FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump holds a chart next to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick as Trump delivers remarks on tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 2, 2025. REUTERS\/Carlos Barria\/File Photo<\/p>\n
U.S. Opens Tariff Refund Portal as Companies Rush to Reclaim $166 Billion<\/p>\n
By Timothy Aeppel, Nicholas P. Brown and David Lawder<\/p>\n
April 20 (Reuters)\u00a0\u2013\u00a0The\u00a0refund\u00a0system set up to allow companies to recover\u00a0illegally collected<\/p>\n
from the U.S. government went live on Monday as thousands of companies rushed to file claims.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo far, so good\u201d \u2013 though the system is a little glitchy, said Jay Foreman, CEO of toymaker Basic Fun, which had a team in its \u201cwar room\u201d at its headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida, ready to start filing when the system went live at 8 a.m. U.S. Eastern time (1300 GMT).<\/p>\n
Foreman said the system didn\u2019t crash as some had feared it might under the onslaught of attempted submissions \u2013 but rather would sometimes not allow an upload and force them to retry. The company has over 500 files it needs to upload to the system, although the system permits these to be uploaded in batches.<\/p>\n
Trade Court Ruling Opens Door to Tariff Refunds for U.S. Importers<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, if you load too many or the system is too busy it will kick them back,\u201d Foreman said in an email about how the process was working in the early moments. \u201cWe\u2019ve got over 50% of our invoices loaded so far. We are hoping in the next few hours to have them all loaded. I\u2019m very happy we got this process started early.\u201d<\/p>\n
Companies contacted by Reuters in recent days expressed concerns about the durability of the new system,\u00a0created by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in response to a court order that it prepare to return up to $166 billion to importers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m relieved that the portal seems to be functioning properly,\u201d said Cassie Abel, CEO of Idaho-based outerwear company Wild Rye. Abel had her customs broker make the submission, which she said cost her $250 for the first phase of the filing.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Supreme Court in February<\/p>\n
struck down the\u00a0tariffs<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump pursued under a law meant ?for use in national emergencies, handing the Republican president a\u00a0stinging defeat.<\/p>\n
In court filings, Customs officials said as of April 9, some ?56,497 importers had completed the necessary steps to receive electronic\u00a0refunds, an amount totaling $127 billion, or more than three-quarters of the total eligible to be\u00a0refunded. More than 330,000 importers paid the\u00a0tariffs at issue on 53 million shipments ?of imported goods.<\/p>\n
It is unclear whether getting a\u00a0refund\u00a0claim into the portal as soon as possible will impact how quickly it\u2019s processed, but many companies decided to not take the risk of waiting.<\/p>\n
A CBP spokesman said on Friday they created a system that will \u201cefficiently process\u00a0refunds, pursuant to court order, for importers and brokers who paid\u201d the duties.<\/p>\n
LONG BATTLE OVER\u00a0TARIFFS<\/p>\n
Rick Woldenberg, CEO of educational toy maker Learning Resources, said he had heard some users experienced temporary crashes, but he wasn\u2019t among them. \u201cI think it was sort of like everyone was lined up to get Taylor Swift tickets \u2013 they all hit the button at once,\u201d Woldenberg said.<\/p>\n
Learning Resources, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit that led to the\u00a0tariffs\u2019 undoing, is seeking some $10 million in\u00a0refunds. The company has filed about 5,000 entries, and so far, the vast majority have been accepted.<\/p>\n
Woldenberg voiced some frustration at having to file for reimbursement at all, saying: \u201cThey have a ruling from the Supreme Court that says they over-collected taxes, so why do I have to tell them to send it back?\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, he said he was impressed with how smoothly the system has run so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe policies set at the top have nothing to do with the professionals who work in CBP, and those folks have done a good and earnest job,\u201d said Woldenberg.<\/p>\n
Lynlee Brown, global trade partner at EY, said the firm\u2019s clients have largely seen the system accept most submissions without problem but that the first phase of submissions included easier ones that are less complex.<\/p>\n
Brown said that once the entries are accepted by the system, they are then sent to a mass-processing phase that is supposed to automate the payment of\u00a0refunds within 60 to 90 days. \u201cIf an origin comes up that looks fishy,\u201d she said, \u201cthat will probably go to a human for review.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the latest twist in a drawn-out battle over emergency\u00a0tariffs collected over the past year as Trump seeks to restructure U.S. trade relations. The constantly shifting\u00a0tariffs roiled global business as companies rushed to move supply chains to avoid them as well as figure out who would ultimately pay the taxes.<\/p>\n