Tariff Refund Recovery: How U.S. Importers Get Overpaid Duties Back

Tariff refund recovery is the process of identifying import duties you overpaid and filing to get that money back from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. For a lot of importers it is found money, because the overpayment happened quietly and no one on the team was tasked with chasing it.

Why importers overpay in the first place

Duty overpayments happen for a handful of predictable reasons: goods classified under the wrong HTS code and charged a higher rate, product exclusions that were available but never claimed, tariffs later found refundable, and post-summary corrections that were never filed. Individually each looks small. Across a year of entries they add up.

What makes a duty recoverable

Not every dollar you paid is refundable. The value is in separating the recoverable portion from the rest. That usually means Section 301 tariffs on China-origin goods, IEEPA-based duties that became recoverable, exclusions you were entitled to, or a classification that carried a higher rate than the correct one.

The recovery process, start to finish

A specialist review pulls your entry history from ACE, isolates the recoverable duties, and prepares a formal declaration to CBP. Once filed, a typical recovery moves in roughly 60 to 90 days depending on CBP processing. You do not need to know which entries qualify. That identification is the work the specialists do.

What it costs

Legitimate recovery is success-based. There is no upfront or hourly fee. You pay a share of what is actually recovered, and if nothing comes back, you owe nothing. That structure keeps your interests and the specialists' interests aligned.

The simplest first step is a free eligibility check. It takes about a minute and tells you whether a deeper review is worth your time. If you are already sure you have exposure, book a call and we will connect you with the Tariff Refund Agency's specialists.