Between February 2025 and February 2026, the tariff rate on your imports may have changed a dozen times. Executive orders were signed, paused, amended, escalated, reduced, and ultimately struck down by the Supreme Court.
Between February 2025 and February 2026, the tariff rate on your imports may have changed a dozen times. Executive orders were signed, paused, amended, escalated, reduced, and ultimately struck down by the Supreme Court. Rates on Chinese goods alone went from 10% to 20%, back down to 10%, while reciprocal tariffs on the rest of the world ranged from 10% to 50% depending on the country, the week, and which deal was or wasn't in effect.
You lived through all of it. Your business absorbed the costs. And now the Supreme Court says every dollar you paid under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) was collected illegally.
But here's why the timeline matters more than most people realize: the amount you're owed depends on exactly which tariffs applied to which shipments on which dates. And that calculation is far messier than anyone in Washington is letting on.
The first IEEPA tariffs didn't come with a press conference or a nickname. On February 1, 2025, President Trump signed executive orders declaring national emergencies related to illegal immigration and fentanyl trafficking. The orders imposed a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico, 25% tariff on imports from Canada (10% on energy), and an initial 10% tariff on imports from China — all under IEEPA authority.
These were the "fentanyl tariffs." For importers of food products from Mexico, lumber from Canada, or electronics components from China, the cost increase hit immediately. By February 4, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was collecting the new duties on goods entering the country.
Most businesses assumed these were temporary pressure tactics — trade leverage that would be rolled back once diplomatic deals were struck. They adjusted pricing, absorbed what they could, and waited.
They'd be waiting a long time.
Then came the event that turned tariff chaos into a full-blown crisis.
On April 2, 2025 — a date the administration branded "Liberation Day" — President Trump signed Executive Order 14257, imposing reciprocal tariffs on virtually every U.S. trading partner. The legal basis was again IEEPA, this time citing persistent trade deficits as a national emergency. No president had ever used IEEPA this way.
A 10% baseline tariff hit imports from all countries starting April 5. Higher country-specific rates — ranging from 11% to 50% — kicked in on April 9. The European Union faced 20%. Japan, 24%. Vietnam, 46%. And these tariffs stacked on top of the existing fentanyl tariffs for goods from Canada, Mexico, and China.
The same executive order also eliminated the de minimis exemption — the provision that had previously allowed shipments valued under $800 to enter duty-free. For e-commerce businesses sourcing small-value goods from China, this was a separate shock.
For a small importer bringing in consumer products from multiple countries, the math became nearly impossible to follow without professional help. The tariff rate on any given shipment depended on the country of origin, the specific product classification, whether the goods qualified under a trade agreement like USMCA, whether they fell under a product exclusion, and whether the fentanyl tariffs or the reciprocal tariffs (or both) applied.
This is the period that generated the bulk of the $166 billion in IEEPA tariff collections. And this is the period that makes calculating your refund so complicated.
What followed Liberation Day was a dizzying cycle of negotiations, temporary truces, and fresh escalations — each one changing the tariff math for affected importers.
May 2025: The administration struck a framework agreement with the United Kingdom and announced a temporary tariff truce with China. The reciprocal rate on Chinese goods was held at 10%, while certain fentanyl tariff adjustments were negotiated. For importers, this meant the rate on Chinese goods fluctuated depending on whether you were looking at the fentanyl tariff layer, the reciprocal tariff layer, or both.
May 28, 2025: The Court of International Trade (CIT) ruled unanimously that the IEEPA tariffs were illegal and issued a nationwide injunction. The next day, the government appealed and got an immediate stay — meaning the tariffs stayed in effect while the appeal played out. For importers, this was the first legal signal that refunds might be possible. But with the tariffs still being collected, there was nothing to do but keep paying and keep records.
July–August 2025: President Trump sent letters to trading partners announcing adjusted country-specific tariff rates, struck additional deals, and imposed new IEEPA tariffs on Brazil (40%, explicitly tied to the prosecution of former President Bolsonaro) and India (25%, tied to Russian oil imports). The Canadian fentanyl tariff was raised from 25% to 35% effective August 1. China's cumulative IEEPA burden hit 30% (20% fentanyl + 10% reciprocal).
August 29, 2025: The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the CIT's ruling that IEEPA tariffs were illegal — but the tariffs remained in effect pending Supreme Court review. The secondary market for tariff refund claims began to emerge, with hedge funds offering importers cash for their potential refund rights at steep discounts.
November 2025: Following a trade meeting between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, the fentanyl tariff on China was reduced from 20% to 10% effective November 10. The reciprocal tariff on China was frozen at 10% through November 2026. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the IEEPA case, signaling to markets that there was a real chance the tariffs would be struck down.
Every one of these changes created a new calculation layer for affected entries. An importer who shipped goods from China in March 2025, June 2025, August 2025, and November 2025 potentially paid four different effective tariff rates on the same product. When it comes time to file your CAPE declaration listing IEEPA duties paid, every single entry needs to reflect the correct rate for the correct date — and any errors get your declaration kicked back.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on November 5, 2025. On February 20, 2026, it ruled 6-3 in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that IEEPA does not authorize the president to impose tariffs. Chief Justice Roberts wrote that the power to impose duties belongs to "Congress alone."
The ruling invalidated every tariff imposed under IEEPA — fentanyl tariffs, reciprocal tariffs, baseline tariffs, and the country-specific tariffs on Brazil, India, and others. The Tax Foundation estimated these tariffs had collected more than $160 billion through the date of the ruling.
But the Court said nothing about refunds. Justice Kavanaugh, in dissent, warned that the refund process was "likely to be a mess."
Within hours, President Trump signed an executive order acknowledging the tariffs were no longer in effect — but did not address refunds. He simultaneously imposed new tariffs under Section 122 of the Trade Act (10%, later raised to 15%), set to expire July 24, 2026. By February 24, CBP had stopped collecting IEEPA duties.
For importers, this was the moment of validation: the money was owed back. But the mechanism for getting it — and the fight over whether the government would cooperate — was just beginning.
The refund process has moved through a rapid sequence of court actions and administrative developments:
March 4: CIT Judge Richard Eaton ordered CBP to liquidate all unliquidated entries and reliquidate non-final entries without IEEPA duties — effectively ordering universal refunds.
March 6: CBP filed a declaration through Brandon Lord stating it could not comply. The agency cited 53 million entries, 330,000+ importers, and the need for 4.4 million staff hours to process manually. CBP proposed building CAPE and asked for 45 days. The CIT suspended its refund order.
March 12: CBP reported CAPE was 40–80% complete across its four components. Judge Eaton described the progress as "satisfactory."
March 17: The Supreme Court's mandate was finalized, cementing the ruling as legally final.
March 19: CBP's next progress report is due — the most current signal of when the CAPE portal will open and importers can begin submitting refund claims.
Every article about IEEPA tariff refunds tells you the same thing: get your documentation in order. What they don't tell you is how hard that actually is when the tariff regime changed constantly for 13 months.
Your refund amount isn't a single number. It's the sum of every IEEPA duty paid on every entry, at whatever rate was in effect on the date that specific shipment entered the country. If you imported goods from China, the applicable IEEPA rate may have been 10%, 20%, 30%, or 10% again depending on the month. If you imported from Canada, it may have been 25% or 35%. If you imported from a country that struck a bilateral deal with the administration, the rate may have been adjusted mid-stream.
And here's the part that trips up even experienced importers: not every tariff on your entries is refundable. If your goods were also subject to Section 232 tariffs (steel, aluminum, autos), Section 301 tariffs (China trade actions from 2018-2024), or anti-dumping duties, those layers are still in effect. Only the IEEPA-specific duty lines are eligible for refund. Separating the refundable from the non-refundable requires entry-level analysis of HTS codes, Chapter 99 subheadings, and date-specific tariff schedules.
This isn't a spreadsheet exercise you knock out over a weekend. It's forensic data work across your entire import history during the most volatile tariff period in modern American trade policy.
That's what Tariff Refund Authority does.Our licensed customs brokers pull your complete entry history from CBP's ACE system, identify every IEEPA duty line across every rate change, separate refundable amounts from non-refundable tariff layers, map liquidation status, and prepare your CAPE declaration. You don't have to reconstruct the chaos yourself.→ Get Your Free Refund Assessment at TariffRefundAuthority.com
If you're reading this timeline and realizing you don't actually know how much you paid in IEEPA tariffs — or which of your entries are still within the protest window — you're not alone. Most of the 330,000 affected importers are in exactly the same position.
But the window to act is narrowing. CBP is still liquidating entries with IEEPA tariffs applied. Each liquidation starts a 180-day protest countdown. Once that window closes on an entry, your refund rights on that entry may be gone for good.
The businesses that will recover the most money the fastest are the ones that have already engaged a customs broker to audit their IEEPA exposure, enrolled in ACH electronic refunds, and prepared their CAPE filing data. Everyone else is waiting in a queue that gets longer every day.
Don't know where to start?Start with a free assessment. We'll tell you what you're likely owed, which entries need immediate attention, and what your options are — including selling your claim for immediate cash if you can't afford to wait.→ Get Started at TariffRefundAuthority.com
Disclaimer: Tariff Refund Authority is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. All services are facilitated through licensed customs brokers and qualified trade attorneys. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or tax advice. Refund eligibility, amounts, and timelines are subject to ongoing litigation, government action, and administrative processes that may change. No refund outcome is guaranteed.
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