Business

The Government Opened a Tariff Refund Portal — Here’s How to Claim

By Mike Harper · April 25, 2026

The federal government has opened a portal for businesses to request refunds on tariffs the Supreme Court ruled were illegally imposed — but getting the money back is far from automatic, and legal experts are warning that the window to act is narrow and the obstacles are real.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection launched the portal — known as CAPE, for Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries — to allow companies to submit claims for tariff refunds following the Supreme Court’s ruling that certain tariffs imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act were unlawful. The potential liability is significant: estimates of the total refund exposure run as high as $175 billion, representing tariffs paid by importers on goods including steel and aluminum.

The refunds won’t flow automatically. Businesses that paid the tariffs must actively file claims through the CAPE portal, document their imports, and demonstrate eligibility. Each claim will be reviewed individually, and CBP has not provided a firm timeline for processing or payment.

Legal experts consulted by CBS News identified several obstacles that could complicate or delay payouts. First, the sheer volume of claims the portal is expected to receive — potentially hundreds of thousands of filings — could create processing backlogs that stretch into years. Second, some businesses may have difficulty reconstructing the documentation needed to support their claims, particularly smaller importers who did not retain detailed records from the relevant period. Third, there is an open question about whether interest will be paid on the refunded amounts, which would significantly affect the ultimate payout for companies that have been waiting years.

The tariffs in question were imposed during the first Trump administration and the Biden administration on steel and aluminum imports, framed as national security measures. The Supreme Court ruling that struck them down applied to tariffs imposed without proper statutory authority — a legal distinction that determines which specific tariffs qualify for refund and which do not.

For businesses that paid these tariffs, the calculus is straightforward: file now or potentially lose the ability to claim later. CBP has not announced a formal deadline for submissions, but the longer a claim sits unfiled, the greater the risk that procedural or documentary requirements become harder to meet. Businesses with questions about eligibility or the filing process can access the CAPE portal through the CBP website at cbp.gov, or consult a licensed customs broker or trade attorney familiar with Section 232 refund procedures.

For consumers, the refund program is a step removed — but not irrelevant. If importers successfully recover tariff costs they passed through to buyers in the form of higher prices, pressure on downstream consumer pricing could ease modestly over time, particularly in steel-intensive product categories.