Trump administration pays out milestone $100 billion in tariff refunds
ABC News reports $100 billion of the $166 billion owed in IEEPA tariff refunds has been paid. What the milestone means for small importers awaiting payment.
The Trump administration paid out $100 billion in tariff refunds through the end of July 2026, according to a court filing reported by ABC News on August 5, 2026. The ABC News report says payments have landed at large companies such as Amazon and at small businesses such as Busy Baby, whose founder said she received a $50,000 refund after months of delays.
Update, October 5, 2026: Refunds have kept moving since the ABC News report. In a September 15 declaration to the Court of International Trade, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said about $122 billion, including interest, had been certified for payment as of September 11. CBP also scheduled Phase III of its refund process for October 6. Phase III is narrow: it covers finally liquidated entries for importers that sued at the Court of International Trade and won a reliquidation order, so most small importers will not file in it.
If your business paid IEEPA tariffs, the refunds may matter for your cash flow. The court filing is the source of the payout total; the company examples come from the companies and from ABC News interviews. Questions about your own entries and your own books belong with a customs broker and a CPA.
How much has the Trump administration refunded in tariffs so far?
The $100 billion paid through July 2026 represents more than half of the $166 billion owed to thousands of US businesses that paid IEEPA tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court, according to ABC News.
Based on the reported figures, roughly $66 billion appears to remain outstanding, and the ABC News report does not say when the rest will be paid. If your payment has not arrived, the reporting gives you no basis for predicting the week it will.
The scope of the ruling matters when you price your next shipment. The Supreme Court struck down only the IEEPA tariffs; other tariffs, such as those on steel, autos and copper, still apply. Ask your customs broker which duties apply to the goods you are bringing in now.
Which companies have received or are owed tariff refunds?
Costco has pledged to pass savings along to shoppers, though no Costco refund figure was disclosed in the reporting.
Amazon said it absorbed most of the tariff costs itself. In the "limited" cases where customers paid higher prices, the company said it planned to proactively contact those shoppers and automatically issue refunds to them.
Busy Baby's experience shows the effect on a much smaller importer. Busy Baby founder Beth Benike told ABC News she received a $50,000 refund after months of glitches and delays, having cut staff and drawn on her retirement savings during the tariff period.
"This money matters enormously for our cash flow right now, but it doesn't come close to recovering what the tariffs actually cost us," Benike said. "A refund isn't the same as being made whole."
The two accounts describe very different positions. Amazon said it absorbed most of the tariff cost itself. Benike said she carried it with headcount and retirement savings, and that the payment does not come close to recovering what the tariffs cost.
How do small businesses claim an IEEPA tariff refund?
Refunds go through CBP's Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) process in its Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). The importer of record, or the customs broker that filed the entries, uploads a CAPE declaration listing the entry numbers, and CBP pays the refund electronically by ACH to the importer of record or a party it designates. Filing requires an ACE Portal account, and refunds are paid only by ACH, so a refund waits until banking details are on file in ACE. CBP's September 15 declaration said about $1.3 billion in refunds was on hold for missing ACH information.
Your customs broker is the place to start. A business waiting on a payment can ask its broker which entries were filed on its behalf, which party was listed as the importer of record on them, what refund status information the broker has, and what current US Customs and Border Protection guidance applies to its situation.
Two record-keeping habits cost nothing while you wait. Keep your import documents in one place: entry summaries, duty payment receipts, broker correspondence, and bank statements showing deposits you believe are refunds. And put a recurring reminder in your calendar to check in with your broker, because the one small-business case in the ABC News report involved months of glitches and delays before the money landed.
Email template: asking your customs broker for refund status
Subject: IEEPA tariff refund status request for [Your Company Name]
Hi [Broker Name],
I'm trying to match any IEEPA tariff refund payments we receive to the
shipments they came from. Could you send the following?
1. A list of every entry you filed on our behalf on which IEEPA duties
were paid, including entry number, entry date, port, and the IEEPA
duty amount paid on that entry.
2. The importer of record listed on each of those entries.
3. Whatever refund status information you have for each entry, plus the
date and amount of any refund already issued.
4. Copies of the entry summaries for those entries, for our records.
5. Anything you need from us, if anything, to move a pending entry
forward.
For context, here are the deposits we've already received that may be
refunds:
[Date] | [Amount] | [any reference shown on the deposit]
[Date] | [Amount] | [any reference shown on the deposit]
If you can note which entry each of those corresponds to, that would
help us close out our records.
Thanks,
[Your Name]
[Title], [Company]
[Phone] | [Email]Copy the template into an email, replace the bracketed fields, and check the shipment and deposit details before you send it to your broker.
Refund tracking sheet
IEEPA TARIFF REFUND LOG for [Company Name]
Entry number | Entry date | Port | Importer of record | IEEPA duty paid |
Payment received | Date received | Bank deposit memo | Difference | Notes
Example row:
AAA-1234567-8 | 2025-06-14 | Long Beach | Ridgeline Supply Co. | 18,420.00 |
18,420.00 | 2026-07-22 | "IEEPA refund AAA-1234567-8" | 0.00 | Matched
Totals:
Total IEEPA duty paid: ______
Total received to date: ______
Difference: ______Build the log in whatever spreadsheet software you already use, with a formula column that subtracts each payment received from the duty paid on that entry, and keep the file somewhere your bookkeeper can reach it.
How should a small business account for a tariff refund?
ABC News does not address accounting or tax treatment. Ask your CPA how to record the payment for your entity and your prior-year filings, ideally before year-end rather than in April. Novo does not provide tax, legal, or financial advice.
ABC News does not address accounting or tax treatment; that conversation belongs with your CPA.
What you can do on your own is make the deposit easy to identify later. Add a memo to each payment in your books the day it lands, with the entry number it appears to match, so nobody has to reconstruct it from broker emails six months from now. Keep those payments in a business account rather than a personal one, so the paper trail stays clean.
Having the deposits show up in your accounting software without retyping them helps too. Novo business checking has no monthly fee and no minimum balance requirement, and it integrates with QuickBooks Online, Xero, and FreshBooks, which sync transactions automatically; QuickBooks has its own pricing plans. A deposit arrives in your books ready to be coded instead of waiting for manual entry. If a payment reaches you as a paper check, mobile check deposit works in the Novo app only, not on the web, and check deposits are subject to limits and holds. Novo does not accept cash deposits, so a cash-heavy business should plan around that.
What are big companies doing with their refund money?
The companies named in the report described different plans for the money: lowering prices, reinvesting in US operations, and offsetting other costs.
Walmart suggested in May that it will cut prices for shoppers using the refunds it is owed, and Costco made a similar pledge. Apple CEO Tim Cook had pledged to reinvest the company's refund into US innovation and manufacturing. Pepsi's CEO said the company's tariff refunds are "very handy" in helping offset higher oil and gas prices.
"We've heard from a few retailers that have been using these refunds as a means to fund investments back into price and be a little bit more competitive," UBS retail analyst Michael Lasser said on a call with ABC News.
What is largely missing from the picture is the household that paid the higher shelf prices in the first place. Most consumers are not getting money back directly, ABC News reports.
How should a small business use a lump-sum tariff refund?
Benike said the refund did not come close to recovering what the tariffs cost her business. Before a payment gets spent, a CPA or financial advisor can help you work out which documented costs from the tariff period are relevant to your situation, and how they compare to the amount you actually received.
The questions worth putting in front of that advisor are specific to your business rather than universal:
- How much operating cash do you want on hand before you spend any of this, given your own fixed costs?
- Which debts from the tariff period cost you the most to carry, and what happens to your cash flow if you pay them down now?
- If you drew from a SEP-IRA or Solo 401(k), what are the rules and tax consequences in your situation, and what would putting that money back involve?
- What inventory do you actually need in the next two quarters, and what does ordering it do to your cash position?
Some owners also keep a one-time payment visible and separate from day-to-day operating cash so it does not get read as recurring revenue. Novo Reserves can label money for a specific purpose inside your Novo checking account, and you can create up to 20 Reserves. A Reserve is a budgeting feature, not a separate account. Naming one "Tariff refund, unallocated" keeps the money out of your mental operating balance until you have decided where each dollar goes.
What should small importers know about the tariff refunds?
Three things to hold onto.
The unpaid balance has no published timeline. The ABC News report does not say when the rest of the money will be paid. Because the reporting gives no payment schedule, it is worth asking your CPA or financial advisor how to plan around money whose arrival date is unknown.
The ruling covered IEEPA tariffs only. The Supreme Court struck down only the IEEPA tariffs; other tariffs, such as those on steel, autos and copper, still apply. Confirm with your broker which duties apply to your next shipment before you price it.
Watch for further court filings and any guidance from US Customs and Border Protection. The $100 billion total in this story came from a court filing rather than an agency press release. Ask your customs broker whether current guidance affects your shipments or any payment you are expecting.
What does the tariff refund milestone mean for small businesses?
ABC News reported on August 5, 2026 that more than half of what the government owes has now been paid, citing a court filing. Apple plans to reinvest its refund, Amazon plans limited customer refunds, and Walmart and Costco have discussed passing savings to shoppers; no Costco refund amount was disclosed. Busy Baby received $50,000 after months of delays, and its founder says that is not the same as being made whole. If your business paid IEEPA tariffs, the useful work this week is unglamorous: ask your broker what was filed on your behalf and who was listed as the importer of record, keep your import paperwork in one place, and ask your CPA how any payment should be recorded.
Novo business checking has no monthly fee or minimum balance requirement, and transactions sync automatically with QuickBooks Online, Xero, and FreshBooks. You can open a Novo business checking account online in about 10 to 15 minutes. Most applications are reviewed within 24 hours, some take up to 72 hours, and eligibility is subject to final Novo determination.
Source: Trump administration pays out milestone $100 billion in tariff refunds, abcnews.com, Aug. 5, 2026.
Disclosures
Novo Platform Inc. ("Novo") is a fintech, not a bank. Banking services provided by Middlesex Federal Savings, F.A., Member FDIC. Eligibility subject to final Novo determination.
Novo Reserves is not a separate account. Novo Reserves is a budgeting feature within the Novo checking account. All funds within Reserves remain a part of the overall balance of the Novo checking account.
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