You Might Be Owed a Tariff Refund.
Here’s What It Takes to Collect.
The refund window is open. Most brands won't collect a dollar.
In February 2026, the Supreme Court ruled that the president cannot use IEEPA to impose tariffs. The tariffs you paid in 2025 may be refundable.
The refund process is unresolved, slow, and legally complex.
New tariff mechanisms are already in motion that could land the same costs through a different door.
The one thing in your control right now: your documentation.
Best Buds CX at your service. Unfortunately, we aren’t trade attorneys, but we can help you prepare for one.
Where Things Stand
On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that IEEPA -- the International Emergency Economic Powers Act -- does not give the president authority to impose tariffs. That ruling invalidated the tariff regime that hit DTC importers hard through 2025.
The Court did not rule on refunds. That question went to the U.S. Court of International Trade, where it is still being worked out. There is no refund check in the mail. There is a legal process that is moving slowly through a system not built for speed.
Meanwhile, the administration launched new Section 301 investigations in March 2026 targeting over a dozen countries. Section 301 is a different legal tool, and it survived the SCOTUS ruling. If those investigations result in new tariffs, some of what was refunded could come back through a different mechanism.
This is not a clean win. It's a murky window with an uncertain timeline and a moving target on the other side. What it could be is a real opportunity. But that’s if you have the documentation to support a claim.
Get Your Paperwork In Order
Here's the gap I see in almost every founder-led brand: they know they paid tariffs, but they can't prove exactly what they paid, when, on which shipment, and under which classification.
That proof lives in your Entry Summaries.
An Entry Summary is the official customs record for each shipment. It ties your import entry to a specific purchase order, itemizes the duty assessment, and gives you the exact breakdown of what was paid, to which classification, on which date. It is the document that makes a refund claim possible.
Most brands don't have these on file. Not because they weren't issued, they were, but because nobody told the founder to ask for them. Your freight forwarder has them. They do not automatically send them. More often than not, you have to request them proactively, and you should do it now before they get harder to track down.
Pull everything related to each shipment: Entry Summary, PO, commercial invoice, bill of lading, any other documentation your vendor and freight forwarder issued. Come to that first attorney conversation with the full file, not a summary. The more complete your records, the faster and cleaner that evaluation goes.
BEST PRACTICE: Going forward, requesting Entry Summaries should be a standard step in your import SOP. Every shipment. Filed with the PO and related shipping docs. Just make a habit of keeping it all together, build it into your SOPs.
Quick Check: When did your last shipment clear customs? Do you have the Entry Summary for it?
When to Bring in a Trade Attorney
If your tariff exposure is significant, this is not a DIY situation. The refund process runs through the U.S. Court of International Trade. You need someone who does this for a living.
Before you search, ask your network. Someone in your founder community has already found the right person. A trade attorney who has worked with DTC brands at your scale already understands the Shopify import context, the 3PL relationships, the dropship structures. That referral comes pre-vetted and at rates that make sense for your situation.
What to Watch for the Rest of 2026
The IEEPA tariff suspension with China runs through November 10, 2026. The Section 301 investigations have public hearings running through May. A Trump-Xi meeting is expected in mid-May and could reset the trade relationship in either direction.
There is no clean resolution on the horizon. What there is: a period of relative known costs on China-sourced goods through November, and a set of active legal processes that will shape what comes after.
The brands that will be best positioned for a refund claim today and for whatever tariff structure lands next are the ones with clean, organized import records. Entry summaries filed with POs. A freight forwarder relationship that actually communicates. A rough handle on their landed costs by shipment.
Start Here This Week
Email your freight forwarder. Request Entry Summaries for every shipment that cleared customs in 2025. Ask them to send the full document, not a summary line in a spreadsheet.
File each one with its corresponding PO and logistics paperwork.
Get a rough number on your total 2025 tariff exposure.
If the number is meaningful, ask your founder network for a trade attorney referral.
The window is open. The documentation is the only part of this you can control today.
At your service…
Best Buds CX is a fractional COO partnering with bold brands built on core values. We implement customer-retaining operations across the business that empower teams to operate at their highest potential so you can reclaim your time, energy, and ambition. Learn more.
