IEEPA Tariff Refunds: How CAPE Works and the Deadlines That Matter
If you paid fentanyl or reciprocal duties between February 2025 and February 2026, that money is refundable — but only the importer of record or the broker who filed the entry can claim it.
On February 20, 2026 the Supreme Court decided Learning Resources v. United States, holding that the tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act were illegally imposed. The underlying executive orders were revoked, and the duties collected under them became refundable.
The refundable periods are February 4, 2025 through February 24, 2026 for the fentanyl tariffs and April 5, 2025 through February 24, 2026 for the reciprocal tariffs, along with duties collected under the revoked Venezuela, Brazil and Russia orders. If you imported during those windows and paid either duty, there is money owed back.
How CBP is paying it out
Refunds run through CAPE — Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries — inside ACE. Phase 1 opened on April 20, 2026 for unliquidated entries and entries liquidated within the preceding 80 days. Phase 2 followed on June 29, 2026, covering entries flagged for Reconciliation where no Reconciliation entry had been filed. As of July 31, 2026 CBP had taken in more than 75,000 CAPE declarations and accepted roughly US$128.7 billion for processing.
Who can actually file
This is the part that catches people out. Only the importer of record, or the customs broker that filed the entry, can submit a CAPE declaration. A freight forwarder cannot file it for you, and neither can the seller. Where another party in the chain actually bore the duty, the importer of record can designate them to receive the refund on CBP Form 4811.
Filing also requires an ACE account and ACH enrollment for electronic payment. The mechanics are a CSV of entry numbers, two rounds of CBP validation, then payment.
Two deadlines worth putting in the calendar
Entries that fall outside the current CAPE phases are not lost, but they run on a clock. A protest must be filed within 180 days of final liquidation. The litigation route at the Court of International Trade closes on February 4, 2027 for fentanyl-tariff entries and April 5, 2027 for reciprocal-tariff entries.
What to do this month
Pull your entry numbers for the refundable periods and take them to the customs broker who filed them — they are the party who can check CAPE eligibility and submit. If your entries were spread across more than one broker, each one handles its own.
We do not file CAPE claims ourselves, so this is a job for your broker rather than for us. But if you are working out which of your shipments fall inside the refundable windows, or what to ask for, write to us and we will talk it through.