IEEPA tariff refund rights: Key considerations before the Supreme Court ruling

Importers who have paid tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) (the so-called reciprocal and fentanyl tariffs) should consider now what steps may be necessary to try to preserve their right to a refund in the event the US Supreme Court rules the IEEPA tariffs, or a subset of the IEEPA tariffs, are invalid. 

If the Supreme Court does invalidate the tariffs, it is extremely unlikely the Supreme Court decision will immediately result in refunds to the thousands of impacted importers. Instead, the Supreme Court will likely remand the case to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) which, in turn, will likely need to remand the case to the Court of International Trade (CIT), to determine the appropriate remedies.

Although the CAFC and CIT are technically authorized to order retroactive refunds, it is unlikely such refunds will be issued automatically. It is more likely that the courts will either establish a new administrative refund process or rely on existing administrative remedies. It is also possible that the courts could be sympathetic to the argument that will almost certainly be raised by the US government that any retroactive refund of the billions of dollars in tariffs that have been paid would have catastrophic economic consequences and, as such, any relief should be solely prospective. In that scenario, while no future tariffs would need to be paid, there would be no retroactive refund of past tariff payments. 

Given the uncertainty as to whether the courts will establish a new administrative refund process for all impacted importers, importers should consider now whether they need to take certain proactive steps to try to preserve their right to such a refund. The exact steps that should be taken depend, in part, on when the relevant entries will liquidate¹ and how conservative the importer wishes to be in preserving the right to a refund. Once an entry has been liquidated and the liquidation becomes final, it will become significantly more complicated, if not impossible, to obtain a refund of any tariffs paid on that entry.

Unliquidated entries

For entries that remain unliquidated at the time of the Supreme Court decision, importers will likely be able to submit a simple Post-Summary Correction (PSC) adjusting the tariffs owed on the entries. PSC filings must generally be submitted within 300 days of the entry date and no later than 15 days before the scheduled liquidation date, whichever occurs first. PSC submissions outside this window will be automatically rejected. 

Entries nearing liquidation

For entries that are nearing liquidation, importers can request that CBP suspend liquidation of the relevant entries in order to preserve the importer’s ability to pursue refunds in the event the Supreme Court decides the tariffs are invalid. It is important to recognize, however, that liquidation extensions are discretionary, and CBP is not required to grant them. Our understanding is that initial attempts to obtain such extensions in light of the pending Supreme Court decision have been unsuccessful, with CBP rejecting the requests and arguing that preserving the right to tariff refunds is not a valid basis for an extension to liquidation.

Entries for which CBP has denied a request to suspend liquidation

For entries where CBP has denied a request to suspend liquidation, the importer has the option to file suit at the CIT challenging the validity of the tariffs and requesting a refund of all duties paid or allowing the entries to liquidate and then filing a protest challenging the validity of the tariffs.

Filing suit at the CIT prior to liquidation is the most conservative approach and most certain path for an importer to seek to preserve its rights to a refund. However, such suits are an involved and often costly process that could ultimately prove to be unnecessary. As discussed below, however, they may be the only path for an importer to guarantee that its rights to a refund will be preserved.

Liquidated entries

For entries that have liquidated, the only administrative remedy would be to file a protest with CBP within 180 days of the entry’s liquidation challenging the validity of the tariffs and requesting the outcome be stayed pending the resolution of the Supreme Court case. CBP, however, has broad authority to reject protests where the protest is challenging a purely “ministerial” application of tariffs that are required by law to be imposed. It is not currently clear if CBP would invoke the doctrine for tariffs imposed under IEEPA. 

If CBP denies the protest, the importer would then need to file a civil action before the CIT within 180 days of the denial notice. As a general matter, the primary jurisdictional avenue for challenging CBP’s denial of a protest is 28 U.S.C. § 1581(a), under which the CIT has exclusive authority to review adverse protest determinations issued under 19 U.S.C. § 1514(a). However, if CBP invokes the ministerial duty doctrine, then importers may need to rely on the CIT’s residual jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1581(i), which serves as a limited fallback pathway for claims that cannot be brought through the traditional protest mechanism.

For a variety of procedural reasons, parties seeking to challenge a CBP action under 28 U.S.C. § 1581(i) prefer to do so prior to liquidation, and that is what we have seen parties starting to do with regard to the IEEPA tariffs. For example, a wholesale retailer filed such a claim on November 28, 2025 that has widely been covered in the press. It should, however, technically be possible to file a similar 1581(i) claim after liquidation, so long as the claim is brought within the earlier of 180 days of the protest denial notice or two years of the executive order being challenged (such as , for the IEEPA reciprocal tariffs, by April 2, 2027). 

Immediate actions for importers

The most important immediate task for importers impacted by the IEEPA tariffs, is to identify the liquidation date for all impacted entries. If no entries are nearing liquidation, it may be most advantageous for the importer to simply wait and see if the Supreme Court decision is issued prior to liquidation. Many Court observers anticipate that the decision will be issued in the next several months, and prior to next summer when most major decisions would typically be published. 

If, however, entries are nearing liquidation, then the importer should make a strategic decision as to whether it wants to proactively file a suit at the CIT challenging the tariffs and, thereby, most conclusively preserve its rights to a refund, or if it would prefer to submit a protest after liquidation and then potentially need to file a claim with the CIT if that protest is denied.