IEEPA Tariff Refunds: What Importers Need to Know After the 2026 Ruling

If your business imported goods into the United States over the last two years, there is a real chance you paid more in tariffs than you were ultimately required to. Following the Supreme Court's ruling in February 2026, duties collected under certain IEEPA tariff actions became recoverable, and that opened one of the largest import-duty refund opportunities importers have seen in years.

What IEEPA is, in plain terms

IEEPA stands for the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. It is the federal statute that was used to impose several recent tariff measures. When the legal basis for a tariff is challenged and adjusted, the duties an importer already paid under that measure can become eligible for a refund. That is exactly what happened here.

The important point for you is not the legal theory. It is that money you already sent to U.S. Customs may be sitting in a recoverable state right now.

The scale of the opportunity

CBP has processed 121.75 billion dollars in tariff refund claims. Of that, 86.3 billion dollars has already been repaid to importers. Those are not projections. That is money that has moved. And yet the vast majority of eligible importers, roughly 93.5 percent, are not set up to claim.

Who qualifies

The core requirement is that you were the importer of record on the customs entries in question. If your company brought goods into the country and paid the duties directly to CBP, you are the party positioned to recover. If you paid higher prices to a supplier because of tariffs but were not the importer of record, the importer you bought from is the one who qualifies.

Why the deadline is not something to sit on

IEEPA refund eligibility is deadline-driven, and the clock is tied to when your entries liquidate with CBP. Every month that passes, some eligible entries move past the window, and the money attached to them is lost for good. This is the most common way importers leave recoverable duty on the table: not because they were denied, but because they waited until the entries aged out.

How recovery actually works

The process runs in three phases. First, specialists identify your IEEPA-eligible entries using your ACE data. Second, they prepare and file the declaration with CBP. Third, the recovery is processed and the refund is returned to you. Tarisol connects you with the Tariff Refund Agency, the licensed team that files and manages these claims, with no upfront cost and success-based fees. The fastest way to know where you stand is a free eligibility check.