A new Detroit News report from May 26, 2026, finds that many small business importers will not see a dollar of the IEEPA tariff refund pool because they are not the entity listed as the importer of record on the original customs entry. The Liberty Justice Center, which led the legal fight against the tariffs, says 330,000 importers paid the now-invalidated duties, covering 53 million entries and roughly $166 billion in collections.
For self-employed owners who import finished goods or raw inputs, the catch is technical but devastating. Only the importer of record, or the customs broker who filed on their behalf, can submit a refund claim through CBP, and that designation often sits with a freight forwarder or out-of-state supplier rather than the business that actually paid the duty.
What The CBP Filing Rules Actually Require
The refund process runs through CBP’s new Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) system inside the ACE Secure Data Portal. Filers upload a CSV listing every entry they want refunded, and the agency targets a 60- to 90-day turnaround for valid claims unless a compliance review is triggered.
To file, the importer of record must already have an ACE Portal account, an updated CBP Form 5106 importer record, and ACH refund enrollment with current bank details. Importers can pull entries that are still unliquidated or that were liquidated within the last 80 days, but anything older has already cleared the protest window and is effectively final.
CBP does not charge a fee for CAPE filings. The cost barrier is paperwork and proof, not money, and that paperwork is exactly where small importers without an in-house customs team tend to lose ground.
Why Self-Employed Importers Are Getting Squeezed
Solo operators who import small lots of inventory rarely act as their own importer of record. They route shipments through a freight forwarder, a third-party logistics provider, or a domestic distributor, and that intermediary’s name is what CBP has on file.
When the importer of record is the forwarder, the refund legally belongs to the forwarder, not the small business that absorbed the duty in its landed cost. Recovering the money then depends on a private agreement with the forwarder, and there is no federal mechanism that forces a pass-through.
The Liberty Justice Center has launched Project TERRA to help small businesses map their entries, identify which refunds they can claim directly, and which ones require chasing a broker. For owners who built tariff pass-throughs into 2025 and 2026 pricing, even a partial recovery can fund a quarter of inventory.
What Self-Employed Importers Should Do Next
Pull every commercial invoice and entry summary from 2025 onward and find the importer of record name on each. If it is the business, the path forward is to open an ACE Portal account, update Form 5106 with a non-broker email, enroll in ACH refunds, and prepare a CAPE-ready CSV of every eligible entry number.
If the importer of record is a forwarder or third party, the next step is a direct conversation with that party about how refunds will flow back to the business that paid the duty. Get the agreement in writing, with a specific timeline, before the 80-day liquidation window closes on older entries. Owners with relevant entries should also check whether their broker has already begun filing under the May 7 ruling, building on coverage in the U.S. Court of International Trade decision that struck the 10 percent Section 122 tariff.
For future shipments, owners can ask their forwarder to list the business as importer of record on the entry summary. That single change shifts every future refund claim and audit response into the owner’s hands.
What To Watch Next
The Trump administration’s appeal of the May 7 CIT ruling is still pending, and a reversal could pause the refund window or reshape who qualifies. Owners with active CAPE filings should track the appellate calendar and keep their entry documentation organized in case CBP pauses payouts.
The Liberty Justice Center has signaled it will publish a state-by-state breakdown of refund eligibility later this year, which will give self-employed importers a clearer view of how much of the $166 billion is actually reachable for businesses of their size.
