When the supreme court struck down Donald Trump’s tariffs, many small importers assumed any refunds would be tied up in bureaucracy for years. Surprisingly, that’s not what’s happening.
It’s estimated that roughly 330,000 importers paid more than $166bn in tariff fees imposed by Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). If your business was affected, here’s good news: you can get your tariffs refunded. You just need to be a little patient.
That’s the advice from Melissa Alvarado Quisenberry, a vice-president at Michigan-based Supply Chain Solutions. Her company helps businesses manage freight forwarding, transportation, customs brokerage, warehousing, inventory and shipping operations. And over the past few weeks – ever since the federal government announced that, yes, despite the president’s grumblings, there would be a tariff refund after all – Quisenberry’s company has been busy filing refund claims for many of her clients seeking to claw their money back.
The process, which started in late April is – unsurprisingly – not simple. But – surprisingly – it’s working. So far. Federal agencies have quietly put a workable refund process in place.
To get your money, you need to work with the import firm that originally handled the paperwork and collected the fees. The government is requiring that your original customs broker – the “importer of record” – must be the one to apply for the refund. It can’t just be any broker or consultant or fly-by-night firm that provides these services, and I’m betting that’s because the government learned its lesson from the pandemic-era Employee Retention Tax Credit debacle that spawned an industry of questionable service providers that fraudulently filed refund claims until the IRS ultimately reined in the program.
Quisenberry acknowledged that being forced to use your original customs broker can create problems if your business is unhappy with that firm – for example, if the broker is unresponsive or charging excessive fees to go back and collect tariffs due. Unfortunately, switching brokers in order to get your tariff refund isn’t easy, if at all possible.
“You can work with another broker in a consulting capacity, but your options for now are limited,” Quisenberry said.
But assuming all is still well with your customs broker, they would file your refund request electronically through the custom agency’s Ace Secure Data Portal. The first phase of the process is limited to shipments that were “liquidated”, or finalized, within the past 80 days, although some shipments that are still “unliquidated”, or not finalized, are also being processed. The government says importers or brokers must upload a Consolidated Administration and Processing for Entries Declaration digital file listing the entries eligible for refunds.
Yes, some glitches have been reported. But for the most part, Quisenberry says things have been working “pretty well” and that process “appears to be more organized and operational than many of us expected”.
How long will it take to see your money? Quisenberry says she’s telling her clients to expect 60 to 90 days. And yes, there’s a cost. Firms like hers are service providers and this is an added service, so there are fees involved. But for many businesses that were not expecting refunds, the cash is welcome and paying a percentage of something is better than paying a percentage on nothing at all.
One hidden cost that some fail to consider is taxes. Many of my clients who paid tariffs took a legitimate tax deduction for the cost in 2025. Tariff refunds made in 2026 will be taxable and that needs to be taken into consideration when a business owner is estimating their taxes due this year.
Recently, FedEx and UPS have pledged to return tariff refunds to customers. The shipping firm DHL is doing the same. Small-business owners who rely on these shippers should pay close attention to what they’re doing to make good on that pledge. Unfortunately Amazon, Apple, Costco and other big brands are still mum on whether or not they’ll be sharing their tariff refunds with their customers.
Immediately after the supreme court ruling, I wrote that small businesses shouldn’t bother going after tariff refunds. I was wrong. The reality is that the refund process is up and running and it seems to be running satisfactorily. The tariff debate is far from over. But for businesses willing to navigate the paperwork, this is one rare case where Washington’s bureaucracy may actually be working in their favor.
