April 26, 2026
Source: Lord declaration
Published: April 28, 2026
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Reviewed by Michael Weick, LCB / CCS
