How do I use CBP’s CAPE Portal to recover overpaid tariffs?
Prepare, Validate & Organize Every CAPE Refund Filing Steps | Complete Excel, CSV, Word & PDF System for CBP Tariff Refund Recovery
Tariff Refund Recovery with CBP’s CAPE Portal Phase 1 and Phase 2 Both Live
CBP is refunding IEEPA tariff duties from a pool of more than $166 billion through its new CAPE portal, with $100 billion already paid out. CAPE accepts your entry numbers but does not identify which entries qualify, calculate your refund, or track recovery. Tariff Refund Suite™ is the preparation system that does. Built for Trump-era tariff refund recovery in 2026.
Not sure yet? Try the live Command Center walkthrough before you buy →
What is CBP’s CAPE portal?
CAPE stands for Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries, CBP’s official refund portal for IEEPA duties inside the ACE Secure Data Portal. It accepts a CSV of entry numbers and pays approved refunds by ACH within 60 to 90 days. CBP has paid out more than $100 billion across 17.6 million-plus entries.
CAPE processes the refund. It does not tell you which of your entries qualify, what you’re owed, or whether an entry belongs in Phase 1 or Phase 2 — that preparation work is what Tariff Refund Suite™ does before you ever touch the portal.
CBP CAPE Refund Status as of the August 5, 2026 Court Filing
How We Got Here — 2026 Tariff Refund Timeline
The current refund opportunity is the result of a rapid sequence of government actions since February. Here is the sequence every importer needs to understand.
Am I eligible for an IEEPA refund?
You likely qualify if you imported goods between April 2, 2025 and February 2026 and your entries carried an IEEPA-based tariff surcharge. The Supreme Court ruled February 20, 2026 that IEEPA does not authorize tariffs. Roughly 330,000 importers are eligible to recover duties from an approximately $166 billion pool of collected IEEPA duties.
Eligibility is entry-by-entry, not company-wide — one import history can contain a mix of IEEPA-dutied and non-IEEPA-dutied entries. The Suite’s eligibility screener flags each one individually against IEEPA Chapter 99 HTSUS codes.
CAPE Is the Mailbox. Tariff Refund Suite Is the Letter, Envelope, Stamp, and Tracking Number.
CAPE is free, official, and effective at one job: processing a CSV of entry numbers and issuing the refund. It does not do the preparation work. That is where importers leave money on the table.
What CAPE Does
- Accepts a CSV of entry numbers in the ACE Portal
- Validates entry numbers against your filer code
- Removes IEEPA duties from accepted entries
- Pays the refund electronically by ACH within 60-90 days
- Calculates statutory interest on approved refunds
- Issues consolidated payment confirmations
What CAPE Does NOT Do
- Identify which of your entries are IEEPA-eligible
- Screen entries for Phase 1 versus Phase 2 eligibility
- Calculate your expected refund amount in advance
- Tell you which entries to file vs. hold vs. route elsewhere
- Track recovery status across multiple submissions
- Prepare Form 19 protests for entries CAPE will not cover
- Reconcile actual ACH disbursements against forecasts
- Hand off CAPE-ready data to your broker or finance team
Why do I need a tool if CAPE is free?
CAPE is a submission portal, not a preparation tool. It does not identify which entries are IEEPA-eligible, calculate your refund, or screen Phase 1 versus Phase 2 eligibility. Tariff Refund Suite™ is the preparation layer — without it, importers submit entries that get rejected, miss eligible entries, and cannot track which refunds actually paid out.
What data do I need before I can start a tariff refund claim?
Five fields per entry, all of which you already hold: CBP entry number, entry date, HTS code as filed, country of origin, and duty paid. Every one appears on your CBP Form 7501, your ACE Entry Summary report, or your broker’s statement. Paste those columns into the Data Input tab and the workbook does the rest.
You do not research or estimate anything. For a refund filing the HTS code is evidence, not a guess CBP matches your protest against the code as filed. Once the code and country are in, the workbook fills current rate, estimated duty at today’s rates, region, applicable authority, and the routing decision automatically.
A Look at the Core Working Tabs
Real screenshots from the live Tariff Refund Suite™ workbook every tab connected, color-coded, and filter-ready. Data enters once on the Data Input tab and flows across the suite automatically. CAPE Phase 1 and Phase 2 are both live.
How Tariff Refund Suite™ Prepares Your CAPE Submission
The Suite’s CAPE Submission Prep tab walks you through every step from import history to refund tracking. Plug in your data once — the workbook does the rest.
What are the prerequisites for filing through CAPE?
You need an active ACE Secure Data Portal account as Importer of Record, or through an authorized broker, plus ACH refund enrollment inside ACE since CAPE pays electronically only. Entry numbers must be exactly 11 alphanumeric characters, with the first 3 matching your ACE filer code. The Suite’s CAPE Submission Prep tab checks every prerequisite before you file.
Pre-Filing Checklist
Confirm your ACE Portal account is active. Enroll in ACH refunds (CAPE pays electronically only). Verify your filer code. Confirm entry numbers are 11 alphanumeric characters. The Suite walks through every prerequisite with status flags.
Collect Your IEEPA Entries
Import your entry history into the Data Input tab. The Suite cross-references against IEEPA Chapter 99 HTSUS codes and flags every entry that included an IEEPA surcharge.
Screen for CAPE Phase 1 Eligibility
The Eligibility Checklist flags each entry as CAPE Phase 1 eligible (unliquidated or within ~80 days of liquidation), Phase 2 eligible (now live), or routes to a different pathway (Protest, PSC, Drawback).
Build the CAPE CSV
Auto-extract your Phase-1-eligible entry numbers into the CAPE Submission Prep tab. Validates filer-code prefix and 11-character format. Export-ready for direct upload to ACE.
Submit Through ACE
Log into your ACE Portal, open the CAPE tab, upload the CSV. Review accepted vs. rejected entries. The Suite gives you the validation-error fix protocol for any rejections.
Track Every Refund to Completion
The Filing Status Dashboard tracks each refund by entry number, submission date, expected disbursement window, and actual ACH amount received. Reconcile against forecast. Flag any variance to your broker within one business day.
CAPE Phase 2: What It Covers
Phase 1 captures roughly two-thirds of IEEPA-dutied entries. The other third was waiting for Phase 2 — now open. If your entries fall into any of these categories, you are exactly the customer Phase 2 was designed for.
When does CAPE Phase 2 open and what does it cover?
CAPE Phase 2 has been live since June 29, 2026. It covers what Phase 1 left out: entries liquidated more than about 80 days ago, foreign-trade-zone entries including Type 06 withdrawals, drawback-linked entries, and entries flagged for reconciliation. The v2.5 release covering Phase 2 shipped the same week the portal opened, already included in your download.
Phase 2 Eligible
- Entries liquidated more than ~80 days ago
- Foreign-trade-zone (FTZ) entries including Type 06 withdrawals
- Entries linked to a drawback claim
- Entries flagged for reconciliation
- Entries that were rejected by Phase 1 validation
Now That Phase 2 Is Live
- The v2.5 Phase 2 release shipped the week the portal opened
- Already included in your $197 — like every update
- No upgrade fee, no new SKU, no second purchase
- Phase 2 walkthrough delivered automatically
- Your Phase 2 entries can be prepared and submitted NOW
What is happening with the Section 122 tariff?
The 10% Section 122 global tariff, effective February 24, 2026, expired July 24, 2026 at its 150-day statutory cap. No new Section 122 duties are collected, but refund windows stay open: Post-Summary Corrections before liquidation, and protests for 180 days after each entry liquidates.
The Court of International Trade ruled Section 122 unlawful on May 7, 2026; that ruling is on appeal at the Federal Circuit, and CBP collected throughout under a stay. If the appeal upholds the CIT’s ruling, every dollar paid February 24 to July 24, 2026 may become the next CAPE-style refund opportunity. Importers with organized records will be first in line. Tariff Refund Suite™ includes a Section 122 Tracker built for exactly this. Track this and every other regulatory development in the Tariff Intelligence Briefing.
The Suite Routes Every Entry to the Correct Pathway
Not every refund flows through CAPE. The Filing Path Decision Model routes entries Phase 1 and Phase 2 do not cover into one of three alternative channels — automatically.
What if my entry is not eligible for CAPE Phase 1?
Tariff Refund Suite™ routes it automatically. Unliquidated entries not filed through CAPE get a Post-Summary Correction. Liquidated entries within 180 days get a CBP Form 19 Protest. Entries qualifying for drawback (re-exported or destroyed goods) get a Duty Drawback claim. FTZ, reconciliation-flagged, or beyond-80-day entries hold for CAPE Phase 2, live since June 29, 2026.
CAPE Portal (IEEPA Phase 1 + Phase 2)
CBP’s official IEEPA refund portal in the ACE Secure Data Portal. Phase 1 covers unliquidated entries and entries within ~80 days of liquidation. Phase 2 (now live) covers FTZ, drawback, reconciliation, and post-80-day entries.
Primary IEEPA PathCBP Protest (Form 19)
File within 180 days of liquidation to challenge duty rates, classification, or valuation. Covers Section 301 exclusion refunds, Section 232 rate disputes, and post-SCOTUS IEEPA overpayments outside CAPE.
180-Day Hard DeadlineDuty Drawback
Recover up to 99% of duties paid on imported goods subsequently exported or destroyed. Manufacturing, unused merchandise, and rejected merchandise drawback programs.
Up to 99% RecoveryPost-Summary Correction (PSC)
Corrects an unliquidated entry before it liquidates — must be filed no later than 15 days prior to the scheduled liquidation date. Recovers overpaid duty without a protest.
Before LiquidationBuy Once. Update Forever.
The tariff landscape is moving weekly. The Suite moves with it. Every customer receives every future update automatically – no upgrade fees, no new SKU, no subscription. Customers who bought in February have already received five major updates at no extra cost: the parallel-path repositioning (Feb), the seven-phase workflow rebuild (Mar), the v2.4 CAPE alignment release (Apr), the full v2.4 documentation propagation (May), and the v2.4.1 Phase 2 awareness update (May 23). The v2.5 Phase 2 release shipped June 29 when the CAPE Phase 2 portal opened — already in your download, like every update before it.
DIY vs. Tariff Refund Suite™ vs. Customs Broker
The honest comparison. CAPE itself is free, but the preparation work has to happen somewhere. Here is what each path actually costs and delivers.
| Filing Alone (CAPE Only) | Tariff Refund Suite™ | Customs Broker | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up-front cost | Free (CAPE itself) | $197 one-time | $5,000-$15,000 per refund cycle |
| Identifies IEEPA-eligible entries | No — you find them | Yes — auto-screened | Yes — billable hours |
| Phase 1 / Phase 2 eligibility flagging | No | Yes — Column S auto-flag | Yes |
| CAPE CSV preparation and validation | Manual | Auto-extract + validate | Yes |
| CBP Form 19 Protest templates for entries CAPE will not cover | Build from scratch | 30+ included | Yes |
| Filing Status Dashboard + ACH reconciliation | No | Built in | Broker portal (limited) |
| Time to first filing | 4-8 weeks learning curve | 60 minutes | 6-12 weeks (broker queue) |
| Section 122 tracker for the next refund wave | No | Yes | Extra engagement |
| Future updates included (Phase 2, Phase 3, Section 122 ruling) | N/A | Free, forever | New engagement fee each cycle |
| You own the workflow and audit trail | Yes | Yes — workbook is yours | Lives at the broker |
Executive Interactive Command Center™: a single self-contained HTML file that turns entries from your Section 301, 232, 122, and Other Remedy trackers into a live recovery dashboard, with a one-click Presentation Mode for a five-slide, board-ready deck. No server, no subscription, nothing leaves your machine. See how it works → Or try the live interactive walkthrough →
Document Drafting, Not Templates
The Command Center’s Generate Document button drafts the filing itself. Select an entry, click once, and it produces the official document for CBP submission — and now also builds the CAPE CSV upload to CBP’s official parameters (11-character entry numbers, filer-code prefix validated) in the same pass. Drafting protest letters entry by entry is exactly the kind of repeatable task that should be automation, not an afternoon.
What Generate Document Drafts for You
- Official document for CBP submission, plus the CAPE CSV upload built to official parameters
- CBP protest letters, drafted per entry
- Form 19 with the correct legal section already selected
- Broker coordination emails
- Post-Summary Corrections
- Internal memos for audit documentation
How Every Document Arrives
- Pre-filled with your company information from the Company Profile
- Correct legal section applied automatically: Section 301 language for 301 entries, 232 for 232, the dedicated Section 122 letter for 122 entries
- Drafted from each entry’s own data — entry number, dates, duty amounts, and authority pulled from your tracker row
- This is real document generation, not a template pack you fill in by hand
Five Pages, One System. Here Is What Each One Answers.
Every page below covers TRS-197 from a different angle. Nothing is repeated — each answers the questions the others deliberately leave alone.
You are here: CAPE Refund Recovery — what CAPE is, Phase 1 versus Phase 2, prerequisites, and the 2026 timeline.
Want to see the Command Center working before you buy? Try the live walkthrough.
Tariff Refund Suite — TRS 197 | Tariff Refund Suite™
CAPE-Ready Preparation System for IEEPA Refunds
- ✓ CAPE Submission Prep tab (Phase 1 ready, Phase 2 live now)
- ✓ IEEPA Eligibility Screener with Phase 1/Phase 2 auto-flag
- ✓ CAPE-ready CSV export (validates filer code and 11-char format)
- ✓ Filing Status Dashboard with ACH reconciliation
- ✓ CBP Form 19 Protest templates for entries CAPE will not cover
- ✓ Duty Drawback Estimator (up to 99% recovery)
- ✓ Section 122 Tracker for the next refund wave
- ✓ Section 301 + 232 exclusion tracker
- ✓ Works in Excel, Google Sheets, and LibreOffice
Immediate download. No subscription. No API keys required. Every future update included.
Frequently Asked Questions
CAPE stands for Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries. It is CBP’s official refund portal for IEEPA duties, launched April 20, 2026 inside the ACE Secure Data Portal. CAPE accepts a CSV file of entry numbers and processes the refund electronically by ACH within 60 to 90 days, with statutory interest. CBP’s August 5, 2026 court filing shows more than $100 billion already paid out across 17.6 million-plus entries.
CAPE Phase 2 has been live since June 29, 2026. Phase 2 covers entries Phase 1 left out: entries liquidated more than about 80 days ago, foreign-trade-zone (FTZ) entries including Type 06 withdrawals, drawback-linked entries, and entries flagged for reconciliation.
CAPE is a submission portal. It accepts a list of entry numbers and processes the refund. It does not identify which of your entries are IEEPA-eligible, calculate your expected refund, screen entries for Phase 1 versus Phase 2 eligibility, or track recovery. Tariff Refund Suite™ is the preparation and management layer that makes CAPE submissions accurate and complete. Without preparation, importers submit entries that get rejected, miss eligible entries entirely, and have no way to track which refunds have actually paid out.
If you imported goods between April 2, 2025 and February 2026 and your entries included an IEEPA-based tariff surcharge (the emergency reciprocal overlay on top of normal duties), you are likely eligible. The Supreme Court ruled on February 20, 2026 that IEEPA does not authorize the imposition of tariffs. Roughly 330,000 importers are eligible to recover duties from a pool of approximately $166 billion in collected IEEPA duties.
Tariff Refund Suite™ routes those entries automatically. If the entry is unliquidated and not filed through CAPE, the Suite prepares a Post-Summary Correction (PSC). If the entry has liquidated and is within 180 days, it prepares a CBP Form 19 Protest. If the entry qualifies for drawback (re-exported or destroyed), it prepares a Duty Drawback claim. If it is FTZ, reconciliation-flagged, or beyond the 80-day window, it holds for CAPE Phase 2, live since June 29, 2026.
You need an active ACE Secure Data Portal account as the Importer of Record or through an authorized customs broker. You must enroll in ACH refunds inside ACE — CAPE refunds are paid electronically only. Entry numbers must be exactly 11 alphanumeric characters and the first 3 must match your filer code in ACE. The Suite’s CAPE Submission Prep tab walks through every prerequisite as a pre-filing checklist.
The 10% Section 122 tariff (effective February 24, 2026 under the Trade Act of 1974, after the Supreme Court struck down IEEPA tariffs) expired July 24, 2026 at its 150-day statutory cap. Expiration does not cut off refunds: Post-Summary Corrections remain available before liquidation and protests for 180 days after each entry liquidates. The Court of International Trade ruled Section 122 unlawful on May 7, 2026; that ruling is on appeal, and duties collected under the stay may become refundable if it stands. Tariff Refund Suite™ includes a Section 122 Tracker so every February 24 to July 24, 2026 entry is documented and ready.
Yes. Tariff Refund Suite™ is a one-time $197 purchase that includes every future update automatically. No subscription, no upgrade fees. Customers who bought in February have received five major updates at no extra cost as the regulatory landscape moved. The v2.5 Phase 2 release shipped June 29, 2026 when the CAPE Phase 2 portal opened — already in your download, like every update.
Tariff Refund Suite™ Is the Recovery Layer. Here Is the Full Ecosystem.
The Tariff Refund Suite handles recovery. The rest of the ecosystem handles identification, modeling, strategy, and governance.
Tariff Auto-Fill Tool
3,327 verified HTS rate lines with auto-fill VLOOKUP, Section 301/232/122 overlays, and 50-country trade program reference. Feeds clean tariff data into every other tool.
Tariff Impact Automation Suite
Dynamic dashboards, supplier risk alerts, automated scenario snapshots. See your full tariff exposure once you have recovered the dollars.
Tariff Defense Masterplan
Full Tariff Operating System with ERP integration (SAP / Oracle / NetSuite / D365). Replaces $50K-$150K Big 4 consulting.
CAPE Refunds Are Paying Out Right Now. Phase 2 Is Live.
Tariff Refund Suite™ now includes the v2.5 Phase 2 release — live since June 29. The 180-day Protest window is closing on older entries and Section 122 expired July 24 — its refund clocks are now running. One time, $197, every future update included.
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Tariff Auto-Fill Tool™ $97 Auto-populate HS codes, duty rates, and landed-cost estimates across your product catalog, including Section 301 and 232 overlays. View Checkout → 
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Fast Track Executive Briefing Kit™ $19 Executive-ready templates, calculator, and slide deck to communicate tariff impact to leadership fast. View Checkout → 
Tariff Refund Suite™ $197 Templates, trackers, and step-by-step guides to file CBP protests and claim tariff refunds and duty drawback. View Checkout → 
Tariff Impact Automation Suite™ $199 Excel dashboards, supplier-risk alerts, and scenario planners for tariff cost tracking and sourcing decisions. View Checkout → 
Tariff Scenario Strategy Kit™ $449 Premium scenario modeling with scoring, automation, and an integrated duty-drawback calculator. View Checkout → 
Strategic Command Suite™ $849 Scenario planning, boardroom briefing, and supply-chain tools for advanced tariff strategy and communication. View Checkout → 
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