Supreme Court ruling could force U.S. to refund $165B in Trump-era tariffs

The United States government could be on the hook for $165 billion in refunds if the Supreme Court rules that Trump’s tariffs were imposed ￰0￱ tariffs, which collected massive sums from importers this fiscal year, could be returned to companies across the ￰1￱ the process would not be ￰2￱ are mostly paid with paper checks, and experts warn that even with the government’s resources, a fast refund system is ￰3￱ refund crisis would add more chaos to a trade policy that already created confusion for businesses and financial markets since Trump began his tariff ￰4￱ has repeatedly claimed that the tariffs made the United States “very rich again” and signaled that the money was being eyed for policy ￰5￱ and his allies have discussed using the tariff funds to cut the national debt, help farmers, or even send rebate checks to ￰6￱ losing the court fight means he may be forced to give the money ￰7￱ administration is expected to quickly impose new levies under different legal powers if the current tariffs are struck ￰8￱ Supreme Court will hear the case in ￰9￱ with tens of billions collected from tariffs, the fiscal deficit by August had already reached $1.97 trillion, the third-largest for that period on record, behind only the pandemic ￰10￱ face refund chaos The uncertainty around refunds has left many importers doubting they will see any money at all.

“I have zero faith we’d ever get ￰11￱ zero,” said Harley Sitner, who runs Peace Vans, a camper van repair shop in ￰12￱ said the unpredictability of Trump’s trade war is worse than paying the duties ￰13￱ received surprise tariff bills from $221 to $17,000, sometimes months after receiving ￰14￱ one shipment from Germany worth $2,324 came with a $1,164 tariff, Sitner stopped bringing in overseas inventory ￰15￱ customs brokers say Wall Street firms are circling to buy claims on refunds, letting importers recover at least part of what they might be ￰16￱ of the jump in customs duties, up $95 billion from the year before, comes from Trump’s tariffs on imports from dozens of countries that started in August, according to ￰17￱ lower courts have already ruled that Trump lacked authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose these ￰18￱ the Supreme Court upholds those rulings, about half of all customs duties collected this year could be ￰19￱ continued tariff operations even during the government ￰20￱ and Border Protection normally approves refunds for overpayments or rule changes, and the Treasury Department issues ￰21￱ it is not ￰22￱ or their brokers must follow strict and sometimes unclear timelines and file the right paperwork to preserve their ￰23￱ majority of refunds are still issued as paper ￰24￱ this year the Trump administration ordered Treasury to phase out check payments by September 30, but CBP only rolled out the first step last ￰25￱ urgent changes, the system will not be ready in time for a court ruling.

“It’s possible that we’ll see millions and millions of paper checks being mailed out because each shipment, each customs entry, will have its own,” said Tom Gould, a customs consultant based in ￰26￱ system risks theft and lawsuits Checks will only go to approved domestic banks in ￰27￱ importers will have to rely on international mail or brokers’ accounts in the United ￰28￱ noted that refund checks have already been stolen and sold on the dark web before being ￰29￱ administration could speed refunds by automatically processing claims with existing ￰30￱ has done that before, creating a system for refunds under the Generalized System of Preferences program, which Congress often let lapse before ￰31￱ included codes to show goods qualified for GSP even when the program was ￰32￱ could use the same approach now to identify tariffs paid under IEEPA ￰33￱ the administration could also make it ￰34￱ warn importers might need to file their own lawsuits to get their money ￰35￱ could be forced to file a protest or post-summary correction with proof of every payment and copies of all importer data already held by the government.

EY’s Brown advises importers to save all CBP Automated Commercial Environment data and log every entry date and deadline to boost their ￰36￱ if CBP took the easy route, refunding money through multiple layers of financial transactions could still be ￰37￱ using couriers like FedEx or UPS to handle tariff paperwork and payments would see refunds issued to the importer of record, usually the courier, not the owner of the ￰38￱ creates potential conflicts between importers and parcel handlers, another obstacle to getting money ￰39￱ your free seat in an exclusive crypto trading community - limited to 1,000 members.