Tariff refunds are open: importers can now reclaim IEEPA duties

Importers who paid tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act can now claim that money back. US Customs and Border Protection opened the first phase of its CAPE refund portal on April 20, 2026, giving importers of record a direct administrative path to recover duties the Supreme Court ruled unlawful, according to a frequently-asked-questions guide from accounting firm BDO updated May 21. For furniture and home importers that paid the broad reciprocal tariffs through 2025, the filing window is open, the process is administrative rather than litigated, and the processing timelines are unusually short by trade-remedy standards.

How the refunds came about

The refunds trace back to the Supreme Court's February 20 decision in Learning Resources v. United States, which held 6 to 3 that IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs without clear congressional authorization. The Court concluded that while the statute permits the President to regulate importation during a declared national emergency, that language does not clearly extend to imposing duties, a power the Constitution assigns to Congress. The ruling voided the country-specific tariffs built on that authority.

The White House subsequently revoked seven executive orders covering the duties on Canada, Mexico, China and Hong Kong, Venezuela, Brazil, and Russia, plus the broad reciprocal tariff program, per BDO. Two tranches matter for the refund math: the first IEEPA duties took effect February 4, 2025, and the reciprocal tariffs followed on April 5, 2025. For most furniture importers the reciprocal tranche was the larger line item, because it layered an additional percentage on top of normal duty rates across nearly every sourcing country at once, Vietnam and the rest of Southeast Asia included.

How to claim

The recovery mechanism is the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries, or CAPE, inside CBP's Automated Commercial Environment. In the current first phase, only the original importer of record can file; eligible importers submit refund declarations directly to CBP, and claims cover IEEPA duties paid from the February 4 and April 5, 2025 start dates through February 24, 2026. BDO notes that valid claims are generally expected to be processed within roughly 60 to 90 days of acceptance, and some refunds have moved faster.

The importer-of-record restriction is the detail to check first. A brand that imported through a customs broker but stood as importer of record on its entries can file. A brand that bought on delivered-duty-paid terms, where a supplier or forwarder was the importer of record, has no direct claim in this phase; the refund belongs to whoever paid the duty on the entry. That makes 2025 entry records, not invoices, the place to establish what is actually recoverable.

What the ruling does not touch

The relief has a hard boundary that matters enormously for this industry. The Section 232 tariffs, including the 25% duties on upholstered furniture, kitchen cabinets, and bathroom vanities that took effect in October 2025, rest on a different legal authority and remain fully in force, as do the Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods. The Home Furnishings Association made the same point in its analysis of the ruling: some imports gain relief, but the tariff programs aimed squarely at home furnishings categories are unaffected. For where those surviving furniture duties stand, see our coverage of the Section 232 tariff delay.

The legal landscape is still moving. On May 7 the Court of International Trade separately invalidated a temporary 10% import surcharge imposed under Section 122 of the Trade Act, a decision now under appeal. And the HFA flags the open questions that remain: how CBP implements the ruling across the remaining phases, how quickly guidance lands, and whether new tariff actions arrive under alternative authorities to replace what the Court struck down. A refund collected this year is real money, but it is not a signal that the tariff era is unwinding.

Why it matters: For a furniture or home brand that imported under the reciprocal tariff regime in 2025, this is found money, potentially a meaningful percentage of a year's landed costs, with a defined window and process to claim it. At the same time, the duties that bite hardest on furniture specifically are the ones that survive, so the category's structural tariff exposure has not improved. Recovering what is owed while continuing to plan around 25% Section 232 duties is the realistic posture.

What it means for our partners: Any brand that was importer of record on 2025 entries should be checking its CAPE eligibility now, starting with entry records rather than invoices; the filing burden is real but the 60-to-90-day processing window makes this one of the fastest-recovering trade remedies in memory.