The US government owes importers billions of dollars in tariff refunds after the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump's country-specific duties, but trade lawyers say navigating the reimbursement process may not be an easy feat.
The six justices on the majority opinion did not address the refund process for collected tariffs, leaving businesses, lower courts and the government uncertain about next steps. US Customs and Border Protection already has an established process for issuing refunds or to demand additional funds if an importer underpaid, but the agency has never initiated a refund process on such a large scale, trade attorneys told Platts, part of S&P Global Energy.
"The bottom line is I think that under the law, everybody can get their money back, but the burden is going to be on them to file and demand it and nothing is going to happen very soon," Bill Reinsch, former president of the National Foreign Trade Council and a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Platts.
Process for reimbursements
The US collected $142 billion in duties under the tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) in 2025, according to an analysis of Customs and Border Patrol data by the Yale University Budget Lab, and now that money must be returned.
Importers and Customers and Border Patrol commonly make mistakes during the customs process, as when the agency incorrectly determines a duty rate or when importers err when declaring goods, Reinsch said.
"There is a process that should work normally, but it's never happened at this scale before and so nobody knows quite how it's going to work," Reinsch said.
Importers use a portal via US Customs to declare import entries. For 314 days, entries are considered un-liquidated, or not final. If there is an error on the entry before it is liquidated, US Customs has an administrative correction process where an importer can file a post-summary correction, fix the error and receive a refund or pay more dues.
But once the entry liquidates, importers have a 180-day window to file a protest, which can include multiple entries of imported goods.
Customs has up to two years to process a protest, Justin Angotti, an associate in the global regulatory investigations and enforcement group at law firm Reed Smith, told Platts.
This timeline factors into the refunds for Trump's country-specific tariffs.
If the US Customs portal can handle the volume of requests, it would be the most efficient way of returning funds to importers, Zack Hadzismajlovic, a partner at law firm McCarter & English and leader of the firm's Global Trade practice, said.
Hadzismajlovic said he has been advising clients to keep documentation so they could submit protests in the event the high court struck down the tariffs. And he encouraged them to file prospective protests that Customs can hold in abeyance to stay within the 180-day protest window.
But Hadzismajlovic raised questions over whether the Treasury Department has enough funds to put through Customs to satisfy these refunds. Most importers would also be entitled to interest, he said, adding that he could see importers stuck in a limbo where they filed protests for reimbursements but are stuck waiting.
"[The Trump administration] seem to be adamant that they're going to continue using tariffs," Hadzismajlovic said, referencing Trump's announcement of a temporary 10% global tariff. "I would think that that also means that they're not really ready to give the money back as quickly as possible."
The administrative process to secure refunds could be "daunting," Ted Murphy, co-leader of Global Arbitration, Trade and Advocacy practice for the law firm Sidley Austin, told Platts.
"The fact that it's a big refund potential is a direct result of the choices the administration made," Murphy said. "They chose to only use IEEPA. They rolled the dice and they lost so now it's a big refund process, but they could have done it differently."
When asked about the refund process, Trump said, "We'll end up being in court for the next five years."
No direction
The majority made no mention of the refunds issue in their opinion, or in concurrences filed by several justices.
"Wouldn't you think they would have put one sentence in there saying that — keep the money or don't keep the money, right? I guess it has to be litigated for the next 10 years," Trump said.
But the dissenters raised concerns.
"The United States may be required to refund billions of dollars to importers who paid the IEEPA tariffs, even though some importers may have already passed on costs to consumers or others," Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in his dissent, joined by Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.
Congress, small businesses push for refunds
In response to the Supreme Court’s ruling, two House Democrats announced a bill that would provide automatic refunds to small and independent businesses.
The measure, coined the RELIEF Act, would apply to tariffs collected from Jan. 1, 2025. The bill would eliminate the need for individual applications and require refunds within 90 days of the bill's passage into law.
While the high court addressed the legality of the tariffs, there is no existing law that provides an automatic refund mechanism for businesses, according to Nevada Rep. Steven Horsford.
"When the government takes money without proper authority, it doesn't get to keep it," Horsford, one of the bill sponsors, said in a statement. "The Supreme Court has now made clear the law used to impose them did not authorize that action. It's time to return the money and begin repairing the damage by this reckless trade policy."
Soon after the court's decision, a coalition of over 800 small businesses — called We Pay the Tariffs — issued a letter calling on the Trump administration and Congress "to ensure that American small businesses receive full, automatic, and fast refunds of all unlawfully collected tariff payments."
In its letter, the coalition noted that small businesses do not have the resources, including funding and legal teams, to fight for refunds. The group also businesses cannot wait years for refunds, either.
"Many of us have already exhausted our reserves," the letter said. "For many of us, a timely refund is the difference between rehiring workers, restoring wages, and reinvesting in growth, or closing our doors for good. Refunds must be fast, measured in days or weeks, not months or years."
