How to Get Tariffs Refunded

If your consumer goods company has been importing products over the last few years, there's a strong chance you've overpaid on tariffs and import duties and an even stronger chance you can get a significant portion of that money back. Most brands assume tariffs are simply a cost of doing business. They're not. Below are three legitimate, government-sanctioned paths to tariff relief.

If you imported goods subject to IEEPA tariffs, the money you paid may now be refundable in full — and the process to claim it is already live.

In February 2026, the Supreme Court ruled that tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) were never authorized by law. In plain terms: the duties collected under those orders were collected unlawfully, and importers are entitled to get them back. Customs and Border Protection has since built a dedicated refund system — the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) module inside ACE — specifically to process these refunds. It went live on April 20, 2026, and CBP has already accepted tens of billions of dollars in refunds.

Here's why this matters for consumer goods importers: CAPE refunds 100% of the IEEPA duties paid, and for eligible entries you don't need to file a lawsuit or even an individual protest to recover them. You file a CAPE declaration listing your entries, and CBP recalculates and reliquidates them without the IEEPA component. The catch is eligibility windows and clean entry data — entries that are still unliquidated or recently liquidated move fastest, and your ACE portal and ACH banking details have to be in order before a refund can be issued.

If you paid IEEPA tariffs, this is the single fastest tariff refund opportunity available right now. The question isn't whether you're owed money — it's whether your entries are filed correctly to claim it before deadlines pass.

Duty drawback is the most overlooked tariff refund program in consumer goods — and one of the most valuable. If you import products and later export them, or destroy unsold or defective inventory, you can recover up to 99% of the duties, taxes, and fees you paid at import.

This is a long-standing federal program (19 U.S.C. §1313), and it covers more scenarios than most brands realize:

You export finished goods built from imported components or materials — manufacturing drawback lets you recover duties on the imported inputs.

You re-export imported products as-is — for example, distributing to Canada, Mexico, or overseas markets — through unused merchandise drawback.

You destroy unsold, expired, or defective inventory under CBP supervision — those duties are recoverable too.

The window is generous: you generally have five years from the date of import to export or destroy the goods, and three years from export to file the claim. Even merchandise processing fees (MPF) and harbor maintenance fees can be recovered, and substitution rules mean you don't always have to trace the exact physical unit — commercially interchangeable goods can qualify.

For consumer goods companies with returns, international distribution, or regular inventory write-offs, drawback often unlocks six- and seven-figure refunds that were simply being left on the table. The barrier is rarely eligibility — it's recordkeeping. Linking import entries to export or destruction documentation is what turns a theoretical refund into cash in the bank.

Every product you import is assigned an HTS (Harmonized Tariff Schedule) code, and that code determines your duty rate. If your products were classified incorrectly — or classified years ago and never revisited — you could be overpaying on every single shipment.

Misclassification is far more common than importers expect. Codes get copied forward from old entries, assigned by freight forwarders without product expertise, or never updated after a product's materials, design, or use changed. A single misplaced digit can mean the difference between a duty-free rate and a double-digit tariff. Multiply that across thousands of units and several years, and the overpayment adds up quickly.

A classification review does two things at once. Going forward, correcting an HTS code lowers your duty rate on every future import. Looking backward, if you've been overpaying, you can recover those excess duties — typically by filing a protest within 180 days of liquidation, or through post-entry corrections on still-open entries. The same review often surfaces eligibility for trade-agreement preferences or duty exclusions you weren't claiming.

For consumer goods brands with broad SKU counts, this is low-hanging fruit. If it's been more than a year — or you've never had a licensed customs broker audit your classifications — a review is one of the easiest ways to find tariff savings and refunds hiding in plain sight.