Paid Tariffs That No Longer Exist? Where Small Importers Stand in October 2026

Some of the duties buried in your cost of goods sold were collected under tariff programs that no longer legally exist — and the refund window for the oldest entries just opened this week. At the same time, the replacement duties that took over in July are already being challenged in court, while a separate set of metal tariffs keeps expanding into new product categories. If you import anything, October 2026 is the month your tariff picture changed in three directions at once.

This post is a status check, not a trade-policy briefing: what you can get back right now, what you are paying instead, what is coming next, and how to keep your books coherent through all three.

What Got Struck Down​

Two broad tariff programs that touched nearly every importer are gone. Understanding which one you paid under determines how — and whether — you get your money back.

The IEEPA tariffs: invalidated in February 2026​

For roughly a year starting in early 2025, tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) were collected on imports from virtually every country. In February 2026, the Supreme Court held that IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs, terminating the program.

That ruling created a legal right to refunds — but it refunded nobody automatically. Every unliquidated entry subject to IEEPA duties must be liquidated without regard to those duties, and liquidated entries whose liquidation is not yet final must be reliquidated. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been building the technical refund functionality in phases ever since, and the phase covering the oldest entries launched on October 6.

The Section 122 bridge surcharge: struck down, then expired​

When IEEPA collection stopped, a replacement started the same day: a 10% across-the-board import surcharge imposed under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, a balance-of-payments authority. On May 7, 2026, the Court of International Trade held that proclamation unlawful, finding it identified trade and current-account deficits but never identified the balance-of-payments deficits Section 122 requires. The court entered permanent injunctive relief for the importer plaintiffs.

The Section 122 surcharge then expired on its own terms on July 24, 2026. So the 10% line item that appeared on your entry summaries from late February through late July came from a program that is both court-rejected and expired — while a different 10% duty took its place the same day it lapsed. More on that below.

Neither ruling touched Section 232 or Section 301 tariffs, which rest on separate statutory authority and remain fully in effect.

IEEPA Refunds: The October 6 Phase 3 Opening​

CBP processes IEEPA refunds through the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) system inside the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). On September 15, CBP confirmed that Phase 3 — the phase covering finally liquidated entries — would deploy on October 6, 2026. That is the phase small importers with older entries have been waiting for.

Who can file right now​

Phase 3 is narrow. It covers entries liquidated for more than 80 days (finally liquidated entries), and only importers of record who meet all of these conditions can participate:

• You are a plaintiff with a case pending before the Court of International Trade seeking IEEPA tariff refunds, with a court-ordered reliquidation order in hand.
• You submitted your importer of record number to CBP by July 30, 2026.

There is no universal, blanket refund for all historical IEEPA entries under the current framework. CBP has said it will provide additional filing instructions for plaintiffs who submitted their importer number after July 30, so a late submission is a delay, not necessarily a denial. If your entries are unliquidated or recently liquidated, they are handled through the standard liquidation and reliquidation process rather than Phase 3 — coordinate with your broker to confirm which bucket each of your entries falls into.

How the CAPE process works​

For eligible importers, the mechanics run as follows:

1. The importer of record or its broker submits a list of affected entries — a CAPE declaration, typically uploaded as a CSV — through the CAPE tab in ACE.
2. CAPE validates the entries, strips out the IEEPA-related provisions, recalculates the duties owed, and determines the refund amount.
3. The entries are liquidated or reliquidated reflecting the removal of IEEPA duties.
4. Overpaid duties are refunded via ACH to the importer of record or a designated payee.

Early uptake has been brisk: as of October 6, CBP had accepted 477 CAPE declarations covering more than 425,000 entries, a capability expected to handle roughly $11.4 billion in refunds.

If you are not a plaintiff​

Most small importers never filed a CIT case, which means Phase 3 does not currently cover your finally liquidated entries. That is not the end of the road, but it does mean you need a plan rather than a portal login:

• Talk to your customs broker now, not at year-end. Ask which of your entries are unliquidated, recently liquidated, or finally liquidated, and what remedy path each group has.
• Ask a qualified customs attorney about protective options, including protests and whether joining pending litigation makes sense for your dollar amounts. Legal fees can eclipse small refunds, so get the math before you commit.
• Preserve your entry records. Every remedy path — CAPE, protest, or litigation — requires you to prove entry by entry what you paid and when it liquidated. If your broker holds your records, get copies under your own control.
• Monitor CBP's comment process. CBP sought public comments on the IEEPA refund framework with a November 4 deadline, which signals the rules may still evolve.

What You Are Paying Instead: Section 301 Forced-Labor Duties​

At 12:01 a.m. Eastern on July 24, 2026 — the exact minute the Section 122 surcharge lapsed — new duties of 10% or 12.5% took effect on goods from 60 economies under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. The action followed findings that those economies failed to effectively prohibit imports made with forced labor.

Three things make this program hard to ignore:

• It covers nearly everything. The 60 economies account for roughly 99.4% of U.S. imports by value, according to the trade representative's office. If you import at all, you are almost certainly paying it.
• It stacks. The duties apply on top of most-favored-nation rates and other applicable tariffs, with limited exclusions for goods like civil aircraft, certain pharmaceutical inputs, and articles already subject to Section 232 duties.
• It is already being litigated. Importers filed suits at the Court of International Trade the day the duties took effect, arguing they are the third version of one continuous global tariff regime. Those cases are pending, so budget as if the duties stand while keeping records as if they might fall.

The practical lesson from the IEEPA experience applies directly: track these duties entry by entry from day one. If any portion is ever refunded, the importers with clean per-entry records will be first in line.

Section 232 Keeps Expanding​

While the broad tariffs rose and fell, the product-specific Section 232 program — steel, aluminum, copper, autos, and their derivatives — only grew. An April 2026 overhaul restructured the metals tariffs around the full customs value of the imported article rather than just its metal content, with a tiered rate structure:

• 50% on primary metal products and closely related derivatives.
• 25% on certain copper articles and select derivatives, and on most derivative products assessed at full value.
• A temporary combined 15% rate through December 31, 2027 for specified metal-intensive industrial and grid equipment, rising to 25% after that.
• A 15% de minimis weight threshold: goods outside the core metals chapters whose metal content is 15% or less by weight escape the additional duty, and no extra duty applies during the temporary period where the most-favored-nation rate already meets or exceeds 15%.

Separate 25% Section 232 duties on autos, trucks, and their parts have applied since April 2025. And the expansion is not finished: an August 2026 Federal Register notice requested public comments on adding 14 more product categories — including electrical cables, fire extinguishers, trailers, cranes, machinery parts, musical instruments, and steel containers. Active Section 232 investigations into critical minerals, timber and lumber, and copper could add still more.

If you import finished goods containing metal, recheck your classifications. The shift from metal-content to full-value assessment means a product that once attracted duty on a fraction of its value may now attract it on the whole customs value — a large swing in landed cost that belongs in your pricing model, not just your broker's invoice.

How to Book It All​

This is where small importers win or lose real money. The tariff story is complicated; your general ledger does not have to be, as long as you follow a few rules.

Book refunds against the original expense, not as new income​

Under GAAP, a tariff refund offsets the same line where you recorded the original cost. If the duty was expensed through cost of goods sold, the refund credit reduces COGS in the period you recognize it — it shows up as a COGS benefit, not as other income. Recording refunds as miscellaneous income overstates both your costs and your other income, distorts your gross margin trend, and can mislead anyone reading your financials, including lenders.

The same principle applies on a cash or tax basis: a refund of a deducted cost generally reduces that cost. Confirm the timing with your CPA, especially where refunds span tax years.

Separate duties from everything else at the border​

Your broker's invoice bundles many things — actual customs duties, freight, brokerage fees, and sometimes supplier price increases passed through as surcharges. Only the duties are refundable or drawback-eligible. If you book the broker's net remittance as one number, you cannot prove what you paid in duties when a refund window opens. Break out the duty line per entry and keep it broken out.

Reconcile every ACH refund to its entries​

When CAPE refunds arrive by ACH, match each deposit to the specific entries it covers before you book it. Unmatched refund deposits become mystery credits that linger on the balance sheet and eventually get written off wrong. A simple per-entry schedule — entry number, duty paid, refund claimed, refund received, outstanding balance — prevents this entirely, and it doubles as the support file your CPA needs at tax time.

Do not overlook duty drawback​

Separate from the court-ordered IEEPA refunds, the regular duty drawback program refunds up to 99% of duties, taxes, and fees on imported merchandise that is later exported, destroyed, or incorporated into exported finished goods — reaching back five years. Section 301 duties, including the new forced-labor duties, are drawback-eligible. If any of your imports eventually leave the country as exports, drawback may recover far more than the refund programs making headlines. It is evidence-intensive, requiring matched import, export, and inventory documentation, so start the paper trail before you need it.

Run a tariff tax-planning pass before year-end​

Before you close 2026, identify every tariff dollar paid in 2025 and 2026, confirm you were the importer of record on the entries you plan to claim (only the importer of record can claim), and map each dollar to one of three buckets: refundable now, potentially refundable pending litigation, or a sunk cost to price into future margins. Your CPA can coordinate the accounting and tax treatment with your broker or customs attorney on classification and protest questions.

Your October 2026 Action Checklist​

1. Classify your entries. With your broker, sort every 2025–2026 entry into unliquidated, recently liquidated, or finally liquidated, and note which tariff program each duty line came from.
2. File in CAPE if you are eligible. Plaintiffs with reliquidation orders and timely importer numbers can submit Phase 3 declarations now; verify your ACH designations first.
3. Get advice if you are not. A short customs-attorney consult on protests and litigation options, weighed against your refund dollars, beats discovering the deadline after it passes.
4. Re-model landed cost per SKU. The July 24 switch from Section 122 to Section 301 changed rates, and the April Section 232 overhaul changed the duty base to full value. Pricing set before either date is stale.
5. Watch the 14-category expansion. If you import anything on the August proposed list — cables, trailers, containers, instruments, machinery parts — comment-period proposals have a habit of becoming final rules.
6. Start or refresh your drawback file. Match imports to exports now; five years of lookback is only useful if the records exist.
7. Book refunds against COGS. When money arrives, credit the original expense line and reconcile each ACH to its entries.

Keep Your Import Books Audit-Ready​

Tariff refunds, drawback claims, and protests all run on the same fuel: entry-level records that tie every duty dollar to its entry, its liquidation status, and its statute. A transparent, version-controlled ledger makes that trail easy to build and trivial to prove — which matters when a refund program asks you to document hundreds of entries on short notice. Beancount.io offers plain-text accounting that gives you complete transparency and control over your financial data. Get started for free and keep every duty dollar traceable from entry summary to tax return.