Feds admit tariff refund system can't handle the billions Trump owes burned importers

The Trump administration's online portal for processing refunds on tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court will only handle approximately 63 percent of 53 million import entries when it debuts, according to a court filing submitted Tuesday.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials told the U.S. Court of International Trade that the system cannot process refund claims for the remaining one-third of entries immediately, without providing a timeline for subsequent phases, reported Bloomberg. The agency previously committed to having the first phase operational by mid-April.

The Supreme Court declared Trump's tariff executive orders unlawful in February, determining that importers paid more than $166 billion under the contested levies. The government has committed to providing interest payments alongside refunds.

The initial phase will process tariffs that have not yet become "final" — a designation typically occurring more than a year after goods enter the country. However, this limitation has created complications for importers facing "final" tariffs, which automatically reach that status unless companies file costly and time-consuming protests.

Brandon Lord, executive director of the Trade Programs Directorate at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said that including "final" duties would prevent the agency from meeting its original mid-April deadline for the first phase. As of this week, the main claim portal was 85 percent complete, with other system components between 60 percent to 80 percent finished.

U.S. Court of International Trade Judge Richard Eaton, overseeing the tariff refund litigation, initially ordered the government to recalculate tariffs but did not initially include "final" duties. After companies raised concerns about ongoing automatic tariff finalization, he expanded his order to include those tariffs as well.

The administration has registered more than 26,000 importers to receive electronic refunds, representing approximately $120 billion in challenged tariffs. The case, Atmus Filtration Inc. v. United States, has become the lead litigation for tariff refund disputes.