NEED TO KNOW

• The Supreme Court struck down Trump's IEEPA tariffs in February 2026. Customs collected an estimated $166 billion from 330,000 importers across 53 million entries.
• CBP's refund portal — CAPE — went live April 20. Phase 1 only covers entries within 80 days of liquidation, leaving most 2025 tariff payments stuck in limbo.
• Small businesses paid an average of $306,000 in tariffs last year. They face the same filing requirements as Costco and FedEx — without the legal teams.

WASHINGTON, DC (TDR) — The Trump administration began accepting tariff refund applications on April 20, two months after the Supreme Court ruled the underlying tariffs unconstitutional. The portal was designed for scale. Small businesses say it was not designed for them.

The big picture: A refund process built for the largest importers leaves the smallest ones competing on legal sophistication they don't have.

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• The Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries system runs inside CBP's Automated Commercial Environment — a portal most small importers have never used.
• Only the Importer of Record or a licensed customs broker can file. Consumers and downstream buyers who paid tariff costs in retail prices have no claim.
• ACE account approval can take weeks. Small importers without one are already behind before they start.
• Costco and FedEx sued early to lock in eligibility. Most small firms learned the portal existed the day it opened.

Why it matters: The refund mechanism is the test. A government that collected illegal taxes is now controlling who gets repaid first.

• A March Federal Reserve survey found 42% of small firms called rising tariff costs their primary financial concern.
• The Center for American Progress reported small businesses paid $306,000 on average in tariffs in 2025 — a year of compressed margins and forced price hikes.
• Phase 1 excludes most older liquidated entries, the bulk of 2025 payments. Those importers wait for later phases or sue at the Court of International Trade.
• The Trump administration may appeal the universal refund order — a step that could freeze the entire process.

Driving the news: The portal's first week exposed the gap between scale and access.

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• CBP received 75,306 CAPE declarations by April 26. Only about 3% of submitted entries had cleared validation and entered the refund pipeline.
• Small business advocates reported portal crashes, duplicate-tax-ID errors, and rejection cascades on launch day.
• A single rejected entry can void an entire declaration, forcing a refile — and risking the 80-day window.
• CBP says first refunds will issue around May 11, with most claims paid within 60 to 90 days of acceptance.

What they're saying:

• Sara Albrecht, Chair, Liberty Justice Center: The libertarian legal group representing small business plaintiffs said at launch its goal is "to help businesses recover every dollar they are owed."
• CBP spokesperson: The agency described CAPE as a tool to "efficiently process refunds, pursuant to court order."
• Trade attorney Lawrence Seligman, quoted by Fortune: Warned small importers that portal glitches "can result in permanent loss of refund rights."

Yes, but: The system was built under a court-imposed deadline, not in bad faith.

• CBP told the Court of International Trade that processing refunds under existing rules would have required over 4.4 million working hours. CAPE consolidates millions of entries into batched declarations.
• The 80-day window mirrors existing customs law — the statutory protest period under 19 U.S.C. § 1514. CBP didn't invent the cutoff.
• The Liberty Justice Center is offering free filing guides, undercutting the most predatory refund consultants.

Between the lines: This is a structural story, not a partisan one.

• Both parties built a customs system that assumes importers have brokers, lawyers, and ACE accounts. The system worked fine when only large firms imported at scale. E-commerce changed that. Policy didn't catch up.
• The refund process replicates the original tariff burden's distribution: corporations absorb shocks. Small businesses eat them.
• Consumers paid the tariffs in retail prices. None of them are eligible for a dollar of the $166 billion. That is the law working as written — which is the problem.

What's next:

• CBP plans to issue first refunds around May 11, starting with the cleanest declarations.
• The Trump administration has until June 7 to appeal the Court of International Trade's universal refund order. A successful appeal could halt the program.
• CBP has not announced a timeline for Phase 2, which would cover older liquidated entries — the bulk of 2025 tariffs paid by small importers.
• Trump imposed a new round of universal tariffs under separate statutory authority after the IEEPA loss. The Liberty Justice Center is suing again.

If the smallest businesses bore the heaviest burden, why does the refund line favor the largest?

Sources

This report was compiled using reporting from Fortune, Government Executive, States Newsroom, Sidley Austin, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

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