In this article, learn about:
The 3 entry buckets that determine your recovery path
What the 63/37 CAPE Phase 1 split actually means for your entries
The structural deadlines that control your timeline
The specific data you need before you can act
The CAPE portal went live on April 20, 2026, and roughly $20 billion in International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariff refunds had moved by late May. The Supreme Court ruled in February that these duties were unauthorized, and CBP is now executing the refund process.
Legal availability and practical eligibility are two different things. Whether you recover anything, and how fast, depends on which category your import entries fall into, not the ruling itself.
Most coverage of IEEPA tariff refunds has landed in two places: legal alerts written for trade attorneys, and accounting memos written for CFOs. Neither answers the question a supplier ops lead or controller actually asks first: which bucket am I in, and what do I need to find out?
This article helps to answer that question, rather than focusing on filing and booking. Your customs broker handles the filing, your accountant handles the booking, and your job right now is to figure out where you stand.
3 Buckets Determine Your Recovery Path
Every import entry on which IEEPA Chapter 99 Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) duties were paid falls into one of 3 categories. The bucket each entry lands in determines the process, timeline, and action required on your part.
Bucket 1: CAPE Phase 1
Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) Phase 1, launched April 20, 2026, covers two types of entries:
Unliquidated entries where CBP hasn't yet finalized the duty calculation
Entries liquidated within the preceding 80 days, which fall within CBP's 90-day voluntary reliquidation window under 19 U.S.C. § 1501.
Holland & Knight estimates Phase 1 covers roughly 63% of all affected entries.
The filing mechanism is an ACE Secure Data Portal account. The importer of record (IOR) or their licensed customs broker submits a CAPE Declaration as a CSV file listing applicable entry numbers. CBP removes the IEEPA tariff lines, recalculates duties, and issues a consolidated Automated Clearing House (ACH) payment. CBP estimates that unliquidated entries will liquidate 45 days after CAPE Declaration acceptance, with refund payments generally expected 60 to 90 days post-acceptance.
Bucket 2: CBP Form 19 Protest
For entries liquidated between 80 and 180 days ago, Phase 1 is unavailable, but the 180-day statutory protest window under 19 U.S.C. § 1514 is still open. The correct action for entries in this bucket is to file a formal protest using CBP Form 19 with your customs broker or trade counsel. This filing preserves your legal right to a refund while CAPE Phase 2 develops. As Wiss notes, the 180-day deadline is non-waivable and runs from the liquidation date, not the entry date or payment date.
The DOJ's June 2026 appeal targets the court order requiring universal refunds for entries outside the Phase 1 window. Per trade counsel across several advisories, Phase 1 refunds are unaffected, but the appeal adds genuine uncertainty to Phase 2 timelines and to the path for finally liquidated entries. That uncertainty is an argument for filing protective protests sooner rather than waiting to see what Phase 2 will look like.
Bucket 3: Outside the Recovery Window
Entries that liquidated more than 180 days ago and for which no protest was filed are outside both current CAPE phases and the protest window. CBP has not detailed what, if any, recovery mechanism will exist for these entries in a future phase. Trade counsel review is appropriate for high-value entries in this category.
The table below maps the most likely path for each importer profile and the necessary data to gather now.
Importer profile | Likely path | Data to gather now |
Entries not yet finalized by CBP | CAPE Phase 1 | Entry numbers with IEEPA Chapter 99 HTS codes; ACE account with ACH enrollment; IOR confirmation |
Entries finalized within the past 80 days | CAPE Phase 1 | Same as above, plus liquidation dates to verify Phase 1 eligibility |
Entries finalized 80–180 days ago | CBP Form 19 protest (protective) | Liquidation dates; entry numbers; customs broker engagement; IOR confirmation |
Entries finalized more than 180 days ago | Unclear; counsel review | Document for potential future phases; escalate to trade counsel |
Private label / third-party IOR situations | Depends on which entity holds IOR status | CBP Form 7501 to confirm IOR identity; power of attorney (POA) with broker if applicable |
Related Reading: Understanding Port Charges in Today's Global Supply Chain
What the 63/37 Split Actually Means
Phase 1 is projected to cover 63% of affected entries. The remaining 37% sit in categories with no defined process yet:
Entries with antidumping or countervailing duty complications
Reconciliation entries
Warehouse entries with unusual status
Entries that liquidated more than 80 days before any CAPE Declaration was filed.
The dollar share covered in Phase 1 may run higher than 63%, since larger-volume imports with higher duty values tend to have more recently liquidated entries. That doesn't help a supplier with a significant portion of their entries in the deferred bucket, though. Filing a Phase 1 CAPE Declaration is not the end of this process for most importers.
For the 37% with no current path, the situation depends on what CBP builds next, and Phase 2 has no committed launch date. CBP has said it will add functionality in subsequent phases to handle more complex scenarios, but the DOJ appeal adds real uncertainty to when and how Phase 2 will be scoped. Importers waiting passively for Phase 2 without having filed protective protests on their 80-to-180-day entries are taking on risk they may not have priced.
The Deadlines Are Structural
There are 2 hard deadlines in this process, and both run from specific dates in CBP's records.
The 80-day CAPE window runs continuously. Phase 1 accepts entries liquidated within the 80 days preceding the CAPE Declaration submission date. An entry liquidated on May 1, 2026, had a Phase 1 window that closed approximately July 20, 2026. Suppliers who haven't yet filed and whose entries are actively liquidating may be approaching or crossing this threshold for specific portions of their inventory right now.
The 180-day protest deadline under 19 U.S.C. § 1514 runs from the liquidation date for each entry individually. Entries that liquidated in early 2026 are reaching this deadline in mid-to-late 2026. The US Chamber of Commerce advises importers to confirm the exact liquidation date for each entry from ACE or their customs broker's records, since no other date governs this window.
One more operational prerequisite that is separate from both deadlines: as of early April 2026, approximately 6% of eligible importers had completed ACH enrollment, according to pre-launch Wiss reporting. CBP data cited in FreightWaves coverage of the CAPE launch put roughly $46 billion in refunds stalled for importers who hadn't completed ACH authorization. A filed and accepted CAPE Declaration doesn't move money until ACH enrollment is complete. Get that done before anything else.
What Data You Need Before Your Broker Can File
Before your customs broker can submit a CAPE Declaration, and before you can accurately determine which bucket most of your entries fall into, you need to assemble a specific set of records. This is the work your operations team can own.
Entry numbers for all imports from February 2025 through February 2026 where IEEPA Chapter 99 HTS codes were declared on the CBP entry summary
Liquidation status and liquidation date for each entry, available through your ACE Secure Data Portal account or from your customs broker
Confirmation that IEEPA duties were actually paid on each entry, verified against the entry summary, not inferred from invoices
Verification that your organization is the importer of record on each entry. If you import under private label arrangements or through third-party sourcing agents, the IOR on CBP Form 7501 may belong to a different legal entity
ACE Portal access and ACH enrollment status confirmed
FreightWaves reporting on early CAPE filings found that rejection issues were often traceable not to the portal itself but to entry data that hadn't been verified before submission. CBP's validation checks whether each entry number exists in ACE, whether at least one dutiable IEEPA Chapter 99 HTS code appears on the entry, and whether the entry number appears in a prior declaration. Rejection messages aren't specific enough to self-diagnose, which makes getting the data right before filing worth considerably more than filing fast.
Organizations that tracked tariff-period transactions within a connected electronic data interchange (EDI) environment, with advance ship notice (ASN) and invoice records reconciled at the SKU and entry level, are in a better position to build this list accurately. Organizations that absorbed tariff surcharges as manual adjustments outside their core transaction data will spend more time assembling it.
Related Reading: IEEPA Tariff Refunds and the Data Requirements Behind Them
Where the Hard Questions Go
As Supply Chain Dive reports, attention in finance teams has shifted from "can we file?" to harder questions: how to book an anticipated refund before it's received, how to handle tax treatment of a duty refund spanning multiple fiscal years, and how to reconcile refunds against prior pass-through cost adjustments to retail buyers.
Ford Motor Co. and General Motors both disclosed IEEPA refund expectations in Q1 2026 earnings calls under different accounting approaches. Accounting treatment is genuinely unsettled across advisors, which is why the Supply Chain Dive piece specifically routes those questions to accountants rather than treating them as operational.
The filing process belongs with your customs broker, accounting treatment with your accountant, and any judgment calls on protective protests with trade counsel.
The piece that belongs with your operations team is data readiness: getting your entry list accurate, confirming liquidation status, verifying ACH enrollment, and clarifying IOR identity for any entries with sourcing complexity. That preparation determines how fast you can move when Phase 2 opens, and whether your broker runs into rejections or a clean file.
Related Reading: Staying Agile in the Face of Tariffs
Align Your Data Before the Window Closes
The operational question has shifted from whether tariff refunds are available to whether your organization's data infrastructure can support an accurate filing within the Phase 1 window.
Organizations with complete, connected EDI records are in the strongest position to file with confidence and recover faster. That means POs, ASNs, and invoices reconciled at the entry level and maintained through a retail supplier network.
There's a lot to work through here, and it doesn't all fall on one team.
SPS Commerce Fulfillment connects suppliers, retailers, and logistics providers through a single, integrated network, making it easier to surface the B2B transaction history your broker needs for an accurate CAPE Declaration. Whether your team is reconciling entry data for CAPE filing or preparing for the margin conversations that follow, the SPS Commerce network helps support the work behind the scenes.
NOTE: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or customs advice. Consult a licensed customs broker or qualified trade counsel for guidance specific to your entries.