IEEPA refunds: which of your entries qualify and how to find them in your own data

Which entries qualify for an IEEPA refund?

Every entry on which you paid a duty imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. On February 20, 2026, in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, decided with Trump v. V.O.S. Selections, Inc., the Supreme Court held that "IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs." The same day, Executive Order 14389 ended the IEEPA duties on Canada, Mexico and China (the fentanyl duties), the reciprocal tariff, and the duties on Brazil, on countries importing Venezuelan oil, on Russian oil purchases and those tied to Cuba and Iran. CBP CSMS # 67834313 set the cutoff: no IEEPA duty is collected on goods entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption on or after 12:00 a.m. eastern time on February 24, 2026. Section 232 and Section 301 duties were not affected.

So eligibility in principle is simple. Three things decide whether a given entry can be refunded today, and by which route:

1. It carries at least one dutiable IEEPA Chapter 99 heading. CBP's CAPE notice says each entry on a declaration must have "at least one dutiable IEEPA HTS Chapter 99 code." A line with only an exemption heading, such as 9903.01.33 for Section 232 metal content, paid no IEEPA duty and has nothing to refund.
2. Its liquidation status. This decides the route: CAPE, a protest, or court.
3. Its entry type and any other open process. Drawback claims, open protests, AD/CVD entries for which Commerce has issued liquidation instructions that are still pending liquidation, and some warehouse entries are not yet accepted by CAPE.

The scale is large. In the court record, CBP's estimate at the start of the refund process was $166 billion of IEEPA duties on 53 million entries, involving roughly 330,000 importers of record. As of October 2, 2026, about $136.6 billion had been accepted for processing in CAPE and about $126 billion in duties plus interest refunded, according to a CBP declaration cited by the Court of International Trade in Freestyle World (Slip Op. 26-123). The court also noted that some importers, believed to be mostly small ones, have not filed at all.

Which Chapter 99 headings mark an IEEPA line?

IEEPA duties were reported under headings in subchapter III of chapter 99 starting 9903.01 and 9903.02. The ones you are most likely to find:

The current Chapter 99 text still prints these headings with their compiler's notes, so you can read each one against your entry lines. If you are unsure whether a line paid IEEPA duty, the duty amount on the Chapter 99 line answers it: zero means nothing to refund.

How do I find my IEEPA entries in my own data?

Work from line-level data, not monthly statements. Two sources give it to you: the ACE reports you can run yourself, and your broker's entry exports.

1. Pull every IEEPA line. In the ACE Portal, CBP points importers to the ES-003 Entry Summary Line Tariff Details report with the IEEPA tariff indicator, which "displays all entry lines with assessed duties." If you work from broker exports instead, filter Chapter 99 numbers that start 9903.01 or 9903.02 with a duty amount above zero. Use entry dates from February 1, 2025 through February 23, 2026.
2. Add liquidation status and date to each entry. You need: unliquidated, liquidated (with the date), suspended, extended or under review. Liquidation normally happens within a year of entry; 19 U.S.C. 1504 deems an entry liquidated at the declared amounts after one year unless the period is extended, and extensions can run to four years.
3. Flag entry types and open processes. Mark reconciliation flags, drawback claims, open protests, AD/CVD lines, warehouse entries (types 21 and 22) and anything not filed in ACE. These change the route.
4. Check who gets paid. Note the importer of record number and any CBP Form 4811 notify party on each entry. Confirm refund bank details are on file in the ACE Portal; CBP pays these refunds by ACH, with rare exceptions.
5. Check the Chapter 99 lines for value. CBP's validation rule is that "a goods value amount greater than $0.00 on any chapter 99 HTS code is not permitted." Entries filed with value on a Chapter 99 line need fixing before they will pass.
6. List the non-IEEPA errors on the same lines. CAPE removes IEEPA duty only. If the audit finds a wrong Section 232 value or a missing Section 301 duty on the same entry, CBP's guidance is to file a post-summary correction before the CAPE Declaration, or protest after the refund issues.
7. Bucket each entry by route using the table in the next section, and date the buckets so you know which entries move from one route to another next.

Doing this across a year of entries is the kind of work a post-entry audit tool handles well. TariffSense reads Form 7501s and broker entry exports in any layout, lists every line that carried an IEEPA heading with its duty, and checks the rest of the stack on the same lines against the measures in force on the entry date, so the refund list and the correction list come out together. Your broker or your own filer submits the CAPE Declaration.

Which refund route applies to each entry?

Two refinements matter. First, CBP can reliquidate an entry on its own within 90 days of liquidation under 19 U.S.C. 1501, which is why the court in Freestyle World treats an entry as "finally liquidated" once it has been liquidated for more than 90 days. Second, the 80-day window is measured from liquidation to the date of your CAPE Declaration, so an unliquidated entry can be filed at any time, but a liquidated one loses CAPE access on a known day. [OWNER REVIEW: will CBP decide IEEPA protests on entries liquidated 81 to 180 days ago, or hold them for a later CAPE phase? CBP's refund page does not say. Until a broker or counsel confirms, the page keeps the protest as the timely route without promising how CBP will handle it.]

Once a CAPE Declaration is accepted, CBP says unliquidated entries are set to liquidate 45 days after acceptance and valid refunds are "generally issued within 60 - 90 days following acceptance of the CAPE Declaration." Refunds are consolidated by recipient and liquidation date rather than paid entry by entry, and interest under 19 U.S.C. 1505 is included. You cannot remove entries from a declaration or cancel it after filing; CBP points to a protest or prior disclosure for corrections.

What is settled and what is still pending?

Settled at the check date (October 27, 2026):

• IEEPA does not authorize tariffs (Supreme Court, February 20, 2026).
• No IEEPA duty on goods entered on or after February 24, 2026 (CSMS # 67834313).
• CAPE accepts unliquidated entries and entries within 80 days of liquidation (since April 20, 2026), plus reconciliation-flagged entries without a type 09 filed (since June 29, 2026).
• An IEEPA refund cannot be started with a post-summary correction.
• Refunds include interest, go to the importer of record or its Form 4811 notify party, and are paid by ACH with rare exceptions.
• The Court of International Trade has ordered reliquidation of entries, including finally liquidated ones, in more than 4,000 individual cases, and CBP accepts those plaintiffs' finally liquidated entries in CAPE once their importer of record numbers are submitted.

Pending at the check date:

• The government's appeal on finally liquidated entries. On June 3, 2026 the government appealed the part of the court's order directing liquidation or reliquidation of all affected entries (Federal Circuit No. 26-1895). The Freestyle World opinion of October 8, 2026 records the appeal as briefed and undecided.
• The class action. Freestyle World certified a class of "All importers of record who paid duties imposed by the Challenged Tariff Orders between February 1, 2025, and February 19, 2026, excluding any entity that has separately filed an action seeking to recover IEEPA duties payments." The relief sought is an injunction directing liquidation or reliquidation of all their entries without IEEPA duty. The court ordered a proposed scheduling order by October 22, 2026; the remedy itself is not decided. Two limits in the definition matter. The class window is set by the date duties were paid and ends February 19, 2026, while CBP collected IEEPA duty on goods entered through February 23. And the opinion's footnote 1 defines the "Challenged Tariff Orders" as the orders held unlawful in V.O.S. Selections, the trafficking and reciprocal orders, which may leave out the Brazil, Russian-oil, Venezuelan-oil, Cuba and Iran duties. [OWNER REVIEW: two questions for counsel before release. Do duties paid on February 20 to 23, 2026, or paid late on earlier entries, fall inside the class? Are duties under the Brazil, India (Russian oil), Venezuelan-oil, Cuba and Iran orders inside the class, given footnote 1? Until answered, the page states both limits and gives no firm answer.]
• CAPE coverage. CBP lists drawback entries, open protests, warehouse types 21 and 22, AD/CVD entries pending liquidation, entries not in ACE and finally liquidated entries of non-plaintiffs as not yet accepted.

What deadlines should I track?

• 80 days after liquidation: the last day an entry can go on a CAPE Declaration under current rules. Track it per entry.
• 90 days after liquidation: the end of CBP's own reliquidation window under 19 U.S.C. 1501.
• 180 days after liquidation: the protest deadline under 19 U.S.C. 1514(c)(3).
• Two years: 28 U.S.C. 2636(i) bars a Court of International Trade action under its residual jurisdiction unless commenced "within two years after the cause of action first accrues." [OWNER REVIEW: when does that two-year period start for IEEPA claims? No fetched source says, so the page states no date until counsel answers.]
• Reconciliation filings: CBP advises filing a reconciliation due in less than 30 days on time rather than waiting, and leaving out any increase in IEEPA duty the reconciliation would otherwise report.

These run per entry, from each entry's own liquidation date. A spreadsheet with one row per entry and the three dates computed is enough to manage them; how long you have to fix a past entry covers the same clocks for non-IEEPA corrections.

What if the audit finds money owed the other way?

It happens on the same entries. A stack that over-charged IEEPA duty on the metal content of a Section 232 derivative may also have under-charged the Section 232 duty, and CBP nets refunds against any additional duty owed at liquidation. An underpayment found while preparing an IEEPA claim belongs in a post-summary correction before liquidation or, after it, a prior disclosure prepared with your broker or counsel. Why your entry shows the wrong duty stack has worked lines with both directions, and how to recover overpaid import duty covers the non-IEEPA routes. To recompute a line's stack for its entry date, use the duty calculator; the post-entry audit guide covers the rest of the line-by-line check.

What should I do next on my own entries?

Pull every line with a 9903.01 or 9903.02 heading and a duty above zero for entry dates through February 23, 2026, add each entry's liquidation date, and sort by days since liquidation. File the entries inside the 80-day window first, then decide with a licensed customs broker or trade counsel how to handle the rest before their protest window closes.