If the Supreme Court struck down IEEPA tariffs, won't CBP just refund the $1.9M my company paid automatically?

No. The Supreme Court's February 20, 2026 ruling settled that IEEPA cannot authorize tariffs, but it ordered no refunds and set no mechanism. CBP does not reliquidate your entries on its own or mail checks. To recover the roughly $1.9M, the importer of record (or the broker who filed the entries) must affirmatively submit a CAPE Declaration in the ACE Portal. Doing nothing returns nothing, and for older liquidated entries, inaction can permanently foreclose the refund.

I'm an ops manager, not a broker, do I actually have to file something to get the reciprocal-tariff money back, or does it come back on its own?

You (or the broker who filed your entries) have to file. The refund is claim-driven, not automatic. The affirmative step is a CAPE Declaration: a CSV of your IEEPA entry numbers uploaded in the CAPE tab of the ACE Portal. Once a valid declaration is accepted, ACE handles the recalculation automatically, but nothing starts until someone uploads that file. That gap between struck down and refunded is exactly where importers lose money by waiting.

My CFO thinks the refund is automatic like a class-action settlement check, is it?

No, and the settlement-check mental model is the single most expensive misread here. A settlement mails checks to a defined class. The IEEPA refund is the opposite: CBP pays only entries that are affirmatively claimed through a CAPE Declaration, and only certain entry categories are even eligible right now. Tell your CFO the money is recoverable but not automatic, and that older entries carry a 180-day protest clock that expires whether or not anyone is watching.

My customs broker filed all our entries, so do they file the CAPE Declaration or do I have to do it myself?

Either can file, but someone has to, and confirming who is on your Monday list. CBP allows the importer of record or the authorized broker who filed the entries to submit CAPE Declarations. The trap is assuming the broker has it handled by default; it is not automatic for them either. Ask your broker in writing whether they are filing your CAPE Declarations, for which entries, and by when, then reconcile their list against your own ACE data so nothing falls through the gap.

Do I need my own ACE Portal access to claim an IEEPA refund if a broker files for us?

Not necessarily to file, but you need it to verify. If your broker submits the CAPE Declaration under their filer authorization, you may not need separate credentials to get the refund processed. But you should have your own ACE Portal access as the importer of record to pull your entry data, confirm which entries the broker actually claimed, and read liquidation status yourself. Relying entirely on the broker's word, with no independent view, is how a six-figure gap goes unnoticed.

What exactly is a CAPE Declaration and how do I submit one for around 1,100 unliquidated entries?

A CAPE Declaration is a CSV file, uploaded in the CAPE tab of the ACE Portal, that lists the entry numbers for which you paid IEEPA duty and want a refund. Each declaration is capped at 9,999 entries, so 1,100 fits in a single file. The IOR or the filing broker uploads it, ACE runs validation on the file and each entry, and for valid entries it strips the IEEPA Chapter 99 codes and reliquidates at the corrected duty. The declaration is the trigger; the recalculation is what ACE automates after.

Is there a hard deadline I can miss, and how do the 80-day CAPE window and the 180-day protest clock actually interact?

Yes, and they are two different clocks. The 80-day CAPE window is an eligibility line: entries unliquidated or within 80 days of liquidation can go through CAPE Phase 1, CBP's stated cutoff, which sits inside the 90-day voluntary reliquidation window under 19 U.S.C. 1501. The 180-day protest clock under 19 U.S.C. 1514 runs from each entry's liquidation date and is your fallback once CAPE is closed for that entry. Read liquidation status entry by entry, because both clocks run per entry, not per company.

Once I file the CAPE Declaration, how long until the refund hits, and does CBP pay interest on the roughly $1.9M?

CBP states valid IEEPA refunds are generally issued within 60 to 90 days following acceptance of the CAPE Declaration, unless a compliance concern triggers further review. Acceptance itself takes time, and refunds arrive in multiple ACH batches rather than one lump sum, so tell your CFO to expect a range, not a single date. CAPE is designed to refund IEEPA duties including interest, which accrues from the date of deposit under 19 U.S.C. 1505. GingerControl does not guarantee any refund amount or CBP timing.

We also paid Section 301 and Section 232 duties, are those refunded in the same process, or only the IEEPA amounts?

Only the IEEPA amounts. The Supreme Court struck down only the IEEPA tariffs (Chapter 99 codes 9903.01.xx and 9903.02.xx). Section 301, Section 232, and Section 122 rest on different statutory authority and are not refunded through CAPE (Section 122 is separately contested: the CIT ruled it unlawful in May 2026, but only for the plaintiffs in that case, so collection continues). If you filter your entries too broadly on 9903 you will over-count, because those other trade remedies also live in Chapter 99 under different subheadings. CAPE returns the reciprocal and trafficking IEEPA layer only.

Will CBP Refund IEEPA Tariffs Automatically? No, and Here's What You Must Do

No, CBP does not refund IEEPA tariffs automatically. The IOR or broker must file a CAPE Declaration in ACE, and older entries need a protest within 180 days.

Chen Cui· Co-Founder of GingerControl· July 19, 2026

Connect with me on LinkedIn! I want to help you :)

Reviewed by: Michael Weick, LCB / CCS

Customs compliance manager with 42 years of experience (ex Subaru of America, Merck, and Motorola).

TL;DR

CBP does not refund IEEPA tariffs automatically. Someone (the importer of record or the broker) must affirmatively file a CAPE Declaration in ACE, and older liquidated entries need a protest within 180 days or the money is lost.

Your CFO saw a headline that the Supreme Court struck down the tariffs and asked the obvious question in Slack: so the money just comes back, right? If your company paid IEEPA duties across 2025, that instinct is expensive. The refund is real, but it is not automatic, and the difference between recoverable and recovered is a filing you or your broker have to make, on a clock that is already running on your older entries. Here is the flat answer, and the checklist you can act on Monday.

No, CBP does not refund IEEPA tariffs automatically. The February 20, 2026 Supreme Court ruling settled that IEEPA cannot authorize the tariffs, but it ordered no refunds and created no mechanism. To recover the duties, the importer of record or the broker who filed the entries must affirmatively submit a CAPE Declaration in the ACE Portal. For entries still unliquidated or within 80 days of liquidation, CAPE Phase 1 is the path. For entries liquidated longer ago, a protest under 19 U.S.C. 1514 must be filed within 180 days of liquidation or the refund right is generally lost.

Primary sources: Supreme Court, Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, IEEPA Duty Refunds. Both are linked throughout and listed in full under References.

This post answers one gating question: is it automatic, and if not, what must you do. For the end-to-end walkthrough, the IEEPA tariff refund guide is the hub. Here I stay on the one decision that stops most teams cold, because getting it wrong quietly forfeits money.

Will CBP refund IEEPA tariffs automatically?

No, CBP does not refund IEEPA tariffs automatically, and treating the refund as automatic is the most costly assumption an importer can make right now. The Supreme Court's ruling in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump (decided February 20, 2026, 6-3) held that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the President to impose tariffs. That decision resolved the legal authority question and nothing else. As multiple counsel have noted, the Court issued no directive on refunds, prescribed no remedy, and left the practical consequences to be worked out through administrative action and separate litigation. It did not order CBP to send anyone a dollar.

What that means operationally: CBP does not scan its own systems, find your IEEPA entries, and reliquidate them on its own. It does not mail refund checks the way a class-action settlement does. Its refund tool, CAPE, is claim-driven by design. If nobody files for your entries, nobody at CBP acts on them.

The confusion is understandable, because there is an automated part. Once a valid CAPE Declaration is accepted, ACE strips the IEEPA Chapter 99 codes, recalculates duty without them, and reliquidates, with no further manual work. But that automation sits on the far side of a manual trigger. The processing is automatic; the claim is not. Waiting for a refund that requires a filing you never made is how importers lose real money in plain sight.

Common assumption	The reality
SCOTUS struck the tariffs, so refunds are automatic	The ruling ordered no refunds; recovery requires an affirmative CAPE filing
CBP will find my entries and reliquidate them	CBP acts only on entries claimed through a CAPE Declaration
It works like a settlement that mails checks	It is claim-driven; only affirmatively filed, eligible entries are paid
I have plenty of time	Older liquidated entries run a 180-day protest clock that expires per entry

What do I actually have to do to get the refund?

You (or the broker who filed your entries) must affirmatively file a CAPE Declaration in the ACE Portal, and that single action is what converts recoverable into recovered. CAPE stands for Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries, a tool inside CBP's Automated Commercial Environment. The declaration itself is a CSV file listing the entry numbers for which you paid IEEPA duty and want a refund, uploaded in the CAPE tab. Each declaration is capped at 9,999 entries; if you have more, you submit multiple declarations.

Here is the sequence, at the altitude a compliance manager needs to brief a CFO on Monday:

Inventory which entries actually carried IEEPA duty. IEEPA duty sits on separate Chapter 99 lines under 9903.01.xx (trafficking and fentanyl) and 9903.02.xx (reciprocal). You need the entry list and the dollar figure before you file anything. Pulling that from ACE is its own step, covered in how to pull the ES-003 report to find your IEEPA-affected entries.
Confirm you have ACE Portal access as the importer of record. You need it either to file or, if your broker files, to verify what they claimed. If you have never had ACE access, start with ACE Portal access for an IEEPA tariff refund.
Decide who files, you or the broker, in writing. CBP allows the IOR or the authorized broker who filed the entries to submit CAPE Declarations. Do not assume; confirm.
Build and upload the CAPE Declaration CSV in the CAPE tab, within the 9,999-entry cap, and clear ACE validation. The mechanics of a clean submission, including who is authorized under a power of attorney, live in ACE CAPE submission for the IEEPA refund.
Let ACE reliquidate, then track the refund. Valid refunds are generally issued within 60 to 90 days of acceptance, in batches.

GingerControl is a trade compliance AI platform that helps importers, exporters, and customs brokers classify products, calculate tariff costs, and organize refund claims like this one. It does not file your underlying customs entries or act as your importer of record; those stay with you and your broker. What it does is turn the entry inventory and the dollar math into a filing-ready, lane-bucketed figure, and its IEEPA Refund Recovery service files the full refund package from it.

One more warning that saves rejections: do not use a Post Summary Correction (PSC) to request an IEEPA refund. CBP routes these refunds through CAPE, not PSC, so a PSC filed for this purpose is the wrong instrument.

Who files the CAPE Declaration, me or my broker?

Either the importer of record or the authorized broker who filed the entries can submit the CAPE Declaration, but exactly one of you needs to actually do it, and the default assumption that "the broker has it" is where refunds go to die. Nothing about the broker relationship makes the filing automatic on their side. If neither of you files, no refund is claimed, and the importer of record, not the broker, bears the final responsibility for the entries.

The practical move is to divide the labor explicitly. Ask your broker, in writing, three things: are you filing our CAPE Declarations, for which entries, and by when. Then reconcile their answer against your own ACE data, because a broker filing under a general authorization may not sweep every entry you paid IEEPA duty on, especially across multiple brokers or a change in filer over the 2025 window.

There is an honest limit to what software or a service adds here. For a clean catalog of unliquidated entries filed by a single broker, a diligent in-house team or that broker can build the CSV and file directly in ACE with no special software at all. That is the free, correct path, and you should take it if that describes you. Where it gets hard is at scale: thousands of entries across multiple brokers, mixed liquidation status, and two different deadline clocks to calendar per entry. That is the honest fit for GingerControl's IEEPA Refund Recovery service, which files the full refund package and includes an IEEPA refund calculator that sizes the recoverable amount, checks liquidation-status eligibility, and surfaces the protest deadline. It is builder-not-broker software and advisory: human-in-the-loop, not a licensed customs broker, not your importer of record, and it guarantees no refund amount or CBP acceptance.

What about my older entries that already liquidated?

Entries that already liquidated are not automatically lost, but they are on a hard 180-day clock and many are outside CAPE Phase 1, which is exactly the trap the "it's automatic" assumption walks you into. CAPE Phase 1 is deliberately narrow. It covers entries that are unliquidated or within 80 days of their liquidation date, a window CBP set in its CAPE guidance, sitting inside the 90-day voluntary reliquidation authority under 19 U.S.C. 1501. An entry that liquidated last spring is very likely past that line.

For those older entries, the recognized preservation path is a protest under 19 U.S.C. 1514, which must be filed within 180 days of the entry's liquidation date. This is the deadline nobody warns you about, because CBP's own CAPE guidance is about the CAPE mechanism, not the protest fallback. Miss the 180 days and the administrative refund right is generally gone, with the next stop being the Court of International Trade. If your April 2025 entries liquidated in, say, mid-2025, that 180-day window may be closing now, which is why "we'll get to it" is not a safe answer for a CFO.

The two clocks are separate and both run per entry, not per company:

Entry status	Recovery lane	The clock
Unliquidated, or within 80 days of liquidation	CAPE Phase 1 (file the CAPE Declaration)	Inside the 80-day CAPE window
Liquidated roughly 81 to 180 days ago	Protest under 19 U.S.C. 1514	180 days from the liquidation date
Finally liquidated, past 180 days	Litigation at the Court of International Trade	Now entangled with the appeal (see below)

Deciding which lane each entry belongs in, and whether to file a protective protest even when you expect a later CAPE phase to cover an entry, is a per-entry judgment. The full decision tree between CAPE, protest, and PSC lives in the CAPE vs protest vs PSC decision guide, and the mechanics of the protest clock are covered in the 180-day liquidation deadline for IEEPA protests and CAPE. Route each entry to its owning process; do not try to solve all of it here.

Where does CAPE stand right now, and is the money guaranteed?

As of July 2026, CAPE has rolled out in phases and the refund itself is now partly contested in court, which is the second reason "automatic" is the wrong mental model. CBP launched CAPE Phase 1 on April 20, 2026, covering unliquidated entries and entries within 80 days of liquidation. Phase 2 opened June 29, 2026, extending to reconciliation entries and AD/CVD entries that Phase 1 excluded. Phase 3, aimed at finally liquidated entries, has been on track for the end of July 2026.

But the ground shifted after the ruling. In early June 2026, the Department of Justice filed notices of appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, challenging a Court of International Trade order that had directed CBP to refund IEEPA duties, with interest, to all importers of record. Under the government's current position, importers who did not file their own action at the CIT are not entitled to Phase 3 refunds on finally liquidated entries through CAPE. In other words, for the oldest, finally liquidated slice of your entries, whether the money flows at all is now a live legal question, not a settled administrative one.

That has a concrete consequence for your Monday plan. For unliquidated and recently liquidated entries, file CAPE now; that lane is open and working. For finally liquidated entries, counsel are advising importers to consider preserving rights through a protective action at the CIT rather than relying on Phase 3 to pay automatically, because it may not. GingerControl does not give legal advice and cannot tell you whether to litigate; that is a conversation for your trade counsel. The safe read: "wait and see" is riskier now than it was in April, and the appeal is a reason to move on the open lanes, not to wait.

Two smaller operational notes that trip teams up. Refunds arrive in multiple ACH batches, not one payment, so a partial deposit is not a shortfall; the batching mechanics are covered in why CAPE refunds arrive in batches. And CBP tightened one Phase 1 rule mid-stream: as of July 7, 2026, warehouse entries (Entry Types 21 and 22) are no longer accepted on a CAPE Declaration and will be rejected, though warehouse withdrawals still qualify. The program is moving, so verify current eligibility before you file rather than assuming what was true in April still holds.

FAQ

Will CBP refund IEEPA tariffs automatically? No. The Supreme Court struck down IEEPA tariffs but ordered no refunds and created no automatic mechanism. Recovery requires the importer of record or the filing broker to affirmatively submit a CAPE Declaration in the ACE Portal. Doing nothing recovers nothing.

What is a CAPE Declaration? A CAPE Declaration is a CSV file, uploaded in the CAPE tab of the ACE Portal, listing the entry numbers for which you paid IEEPA duty and want a refund. It is capped at 9,999 entries per declaration and can be filed by the IOR or the authorized broker who filed the entries.

How long does an IEEPA refund take after I file? CBP states valid refunds are generally issued within 60 to 90 days following acceptance of the CAPE Declaration, unless a compliance concern triggers further review. Refunds arrive in multiple ACH batches rather than a single payment.

Are Section 301 and Section 232 duties refunded too? No. Only IEEPA duties (Chapter 99 codes 9903.01.xx and 9903.02.xx) are refunded through CAPE. Section 301 and Section 232 rest on different statutory authority and remain in effect. Section 122 is its own story: the CIT ruled it unlawful in May 2026 but limited relief to the plaintiffs, so it is still collected from everyone else.

What happens to my entries that liquidated more than 180 days ago? CAPE Phase 1 does not cover them, and the 180-day protest window under 19 U.S.C. 1514 has closed. For finally liquidated entries, recovery now runs through litigation at the Court of International Trade, and the government is contesting refunds for importers who did not file their own suit.

IEEPA Tariff Refund Guide: ACE, CAPE Process and Deadlines, the hub for the whole refund process.
How to Pull the ES-003 Report to Find Your IEEPA-Affected Entries, the step that produces your entry list and dollar figure.
ACE CAPE Submission for the IEEPA Refund, the mechanics of building and uploading the CAPE Declaration.
Power of Attorney and Who Can File Your IEEPA Refund, for the IOR-versus-broker authorization question.
CAPE vs Protest vs PSC: Which Refund Path for Each Entry, the decision tree by entry status.
The 180-Day Liquidation Deadline for IEEPA Protests and CAPE, the deep dive on the protest clock.

References

Supreme Court of the United States, Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, No. 24-1287, decided February 20, 2026. supremecourt.gov
CBP CSMS #68396594, "AVAILABLE NOW, Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) for IEEPA Refunds," April 20, 2026. content.govdelivery.com
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, "International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) Duty Refunds," accessed July 2026. cbp.gov
Norton Rose Fulbright, "CBP issues tariff refund instructions," 2026. nortonrosefulbright.com
Holland & Knight, "IEEPA Tariff Refund Update: Government Appeals CIT Refund Order and the Road Ahead for Importers," June 2026. hklaw.com
Thompson Hine SmarTrade, "CBP Announces Phases 2 and 3 of the IEEPA Tariff Refund Process," June 2026. thompsonhinesmartrade.com
Green Worldwide Shipping, "CAPE Phase 3 for IEEPA Tariff Refunds on Track for End of July as Federal Circuit Appeal Continues," 2026. greenworldwide.com
Legal authorities: 19 U.S.C. 1514 (protest, 180 days), 19 U.S.C. 1501 (voluntary reliquidation, 90 days), 19 U.S.C. 1505 (interest on refunds).

Written by

Chen Cui

Co-Founder of GingerControl

Building scalable AI and automated workflows for trade compliance teams.

LinkedIn Profile

Frequently Asked Questions

If the Supreme Court struck down IEEPA tariffs, won't CBP just refund the $1.9M my company paid automatically?: No. The Supreme Court's February 20, 2026 ruling settled that IEEPA cannot authorize tariffs, but it ordered no refunds and set no mechanism. CBP does not reliquidate your entries on its own or mail checks. To recover the roughly $1.9M, the importer of record (or the broker who filed the entries) must affirmatively submit a CAPE Declaration in the ACE Portal. Doing nothing returns nothing, and for older liquidated entries, inaction can permanently foreclose the refund.
I'm an ops manager, not a broker, do I actually have to file something to get the reciprocal-tariff money back, or does it come back on its own?: You (or the broker who filed your entries) have to file. The refund is claim-driven, not automatic. The affirmative step is a CAPE Declaration: a CSV of your IEEPA entry numbers uploaded in the CAPE tab of the ACE Portal. Once a valid declaration is accepted, ACE handles the recalculation automatically, but nothing starts until someone uploads that file. That gap between struck down and refunded is exactly where importers lose money by waiting.
My CFO thinks the refund is automatic like a class-action settlement check, is it?: No, and the settlement-check mental model is the single most expensive misread here. A settlement mails checks to a defined class. The IEEPA refund is the opposite: CBP pays only entries that are affirmatively claimed through a CAPE Declaration, and only certain entry categories are even eligible right now. Tell your CFO the money is recoverable but not automatic, and that older entries carry a 180-day protest clock that expires whether or not anyone is watching.
My customs broker filed all our entries, so do they file the CAPE Declaration or do I have to do it myself?: Either can file, but someone has to, and confirming who is on your Monday list. CBP allows the importer of record or the authorized broker who filed the entries to submit CAPE Declarations. The trap is assuming the broker has it handled by default; it is not automatic for them either. Ask your broker in writing whether they are filing your CAPE Declarations, for which entries, and by when, then reconcile their list against your own ACE data so nothing falls through the gap.
Do I need my own ACE Portal access to claim an IEEPA refund if a broker files for us?: Not necessarily to file, but you need it to verify. If your broker submits the CAPE Declaration under their filer authorization, you may not need separate credentials to get the refund processed. But you should have your own ACE Portal access as the importer of record to pull your entry data, confirm which entries the broker actually claimed, and read liquidation status yourself. Relying entirely on the broker's word, with no independent view, is how a six-figure gap goes unnoticed.
What exactly is a CAPE Declaration and how do I submit one for around 1,100 unliquidated entries?: A CAPE Declaration is a CSV file, uploaded in the CAPE tab of the ACE Portal, that lists the entry numbers for which you paid IEEPA duty and want a refund. Each declaration is capped at 9,999 entries, so 1,100 fits in a single file. The IOR or the filing broker uploads it, ACE runs validation on the file and each entry, and for valid entries it strips the IEEPA Chapter 99 codes and reliquidates at the corrected duty. The declaration is the trigger; the recalculation is what ACE automates after.
Some of our April 2025 entries already liquidated, are those IEEPA refunds gone, or can I still recover them?: Not automatically gone, but they are on a clock and may be outside CAPE Phase 1. CAPE Phase 1 covers unliquidated entries and entries within 80 days of liquidation. An entry that liquidated last spring is likely past that window. The preservation path is a protest under 19 U.S.C. 1514, which must be filed within 180 days of the liquidation date. Miss that 180-day deadline and the administrative refund right is generally lost. For entries already finally liquidated, recovery is now entangled with litigation at the Court of International Trade.
Is there a hard deadline I can miss, and how do the 80-day CAPE window and the 180-day protest clock actually interact?: Yes, and they are two different clocks. The 80-day CAPE window is an eligibility line: entries unliquidated or within 80 days of liquidation can go through CAPE Phase 1, CBP's stated cutoff, which sits inside the 90-day voluntary reliquidation window under 19 U.S.C. 1501. The 180-day protest clock under 19 U.S.C. 1514 runs from each entry's liquidation date and is your fallback once CAPE is closed for that entry. Read liquidation status entry by entry, because both clocks run per entry, not per company.
Once I file the CAPE Declaration, how long until the refund hits, and does CBP pay interest on the roughly $1.9M?: CBP states valid IEEPA refunds are generally issued within 60 to 90 days following acceptance of the CAPE Declaration, unless a compliance concern triggers further review. Acceptance itself takes time, and refunds arrive in multiple ACH batches rather than one lump sum, so tell your CFO to expect a range, not a single date. CAPE is designed to refund IEEPA duties including interest, which accrues from the date of deposit under 19 U.S.C. 1505. GingerControl does not guarantee any refund amount or CBP timing.
We also paid Section 301 and Section 232 duties, are those refunded in the same process, or only the IEEPA amounts?: Only the IEEPA amounts. The Supreme Court struck down only the IEEPA tariffs (Chapter 99 codes 9903.01.xx and 9903.02.xx). Section 301, Section 232, and Section 122 rest on different statutory authority and are not refunded through CAPE (Section 122 is separately contested: the CIT ruled it unlawful in May 2026, but only for the plaintiffs in that case, so collection continues). If you filter your entries too broadly on 9903 you will over-count, because those other trade remedies also live in Chapter 99 under different subheadings. CAPE returns the reciprocal and trafficking IEEPA layer only.

What Is an AI Agent for Customs? The Loop Test, and Where the Law Caps Autonomy

GingerControl defines the AI agent for customs: the loop test that separates agents from features, the document layers it must read across, and the legal autonomy ceiling.

August 7, 2026

Transfer Pricing and Customs Valuation: One Price, Two Agencies, Opposite Incentives

GingerControl on transfer pricing and customs valuation: the whip-saw between IRS and CBP, the five-factor test from HQ W548314, and who owns the reconciliation.

August 5, 2026

Top 10 AI Spend Management Platforms, Ranked by the Ledger They Actually Read

GingerControl ranks the top AI spend management platforms: the agentic wave, the procurement incumbents, and the trade-spend ledger most of the field never reads.